Amazon: The Journey from Bookstore to the World's Largest Company

Startup in a garage

Back in 1994, founder Jeff Bezos started Cadabra in his garage. He gave his company the name Cadabra, which sounded like part of a spell. However, because of the similarity to "cadaver" the name was abandoned. In the end, Bezos chose the name Amazon — in honor of the largest full-flowing river in the world. It was that river that appeared on the first logo.

Corporation

Amazon has grown quickly from a garage startup selling books through the mail, penetrating many different markets.

Amazon's core products and services:

1. Amazon.com — the company's main product. The site offers products from the world's leading manufacturers, as well as AmazonBasics' own-brand products.
2. Amazon Prime — gives users access to free shipping of goods, watching videos, listening to music and reading e-books.
3. Amazon Kindle — an e-book reader.
4. Amazon Web Services (AWS) — a cloud computing platform that provides data storage, information processing and other services.
5. Amazon Music — a music service that provides access to millions of tracks and albums.

Message with a single character — "?"

If a disgruntled customer sends a message to Jeff Bezos' personal e-mail address, he forwards the message to the right person using a single "?" in the subject line. When Amazon technicians receive a message from Bezos with a question, they have a few hours to troubleshoot the issue and provide a detailed explanation.

DC Comics

In 2011, Amazon announced a partnership with DC Comics. Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon received exclusive rights to the electronic versions of the comic books: "Superman", "Batman", "Green Lantern", "Sandman" and "Watchmen". The new partnership suggested that Amazon's main competitor, Barnes & Noble, would be forced to remove all of these electronic versions of comic books from the shelves of its online store.

Concept — "team for two pizzas"

In early 2002, Jeff Bezos proposed the concept of a "team for two pizzas". He believes that employees should work in small groups of up to 10 people — that's how many people can fill up on two pizzas.

"Communication is a sign of malfunctioning. If teams communicate a lot with each other, they don't have a natural cohesion within their group." — Jeff Bezos

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