The Story of Amazon.com

The Story of Amazon.com — page 1 — Published by Creative Education P O Box 227 Mankato Minnesota 56002 Creative Education is an imprint of The Creative Company www thecreativecompany us design by zeno design production by christine vanderbeek art direction by rita marshall Printed by Corporate Graphics in the United States of America Photographs by Alamy Lynne Sutherland Kristoffer Tripplaar Corbis Dan Lamont Tim Wimborne Reuters Getty Images Kevin P Casey Bloomberg Tim Boyle Ken James Bloomberg Joshua Lott Bloomberg Charles Ommanney Spencer Platt Space Frontiers Thinkstock Rex Rystedt Time Life Pictures Chris Ratcliffe Bloomberg Kevin Schafer Brendan Smialowski Justin Sullivan Sabastian Willnow AFP Copyright 2013 Creative Education International copyright reserved in all countries No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher Amazon com and the products discussed in this book are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Amazon com Inc Trademarks associated with products of other companies mentioned are the trademarks of their respective owners This is not an official publication of Amazon com Inc and the views set out herein are solely those of the author library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Gilbert Sara The story of Amazon com by Sara Gilbert p cm Built for success Summary A look at the origins leaders growth and products of Amazon com the electronic commerce company that was founded in 1994 and today is the largest online retailer in the United States Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-60818-174-2 hard cover ISBN 978-1-56660-120-7 eBook 1 Amazon com Firm History Juvenile literature 2 Internet bookstores United States Juvenile literature 3 Electronic commerce United States Juvenile literature 4 Bezos Jeffrey Juvenile literature I Title Z473 A485G55 2012 381 4500202854678 dc23 2011035747 First edition 987654321 creative education

The Story of Amazon.com — page 2 — built for success the story ofAmazon com SARA GILBERT

The Story of Amazon.com — page 3

The Story of Amazon.com — page 4 — the story of amazon com Shortly after the Amazon com Web site launched on July 16 1995 a loud beep echoed through the company’s ofﬁces near downtown Seattle The beep alerted the Amazon com staff that the ﬁrst customer had made a purchase ordering a copy of the book Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter The beep sounded six more times that day and was accompanied each time by a raucous cheer from Amazon employees But those beeps quickly became more frequent and more dis tracting to the small staff as the company logged more than 12,000 worth of purchases in its ﬁrst week As Amazon prepared for a con tinued onslaught of orders the beeping sound was deemed too annoying and the function was disabled built for success

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