The Full History of Amazon

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a man named Jeffrey Preston Bezos. He was born in 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a child, Jeff loved reading. He read books about space, science, and computers. He was very smart and loved building things. When he was a teenager, he even built a solar-powered alarm system to keep his siblings out of his room.

Years passed, and Jeff went to Princeton University. He studied computer science and electrical engineering. After graduation, he worked in Wall Street. He had a great job. He was making a lot of money. But something inside him was not satisfied. He had a dream. He wanted to build something new. Something big. Something for the future.

In 1994, he came across a surprising fact. The internet was growing fast—like really, really fast. He saw that internet usage was growing at 2,300% per year. That number blew his mind. He thought, “If the internet is growing this fast, maybe I can build a business online.” So, he made a list of products that people could sell on the internet—CDs, clothes, electronics, books. He decided to start with books. Why? Because books were easy to package, cheap to ship, and there were millions of them already.

So, in July 1994, Jeff left his high-paying job in New York. He drove across the country to Seattle, Washington. In the back seat of the car, he wrote the business plan. With the help of his parents, he started a small online bookstore. He called it “Cadabra,” but someone misheard it as “cadaver” (a dead body). Jeff didn’t want his company to sound like a corpse. So he renamed it Amazon, after the mighty Amazon River—long, strong, and wild. He wanted his store to be just like that: the biggest in the world.

In July 1995, Amazon.com went live. It was just a website that sold books. Jeff ran the business from his garage. There was no fancy office, no huge staff. When a book order came in, they would buy the book from distributors and ship it to the customer. In the beginning, there were only a few orders each day. But very quickly, orders started coming in—dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. Amazon was growing.

Customers loved it. Why? Because they could sit at home and order any book they wanted. They didn’t have to go to a bookstore. The website had book reviews, prices, author info—things a normal store didn’t give.

By 1996, Amazon had made $15 million in sales. In 1997, it went public. That means it started selling shares on the stock market. Many people thought Jeff was crazy. He was not making profit. He was just selling more and more. But Jeff had a different plan. He didn’t want fast profits. He wanted long-term domination.

He started expanding. He added CDs, DVDs, toys, electronics, clothes, and more. In 1999, Time magazine named Jeff Bezos Person of the Year. They called him “the king of cyber-commerce.” But behind the scenes, Jeff was working 16-hour days. He had very high standards. He was tough, but he believed in making Amazon the best.

In the early 2000s, Amazon faced trouble. The dot-com bubble had burst. Many internet companies died. But Amazon survived. Slowly, it started making profits. It was not just a bookstore anymore—it was a store of everything.

Then something big happened. In 2005, Amazon launched Amazon Prime. It was a paid membership program. People who joined got free 2-day shipping. Everyone loved it. It changed the game. Customers now bought more because they didn’t have to pay shipping. Prime members became loyal. It was like a fan club for shopping.

In 2006, Amazon started Amazon Web Services (AWS). This was a hidden gem. AWS gave cloud storage and online services to other companies. In simple words, Amazon was now renting out its powerful computers. Today, AWS is one of the most profitable parts of Amazon. Companies like Netflix, NASA, and even the CIA use Amazon servers.

In 2007, Amazon released a new device: the Kindle. It was an e-reader, a machine to read books without paper. People were amazed. You could carry 1,000 books in your hand. It became a bestseller.

In 2010, Amazon entered the movie and music world. They started Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video. At first, people laughed. “Amazon making movies? That’s a joke,” they said. But later, Amazon won Oscars and Golden Globes. Today, Amazon makes shows and films that millions watch.

Then came the shopping revolution. Amazon started building warehouses across the globe. Big ones. Huge ones. Called Fulfillment Centers. Inside, robots, machines, and workers packed products at lightning speed. Some warehouses were bigger than football stadiums.

Amazon also introduced Alexa, the voice assistant. People could talk to it. “Alexa, play music. Alexa, what’s the weather?” It became part of homes. Smart homes. Smart lives.

By 2018, Amazon became a trillion-dollar company. Jeff Bezos became the richest man in the world. From a small garage to a global empire—his dream came true. Amazon now sells almost everything: books, shoes, phones, furniture, food, medicine, and even cloud computing and space rockets.

But the story is not all shiny.

Many dark truths also exist. Amazon has been criticized for working conditions. Workers in warehouses said they had to meet impossible targets. Some said they were not allowed to take proper breaks. In some places, there were reports of workers peeing in bottles because they couldn’t use the bathroom. These stories shocked the world.

Also, small shops and local bookstores suffered because of Amazon. Many old, family-owned bookstores closed down. They could not compete with Amazon’s prices and speed.

There were also fears about privacy. Alexa was listening. Some experts said Amazon could use data to spy on people or track habits. Jeff Bezos was even targeted by hackers and got into headlines because of privacy leaks.

In 2021, Jeff Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO. He handed the crown to Andy Jassy, the head of AWS. Jeff wanted to focus on his other dreams—like his space company Blue Origin. But even today, Jeff is still watching Amazon like a father watches his child.

And now? Amazon has over 1.5 million employees. It operates in over 100 countries. It has changed how humans shop, read, watch, speak, and live.

Here’s a fun fact: In the early days, Amazon had a bell that rang every time someone made a sale. After a few weeks, it rang so much, they had to turn it off.

Another strange fact: Jeff used to pack the books himself. He even got bruises from kneeling on the hard floor while packing. He bought knee pads.

And one more thing: Jeff once told his team, “We’re not in the book business. We’re in the customer happiness business.”

That one sentence explains Amazon.

Amazon is not just a company. It is a mirror of modern life. It shows how fast the world moves. How dreams grow from a garage. How data, delivery, and desire can change everything. How a man with an idea, a garage, and a laptop can shape the entire future.

So the next time you click “Add to Cart,” remember—this is not just shopping. This is history. You are taking part in a story that began with one man, one dream, and one simple belief:

“There has to be a better way.”