Spirit of America Bookstore

Amazon, Inc.
"The World's Largest Bookseller"
[est. July 1994]

short history primary divisions subsidiaries business practices other products & services works about Amazon execs image gallery links

Amazon, Inc.'s sales for all of 2011 totaled $48.08 billion, up 41 percent from $34.2 billion in 2010,
while net income dropped 45 percent to $631 million (down from $1.15 billion in 2010).

If Amazon, Inc. were a country, it's revenue would put it around 75th place, comparable to
the 2011 G.D.P. of Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, or Guatamala.

According to Publishers Weekly in June 2014, Amazon sells 41% of all new books that are sold in America;
Amazon also sells 65% of all books purchased online, whether digital or print.

Amazon.com entry at Wikipedia
Amazon.com, Inc. Common Stock Quote & Summary Data at NASDAQ

Amazon removed their useful site directory page around 2022
but you can click on Amazon bestsellers and make it a Favorite using your browser.

Primary  Divisions

¨            ¨

Amazon.com site directory
Amazon's main book page

Amazon's Kindle ebook reader launched in late 2007; the free 'Kindle for PC' download was made available in November 2009.
Nordell Bookstores Group's Kindle Hardware & Content Page

            
Amazon Prime was launched in the United States in 2005; in Japan, the United Kingdom & Germany in 2007; and as 'Amazon Premium' in France in 2008.
The Amazon Prime service began offering 'unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies & TV shows' in February 2011.

sign up for Amazon Prime
members enjoy fast & FREE shipping, exclusive access to movies & TV shows, ad-free music, Kindle books, original audio series, and unlimited photo storage.
After your 30-day free trial, Amazon Prime is just $10.99/month or $99/year (cancel anytime).
Effective May 11, 2018, new members will be charged $119/year for an annual Prime membership and $59/year for an annual Prime Student membership.

sign up for Amazon Prime Student
members enjoy same benefits as Amazon Prime at half the cost, exclusive discounts available only to students, 6-month free trial courtesy of Sprint

sign up for Amazon Prime Video
FREE with Amazon Prime; now available in over 200 countries; separate monthly charge after 30-day free trial varies by country.

Amazon Prime Pantry [2018-2020] - FREE shipping with membership.
Amazon announced in June 2018 a $3.00 bounty to Associates for each successful registration for a Prime Pantry Free Trial;
rules were complicated, shut down at end of 2020; the above link redirects to Amazon Pantry Staples.

Amazon Prime Day [est. 2015] is in June or July
intended as a mid-year super-sale for Prime members, much like Black Friday before Xmas

Launched in 2007, Amazon Payments is a service that allows small businesses to utilize Amazon's vast database of users to pay for goods & services directly, i.e. without going
thru credit card delays, or without joining new or minor credit card services. Announced 2/2017: Online payment buttons will gradually be converted to read 'Amazon Pay'.
Online merchants that signed on early include: Nine West + Lulus + FragranceNet.com + MidwestSports.com + dyson + Vacatia + seattlecoffeegear + purple
official company website • company entry at Wikipedia

Amazon Video On Demand launched in September 2008

In Spring 2011, Amazon hired Larry Kirschbaum (ex-Time Warner Books) to head Amazon Publishing; a deal soon
was made with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to handle distribution under the brands New Harvest, Montlake Romance,
AmazonCrossing, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, AmazonEncore & The Domino Project
AmazonEncore bought all the assets of Avalon Books

      
Amazon Studios [est. 11/2010] Section at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

Amazon announced in June 2021 that it is acquiring Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $8.45 billion (Amazon's second-largest acquisition ever, behind its purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017); the deal is still subject to regulatory approval. The New York Times wrote that Amazon's purchase of M.G.M. will "bolster Prime Video at a time when the biggest old-line studios are becoming less willing to license their libraries to outside streaming services".

Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) was spun off from Amazon's Audible.com in May 2011; its purpose is to connect owners of intellectual content
such as authors & agents (called 'producers' here) with technical talent who can craft recordings of books, etc. for sale on Amazon thru the Audible division.
The DIY Workflow option was added in February 2012 for uploading pre-existing audiobooks.
official website • entry at Wikipedia

Audible, Inc. was founded in 1999 and was purchased by Amazon in 2008 for about $300 million. The company is based in Newark, New Jersey
and has a near-monopoly in the commercial online digital download market for audiobooks, as well as providing access to spoken audio entertainment,
information & educational programming, digital audiobooks, radio & TV programs, and audio versions of magazines & newspapers.
official website • entry at Wikipedia

	Audible Plus: Listen all you want. [est. 8/2020] Free for 30 days, then billed at $7.95/month; cancel online anytime. sign up for Audible Plus browse the Audible Plus Catalog {over 10,000 titles}
	Audible Premium Plus [renamed 8/2020] Free for 30 days, then billed at $14.95/month; cancel online anytime; plan includes Audible Plus, one free download per month, 30% discount, and exclusive sales sign up for Audible Premium Plus browse the Audible Premium Plus Catalog {over 9,000 titles}

               
Amazon's interest in the gaming business began in October 2008 with the purchase of game developer/distributor Reflexive Entertainment [est. 1997], which continues to develop games for PC, Mac OS, and Kindle eReaders. Amazon announced the formation of Amazon Game Studios in August 2012 to produce 'innovative, fun and well-crafted games'; apparently produced only one game, Air Patriots. Amazon acquired gaming company Double Helix Games, LLC [est. 2007] in February 2014; the 75 Double Helix employees became Amazon employees and remain at their Orange County, California headquarters. Amazon acquired the video game streaming website Twitch [est. 2011] for $970 million in August 2014, with the intention of increasing internet traffic, boosting its Prime membership program and video ad sales, and promoting its Fire TV set top box business.

Amazon Game Studios official website • sub-entry at Wikipedia
Reflexive Entertainment official website {redirects to Amazon Games} • entry at Wikipedia
Double Helix Games official website • entry at Wikipedia

Twitch.TV [est. 6/2011] video game live streaming service
Founded in 2011 by Justin Kan, Emmett Shear (CEO 2011-2023), Kevin Lin, Kyle Vogt & Michael Seibel; acquired by Amazon in August 2014 for US$970 million.
official website • entry at Wikipedia

Twitch operates IGDB: The Internet Games Database - the guiding star in your world of gaming [est. 2015]

TwitchCon live convention events
official website • entry at Wikipedia

       
Amazon Web Services [launched 2006] aka 'AWS' is the Amazon-owned user storage division; products/services include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
aka 'EC2', and the company's popular cloud-based storage platform Amazon Simple Storage Service aka 'S3'.
The service is divided into 16 regions around the world; headquarters is centered near Washington, DC and the C.I.A. and N.S.A. facilities in Virginia,
which may not be a coincidence. As-of March 2017, Amazon's AWS handles about 42% of the cloud-computing market.
official company website • company entry at Wikipedia

       
The Amazon Channels streaming & DVD sites [est. 1/2017] include Starz, H.B.O., Cinemax, Heera (India movies), Showtime, Acorn TV,
Anime Strike, P.B.S. Masterpiece, Curiosity Stream, Lifetime Movie Club, and several Xian-content channels.
official subscription page • Amazon Video entry at Wikipedia

Amazon  Country  Sites

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The Amazon Associates Program was launched in July 1996; Amazon submitted a patent application on components of an affiliate program in June 1997, which
was granted in February 2000. Typical sales commissions are 4-6% (on a sliding scale) of the purchase price, with other fees and bounties on selected products and services; Amazon has 'over 900,000 members' in its affiliate programs worldwide.
official website • there is no distinct entry at Wikipedia

Amazon Associates shut down the aStore function at the end of October 2017 because of low usage.
Amazon Associates launched OneLink software to monetize Canada & UK visitors in August 2017; Germany, France, Japan, Spain & Italy were added later.
Amazon Associates retired the Recommended Product Links & Self-Optimizing Links Widgets in December 2017.
Amazon Associates halted their CPM (cost per impression) ads program effective at the end of September 2018.

        
In June 2018, Amazon purchased PillPack [est. 2013] for a reported US$753 million. The words 'by Amazon Pharmacy' replaced 'an Amazon company'
on the PillPack logo in November 2019. The Amazon Pharmacy was launched as a separate online service in November 2020, for U.S. customers only.
Amazon Pharmacy HQ, 4500 So. Pleasant Valley Road in Austin, Texas
PillPack official website • PillPack entry at Wikipedia
Amazon Pharmacy official homepage • Amazon Pharmacy entry at Wikipedia

Amazon  Business  Practices
Like many corporations, Amazon wants the approval of their customers, espousing progressive and sensitive and ecological ideals
while actually practicing anti-union, anti-competitive, and pro-pollution activities – Amazon's hypocrisy is a matter of record.

Amazon executives have long been trying to negotiate lower prices for ebooks (i.e. Kindle Editions) sold on Amazon's website while increasing Amazon's share of each sale (to as much as 80%). Negotiations with international publisher Hachette Book Group reached an impasse in Spring 2014, at which point Amazon re-coded entries for Hachette's books to tell Amazon customers that the books were available for the retail price only (standard discounts removed), that the books were out of stock or delivery would take two to three weeks (not true), and also recommending books from other publishers as 'better'.

Amazon Headquarters Contest
There were 258 applications from cities wanting to subsidize a new headquarters for Amazon, Inc. The twenty finalist candidates announced in January 2018 were:
Atlanta, Georgia •• Austin, Texas •• Boston, Massachusetts •• Chicago, Illinois •• Columbus, Ohio •• Dallas, Texas •• Denver, Colorado •• Indianapolis, Indiana ••
Los Angeles, California •• Miami, Florida •• Montgomery County, Maryland •• Nashville, Tennessee •• Newark, New Jersey •• New York City •• Northern Virginia ••
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania •• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania •• Raleigh, North Carolina •• Toronto, Ontario, Canada •• Washington, DC

Plans for Amazon's HQ2 were set to be divided between New York City and Northern Virginia in November 2018; the NYC location was cancelled 2/2019.
Amazon is now also building a central hub for retail operations in Nashville, Tennessee.

Amazon's Union-Busting Training Video [2018]
'training' video sent in 2018 to managers after the takeover of Whole Foods; leaked in mid-2019
watch full video [6/2019 upload; 29:02] online at YouTube

Work at an Amazon warehouse under construction in Windsor, northern Connecticut was again suspended after another noose – the eighth in a month – was discovered at the worksite on Wednesday 26 May 2021. The discovery occurred after security was upgraded and a few hours before N.A.A.C.P. representatives arrived to interview workers about the previous incidents. The newest noose, made of red rope, was found among yellow electrical cables. The site reopened the next day; Amazon is offering a $100,000 reward for information that helps identify those responsible for the incidents, which investigators are treating as possible hate crimes.

"Solidarity Forever: Amazon Worker Jigsaw Puzzle" [ages 12 & up; 2022] sponsored by The Nation Magazine 500-piece paper jigsaw puzzle, finished size 24x18 inches; jigsaw image created by award-winning designer-illustrator Josh Gosfield; proceeds from this unique and memorable puzzle will go to both the Amazon Labor Union and The Nation's reporting fund of course, the puzzle will not be available at Amazon The Nation jigsaw puzzle in a box [12/2022] for $29.99

Subsidiaries

       
In 2005, Amazon purchased print-on-demand company BookSurge, Mobipocket.com, Smallparts.com, and CreateSpace.
CreateSpace began as CustomFlix, based in Scotts Valley, California; originally a distributor of on-demand DVDs, it has since expanded
to include on-demand books, CDs, and video; BookSurge and CreateSpace were reorganixed as an Amazon subsidiary in 2010.
BookSurge website refers to CreateSpace • no separate entry at Wikipedia
CreateSpace official website • no separate entry at Wikipedia

In 2009: Amazon paid $900M for Zappos, the online shoe & apparel retailer.
"The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles To Inspire..." [] by Joseph Michelli /0071749586/

Woot! sells discount merchandise with game elements such as one-day deals; purchased by Amazon in 2010;
factory in Carrollton, Texas (near Dallas), management in Seattle, Washington.

Internet Movie Database {'IMDb'} launched in October 1990, and was purchased by Amazon in 1998.
The IMDbPro for-fee service launched in January 2002.
Announced 2/2017: IMDb is shutting down its Message Boards function.

The European buyVIP SL shopping club launched in Spain in December 2006 and expanded into Italy & Germany in 2007; Amazon agreed to pay $96.5M
for the company in October 2010; site was removed from Amazon Associates in May 2017 • not listed at Wikipedia (2021)
official website {choose ES, IT, DE} now redirects to main Amazon homepage (2021)

In January 2011, Amazon agreed to pay £200M for the 58% it did not own of Lovefilm [est. 2002],
the largest online & mail-order movie rental service in Europe.

                          
In September 2011, Amazon paid $550M for Quidsi, Inc. which includes baby products retailer
diapers.com [est. 2005], soap.com [est. 7/2010], and BeautyBar.com [est. 10/2010]

In March 2012, Amazon agreed to pay Bain Capital Ventures $775M in cash for Kiva Systems [est. 2003]
(Kiva makes warehouse fulfillment robots)

Evi {pron. 'eevee'} is based in U.K. Launched in 11/2007 as True Knowledge 'answer engine' artificial intelligence software; launched
Evi 'natural language' mobile app for iPhone & Android 1/2012; changed company name 6/2012; purchased by Amazon 10/2012.
official website • entry at Wikipedia

Amazon purchased Annapurna Labs, a chipmaker based in Cupertino, California and in Israel, in January 2015 for a rumored $350 million.
The company announced in January 2016 that its Alpine chipset was available for a wide range of 'internet of things' applications.
official website • company entry at Wikipedia

        
Amazon opened its first Amazon Books physical retail store in November 2015 in the University Village shopping center in Seattle, Washington;
a second store opened in summer 2016 in San Diego, California; as-of Spring 2017, stores are open in the Southport Corridor in Chicago, Illinois;
Dedham & Lynnfield, Massachusetts; and Washington Square in Portland, Oregon; there are stores 'Coming Soon' in Walnut Creek & San Jose, California;
in Paramus, New Jersey; on West 34th Street and on Columbus Circle in New York City; and in Bellevue, Washington.
official company webpage • company entry at Wikipedia

March 2022: Amazon said that it is closing all 68 of its physical bookstores and pop-ups in a major shakeup of its slapdash brick-and-mortar
retail experiment; moving forward, Amazon will focus on grocery stores, a fashion store in Los Angeles, and cashierless tech.

Amazon announced in June 2017 that it plans to purchase national retailer Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion; the surprise move triggered Wall Street reaction that caused
food retail giants Wal-Mart, Costco, and Kroger to lose $18.8 billion in market value. Whole Foods was founded in 1980, has 400 stores, and is based in Austin, Texas.
official company webpage • company entry at Wikipedia
link for Amazon Prime Pantry / Whole Foods Market

Amazon Fresh [est. 2018] - FREE shipping for orders over $50.
Amazon announced in June 2018 a 3% commission to Associates for sales on Amazon Fresh. Amazon's Fresh service is available in portions of: Northern CA; Southern CA;
Miami, FL; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Maryland; Boston, MA; New Jersey; New York; Phildelphia, PA; Dallas, TX; Northern Virginia; and Seattle, WA.

Blink for Home [2016] first you purchase and install Blink wireless hardware at home and set up a Blink account, then connecting with Alexa is free • Company founded in 2009, purchased by Amazon in December 2017; reviewers note that you have to enter the home to talk to Alexa for shut-off, etc. but we can expect better practical activity sometime soon, such as by Blink merging with Amazon Key • Amazon's Alexa Smart Home guide for Blink is FREE

Amazon’s new Sidewalk wireless network has been lying dormant in Echo smart speakers and Ring cameras . . . until now (June 2021). Amazon is also adding Bluetooth lost-item tracker Tile and smart lock maker Level to the Sidewalk network. And it is partnering with CareBand, a maker of wearable sensors for people with dementia, on a pilot test including indoor & outdoor tracking and a HELP button. CAVEAT/TIP: You have no control over what sort of data flows over this network. Amazon makes it difficult to turn off functions of Sidewalk, but you can do so: "You can update Sidewalk options anytime from the Ring or Alexa mobile apps."
main Amazon Sidewalk Page

Other  Products  &  Services
entry at Wikipedia's 'list of Amazon products & services' entry

Amazon Canada First Novel Award [est. 1976]
co-sponsored by The Walrus Magazine • official website

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award [2008-2014]
entry at Wikipedia

Kindle Scout Program [2014-2018]
Amazon encouraged readers to nominate ebooks for publication by Kindle Press; at the time of shutdown in April 2018, 293 titles had been selected for publication.
official website {no further submissions} • entry at Wikipedia

Shelfari is a community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers.

Announced 4/2012: Amazon has acquired social reading service Goodreads {.com} [launched 1/2007]
of Downtown San Francisco; terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The AmazonSmile Foundation was established in late 2013 to allow shoppers to define which charities Amazon will donate to from each shopper sale; Amazon donated
0.5% of the sale price to a selected charity (tax advantage to Amazon, none to the shopper). Required prior signup & selection, then starting each shopping session
at http://smile.amazon.com. The AmazonSmile donation program was permanently shut down on 20 February 2023.

The purchase links for the various families of Amazon-produced electronics were consolidated from this and a couple other pages to its own page in Summer 2017.

Nordell Online Bookstores Group Amazon Electronic Hardware Page
Amazon Echo [2014] & Echo Dot [2016] & Echo Show [2017] devices
Amazon Tap [2016] • Amazon Fire [2014] • Amazon Fire Tablet [2011-2016] • Amazon Dash Wand [2017]

Amazon Electronics Showcase
seasonal Amazon Electronics Gift Guide

Amazon Explore [est. 10/2020] The Amazon Explore virtual tours and experience travel platform allows customers to book live, virtual experiences led by local experts; available only to U.S. customers over age 18; laptop or desktop computer is required to take a virtual experience. check out and sign up for Amazon Explore

Announced 10/2017: The Amazon Research Center for Artificial Intelligence will soon open in Germany’s Cyber Valley (Stuttgart and Tübingen), creating
100 jobs; Amazon also announced the purchase of Manhattan-based A.I. human modelling start-up Body Labs [est. 2013] for an estimated $50-70M.

Announced 2/2018: Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, and JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon are forming an unnamed
joint non-profit healthcare provider for their employees, expecting that it will be able to deliver better care at much lower cost.

Online  Shopping  at  Amazon

basic index page for shopping at Amazon

Clothing    ••    Books    ••    Electronics    ••    Home & Kitchen

Sports & Outdoors    ••    Movies & TV    ••    Toys & Games

Movies & TV on DVD & Blu-ray - Today's Deals at Amazon

        
Amazon's first “Big Spring Sale” ran from Wednesday March 20 thru Midnight on Monday March 25 in 2024;
it was followed by the “Big Spring Sale Rewind” promoting the event's top sellers from third-party creators.
official link for the Big Spring Sale = shut down after 3/25/2024
top sellers at the Big Spring Sale Rewind = shut down after 4/30/2024

Works  About  Amazon

		"Amazon.com: Get Big Fast" [2000] by Robert Spector subtitles: 'Inside The Revolutionary Business Model That Changed The World' and 'The astounding rise and uncertain future of the e-commerce giant' Kindle Edition from HarperCollins e-books [3/2009] for $12.49 Random House Business pb [2001] out of print/used Harper Business 8x5¼ pb [1/2002] out of print/used Harper Business 8x5¼ pb [1/2002] out of print/used Harper Business 9¾x6¾ hardcover [4/2000] for $12.75 German-language Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 9¾x6¾ hardcover [8/2000] out of print/used
		"Seattle Memoirs: Inspired By My Stint At Amazon.com" [2008] by Kalpanik S. A technology executive from India moves from Silicon Valley to Seattle, Washington and encounters strange people and surprising adventures . . . Kindle Edition from Center of Artificial Imagination, Inc [1/2014] - not currently available for purchase CreateSpace 9x6 pb [9/2008] for $59.98 {sic}
		"Inside The Giant Machine: An Amazon.com Story" [2010] by Kalpanik S., with Colin Zheng & Pamela Traphagen later subtitle: "Confessions of A Former Amazon.com Technologist" Kindle Edition from Center of Artificial Imagination [7/2012] for $2.99 Kindle Edition from Center of Artificial Imagination [6/2012] for $3.53 CreateSpace 8x5¼ 2nd edition pb [11/2011] for $11.65 CreateSpace 'color interior' 2nd edition [11/2011] for $27.95 CreateSpace 8x5¼ pb [3/2010] out of print/many used
		"One Click: Jeff Bezos and The Rise of Amazon.com" [2011] by Richard L. Brandt Kindle Edition from Portfolio [10/2011] for $12.99 Portfolio 7x5¼ hardcover [10/2011] for $14.65
		The Nation Magazine for 18 June 2012 "The Amazon Effect" article by Steve Wasserman "Search Gets Lost" article by Anthony Grafton magazine official website
		"The Amazon Way: Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles" [2014] by John Rossman, Foreword by Tom Alberg 'any business leader can learn from Amazon about building a high-performing team and organization' PUB 9x6 pb [6/2021] for $14.78
		"The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest To Own The World and Remake   Corporate Power" [2024] by Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli 'The first untold, devastating exposé of Amazon's endless strategic greed, in pursuit of total domination, by any means necessary'; 'investigative journalism at its finest' Kindle Edition from Little, Brown & Co. [4/2024] for $15.99 Little, Brown & Co. 9½x6½ hardcover [4/2024] for $29.25

Amazon's  Executives

founder & executive chair Jeffrey P. 'Jeff' Bezos

“Invention is by its very nature disruptive. If you want to be understood
at all times, then don't do anything new.” — Jeff Bezos

Amazon chair/president/CEO Jeff Bezos announced in February 2021 that he is stepping down as Amazon CEO; he will transition
to the role of executive chair in the third quarter of this year.

more details (short bio, companies, books & ebooks, videos & DVDs & YouTube, links)
on Spirit of America Bookstore's Jeff Bezos Page

Anima Anandkumar, former Principal AI Scientist at Amazon (2020)
Manolo Arana, general manager of Amazon Sidewalk (6/2021)
Jay Carney, SVP Global Corporate Affairs at Amazon (2020)
Jennifer Cast VP at Amazon Books (2020)
Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video & Amazon Studios (6/2021)
Rachel Johnson Greer, former Safety and Compliance Manager at Amazon (2020)
Andy Jassy, CEO Amazon Web Services (2020), took over as President & CEO of Amazon in third quarter of 2021
Shel Kaphan, former Amazon CTO (2020)
Dave Limp SVP, Devices and Services at Amazon (2020)
James Marcus, former Amazon Editor (2020)
Randy Miller, former Director of Merchandise Pricing at Amazon (2020)
John Rossman, former Amazon executive (2020)
James Thomson, former Amazon executive (2020)
Andreas Weigend, former Amazon Chief Scientist (2020)
Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer at Amazon (2020)

Image  Gallery

L i n k s
Amazon.com entry at Wikipedia
today's share price for AMZN per NASDAQ website
Nordell Bookstores Group's Kindle Hardware & Content Page

here on the Amazon, Inc. [est. 1994] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore

top of page   &   short history   &   primary divisions   &   subsidiaries   &  

other products & services   &   works about Amazon   &   execs   &   image gallery   &   links

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