Claim: Amazon.com began by selling books online.

Amazon.com -LRB- -LSB- ˈæməzɒn -RSB- or -LSB- ˈæməzən -RSB- -RRB- , also called Amazon , is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company that was founded on July 5 , 1994 , by Jeff Bezos and is based in Seattle , Washington . It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the world by total sales and market capitalization . Amazon.com started as an online bookstore , later diversifying to sell DVDs , Blu-rays , CDs , video downloads/streaming , MP3 downloads/streaming , audiobook downloads/streaming , software , video games , electronics , apparel , furniture , food , toys , and jewelry . The company also produces consumer electronics -- notably , Kindle e-readers , Fire tablets , Fire TV , and Echo -- and is the world 's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services -LRB- IaaS and PaaS -RRB- . Amazon also sells certain low-end products like USB cables under its in-house brand AmazonBasics .   Amazon has separate retail websites for the United States , the United Kingdom and Ireland , France , Canada , Germany , Italy , Spain , Netherlands , Australia , Brazil , Japan , China , India , and Mexico . Amazon also offers international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products . In 2016 , Dutch , Polish , and Turkish language versions of the German Amazon website were launched .   In 2015 , Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization , . Amazon is the fourth most valuable public company in the world , the largest internet company by revenue in the world and the ninth largest employer in the United States .