• Credit Cards
    • Balance Transfer
    • Purchase
    • Balance Transfer & Purchase
    • Credit Building
    • Bad Credit
    • Cashback
    • Rewards
    • Foreign Use
    • Money Transfer
  • Loans
    • Car Finance
  • Savings
  • Current Accounts
  • Mortgages
  • Utilities
  • Insurance
    • Life Insurance
  • Investing
  • Money Transfer
    • Send Money Abroad
Sign In
  • Best Buys
  • Household Money
  • Banking & Borrowing
  • Mortgages & Home
  • Saving & Making Money
  • Rights, Scams & Politics
  • Motoring & Travel
  • Investing & Pensions
  • Savings & ISAs
  • Features
  • Compare
  • Credit Cards
    • Balance Transfer
    • Purchase
    • Balance Transfer & Purchase
    • Credit Building
    • Bad Credit
    • Cashback
    • Rewards
    • Foreign Use
    • Money Transfer
  • Loans
    • Car Finance
  • Savings
  • Current Accounts
  • Mortgages
  • Utilities
  • Insurance
    • Life Insurance
  • Investing
  • Money Transfer
    • Send Money Abroad

Amazon then and now: from tiny garage to tech titan

From humble beginnings to global empire
Jeff Bezos' bookstore dream
Name and site launch
First sale
Free publicity from Yahoo!
Worldwide sales start to come in
Clash with traditional booksellers
Branching out
Amazon goes public
Opening of first fulfilment centres
Crazy Christmas
First profits finally
High-profile acquisitions
Move into fashion
Quicker deliveries with Prime
Changing the way we read...
...and the way we scroll
But Bezos couldn't crack the smartphone market
TV and film player
Home help
Fresh groceries
Whole Foods takeover
First checkout-free store
Biometric payments
Investing in driverless technology
Sales continue to shatter records
Black Friday
Over 200 million Prime members
First person to be worth over $200 billion
Trillion-dollar valuation
1 of 30
Abaca Press/Alamy Stock Photo

From humble beginnings to global empire

Few companies have had such a profound impact on the world as Amazon in recent decades – for better or worse – and its success has made its founder one of the richest men in the world.

With Black Friday just around the corner, read on as we chart the major milestones that turned Amazon from a garage start-up to a company valued at over $1.9 trillion (£1.5tn).

All dollar amounts in US dollars

Gallery view |
List View

Alice Cattley

26 November 2024

Features

See more on this topic

Share the love