Amazon at 20: what has the online giant ever done for retail?

The e-commerce site is 20 years old this week. So what influence has it really had on the retail and internet industries?It was originally billed as “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore” and featured over one million titles. Twenty years later it boasts over 270m active accounts and claims to have more than 2m third-party vendors selling millions of products through the marketplace platform. In that time it has been both lauded and vilified, most recently over corporation tax and staff working conditions but Amazon is quite clearly one of the biggest success stories of online commerce. So what has been its lasting impact? Can it maintain this growth or have we seen the best of it?Amazon was born in July 1994, with the online site launching as Amazon.com a year later. In 1995, Bill Gates, founder and CEO at Microsoft, reportedly paid The Rolling Stones $3m (£1.9m) for the rights to use Start Me Up to launch Windows 95. It was also the year eBay launched as AuctionWeb (a bit later in September) and there were, according to IDC, 16m global internet users compared with over three billion today. Related: Has Net-a-Porter found the holy grail of 21st-century fashion? Related: To avoid Blockbuster's fate, your business needs a chief futures officer Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #corporation tax #lasting impact #bill gates #reportedly paid #holy grail

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter books land in Amazon's Kindle Owners' Lending Library

All seven Harry Potter books are now available in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, marking the series' first availability outside the Pottermore store. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Engadget | 2012-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jacket Copy: Amazon categorizes Rodney King's memoir as 'criminal biography'

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Updates Kindle for IOS With Support for Comics, Book Search

Amazon on Thursday released updates to the Kindle app for iOS, along with the Kindle Cloud Reader Web app. The updates add in support for children's books. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What's Behind Amazon's Kindle App Tweak?

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[ Fast Company | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Other E-book Retailers

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sainsbury's buys ebook retailer

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[ BBC News | 2012-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New Retailer Zola Premieres, Softly, at BEA

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ann Patchett calls out Amazon

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon and Avalon in a tree, publishing romance books di-gi-tal-ly

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[ Engadget | 2012-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Engadget | 2012-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Decoder Blog: Attacking Amazon, Authors Group Urges Opposition to E-Book Settlement

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[ The New York Times | 2012-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon 'predatory', Penguin tells DoJ

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Media Week | 2012-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon, Publisher Settle Digital Books Dispute

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[ AllThingsD | 2012-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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