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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In the face of online misinformation, these teens are learning how to sort fact from fiction

How teens learn about navigating the online world varies, but a pair of digital media literacy programs aim to get more Canadian students scrutinizing their social feeds. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2024-04-15 08:00:00 UTC ]
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Cloud Atlas at 20: What makes a novel tattoo-worthy?

Every author wants to write a book like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Two decades after it first hit the shelves, the author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow celebrates its daring, dazzling appealPity the writer who believes they have written the next Cloud Atlas! A literary agent once... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-04-06 10:00:31 UTC ]
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The Kindle Paperwhite Signature is $30 off for Prime members during the Amazon Big Spring Sale

Amazon's Big Spring Sale has brought a $30 discount to the company's upgraded e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature. It's down to $160 instead of the $190 list price for Prime members. That's not an all-time low (we saw it drop to $125 for Prime Day last July) but still a decent discount on... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-03-20 16:30:29 UTC ]
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Book Riot’s Children’s Deals of the Day for March 20, 2024

Pout-Pout Fish's Easter, choose your own Oregon trail, pies with the secrets of the universe, and more of today's best children's book deals. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-03-20 15:02:36 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: March 20, 2024

Howard Norman talks to Michael Ondaatje about his first collection of poetry in twenty-five years. | Lit Hub In Conversation “If the infant is primitive so is its earliest vice, jealousy—probably the most innate vice of all.” The late Elspeth Barker on the most human of experiences. | Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-20 10:30:01 UTC ]
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Religion Book Deals: March 20, 2024

David C Cook signs Christian music artists Rebecca St. James (Fink) and Cubbie Fink's book on love, faith, and marriage; IVP lands Nijay K. Gupta's look at the role of female prophecy in Scripture; and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The best early Amazon Big Spring Sale deals you can shop today

There's another jumbo-sized Amazon sale on the way. The Big Spring Sale, as it's called, will run from March 20 to March 25 and include a variety of discounts on "seasonally relevant items." This doesn't look to be another Prime Day situation, however; Amazon says most of the offers will be... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-03-15 16:15:34 UTC ]
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Titles to Be Restored After Bookwire, Amazon Strike New Deal

In a March 13 statement, Bookwire officials said that, while they were unable to share terms of the new agreement, "relisting of the e-book titles" on Amazon, following their delisting earlier this week during tense negotiations, "is expected shortly." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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How 19 years of Amazon Prime has satisfied our need for speed

Just as Engadget was hitting publish on its first posts, I was putting a freshly minted English degree to use working at an indie bookshop in Los Angeles. In seemingly unrelated news, Amazon had just reported its first profitable year after switching from selling books to selling “everything”... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-03-08 14:15:57 UTC ]
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Comic Shop Retailers Share Their Favorite Handsells

Here’s what retailers across the country told us about the comics and graphic novels they’re handselling this spring. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Comics Retailing

Whatever the future holds, local comic shops thrive when they deliver what few bookstores can: a “third place” for fans. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Crain's 20 In Their 20s showed promise at a young age. They're living up to the hype

Brad Weekes was 25 years old and working as a senior associate at public affairs firm Kivvit when Crain's named him to the 2020 class of 20 In Their 20s. The East New York native's goal at the time: Pressure lawmakers to make positive changes.In many ways, Weekes was already doing just that. At... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2024-03-06 20:37:04 UTC ]
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RuPaul has launched an online bookshop that will share its profits with writers.

There’s a new online bookstore in town—and this time it’s helmed by RuPaul. Yes, that RuPaul. (Reading being, after all, fundamental.) Allstora, announced today*, is a membership-based bookstore that offers a profit-split to authors. RuPaul serves as Allstora’s Chief Creative Officer and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-04 16:45:28 UTC ]
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Court Orders Amazon E-book Monopoly Lawsuit to Proceed

A federal judge has held that “monopolization” claims against Amazon can move forward, finding that lawyers for a potential consumer class have plausibly alleged that Amazon’s conduct in the e-book market has led to “reduced competition” and “higher e-book prices." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-04 05:00:00 UTC ]
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