Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc.

Type	Public (NASDAQ: AMZN)
Founded	1994
Founder	Jeffrey P. Bezos
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jeffrey P. Bezos Chairman, CEO, & President
Industry	Retail
Products	Amazon.com A9.com Alexa Internet IMDb Kindle Amazon Web Services dpreview.com Javari.co.uk
Revenue	▲ US$ 24.509 billion (2009)
Operating income	▲ US$ 1.129 billion (2009)
Net income	▲ US$ 902 million (2009)
Employees	20,700 (2009)[1]
Website	Amazon.com
Alexa rank	20[2]
Type of site	e-commerce
Advertising	web banners and videos
Available in	English, Japanese, German, French, & Chinese
Launched	1995

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is an American-based multinational electronic commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is America's largest online retailer, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples, Inc., as of January 2010.^[3]

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in 1994 and launched it online in 1995. It started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified to product lines of VHS, DVD, music CDs and MP3s, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and so on. Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, and China. It also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products.

On January 15, 2009, a survey published by Verdict Research found that Amazon was the UK's favorite music and video retailer, and came third in overall retail rankings.^[4]

Contents 1 History 2 Service Marks and Brands 3 Merchant partnerships 4 Business results 5 Locations 5.1 Headquarters 5.2 Software development centers 5.3 Fulfillment and warehousing 6 Product lines 7 Website 7.1 Reviews 7.2 Content search 7.3 Third-party sellers 8 Acquisitions and spinoffs 9 Products and services 10 Controversies 10.1 Competition 10.2 Kindle content removal 10.3 Products sold and not sold 10.4 Collection of sales tax 10.5 Other 11 Entrepreneurship by former employees 12 See also 13 Further reading 14 References 15 External links

History

Amazon was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos called "regret minimization framework," his effort to fend off regret for not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush.^[5] While company lore says Bezos wrote the business plan while he and his wife drove from New York to Seattle,^[6] that account appears to be apocryphal.^[7]

The company began as an online bookstore;^[7] while the largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer more. Bezos named the company "Amazon" after the world's largest river. Since 2000, Amazon's logotype is an arrow leading from A to Z, representing customer satisfaction (as it forms a smile); the goal was to have every product in the alphabet.^[8]

In 1994, the company incorporated in the state of Washington, beginning service in July 1995, and was reincorporated in 1996 in Delaware. The first book Amazon.com sold was Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.^[9] Amazon.com issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997, trading under the NASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN, at an IPO price of US$18.00 per share ($1.50 after three stock splits in the late 1990s).

Amazon's initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect a profit for four to five years; the strategy was effective. Amazon grew steadily in the late 1990s while other Internet companies grew blindingly fast. Amazon's "slow" growth provoked stockholder complaints: that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the dot-com bubble burst, and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered, and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million, just 1¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the profit was symbolically important.

In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Person of the Year, recognizing the company's success in popularizing online shopping.

Service Marks and Brands

The name Amazon refers to several things aside from the company — a long river in South America, a tall female warrior, a kind of ant, a rainforest. When Amazon.com became an online bookstore, the company's task was to create a brand that would elevate the company's web presence over their traditional bookstore competition. Amazon is an easily recognized name that creates a strong resonating impression. As a brand name, Amazon.com makes an excellent choice to build the online retailer's customer recognition. It is also a name or image that many companies use in their business as well. This type of issue can frequently create hurdles when seeking trademark and service mark protection with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO may deny a service mark if they deem the applicant company's products or services to be too similar to another registered trademark that may cause confusion, mistakes, or deception.

Consequently, in its history Amazon.com has submitted a litany of service mark applications to the USPTO for names, logos, and slogans.^[10] Some applications were challenged by USPTO examiners, some denied, and some granted registration. In many cases, Amazon.com applied for a trademark but abandoned their petition and did not respond to Office Action requests from the USPTO. Applications were abandoned due to low success probability to register the service mark, changes in the company's marketing plans, or other reasons.

The first Amazon.com service mark application was filed on Monday, October 23, 1995 by Amazon.com, Inc. In the application, President Jeff Bezos indicates the, "Mark was first used on April 15, 1995; was first used in interstate commerce on April 15, 1995, and is now in use in such commerce." Registration for Amazon.com was granted on July 15, 1997. The service mark continues as registered and renewed and owned by Amazon.com, Inc.^[11]

But that is not the first trademark the company sought. There was an earlier trademark filed on November 14, 1994 for the service mark of Amazon.com Warehouse Books. The application was submitted in the category of computer and software services and scientific services with a description provided to the USPTO for wholesale distributorship featuring books; retail book stores. The application was abandoned on May 15, 1996 with the notation that no statement of use was filed.^[12]

Of other interest are the service mark applications submitted on January 1, 2000 was for the smiling arrow Amazon.com logo in common use. There are multiple service applications submitted in various classes that represent the diverse businesses the electronic commerce company was engaged or was seeking to enter. One example is for the service mark filed in the class of insurance and financial services. The description supplied to the USPTO is credit cards services; and charge card services with a first use in commerce listed as May 16, 2000. No simple and quick process, after multiple suspensions and extensions over several years, service mark registration was finally granted to Amazon.com, Inc. on April 22, 2008.^[13]

Merchant partnerships

The Web site CDNOW is powered and hosted by Amazon. Until June 30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into a browser would similarly bring up Amazon.com's Toys & Games tab; however, this relationship was terminated as the result of a lawsuit.^[14] Amazon also used to host and run the website for Borders bookstores, but this ceased in 2008.^[15]

Amazon.com powers and operates retail web sites for Target, Sears Canada, Benefit Cosmetics, bebe Stores, Timex Corporation, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, and Lacoste. For a growing number of enterprise clients, currently including the UK merchants Marks & Spencer, Benefit Cosmetics' UK entity, and Mothercare, Amazon provides a unified multichannel platform where a customer can seamlessly interact with the retail website, standalone in-store terminals, or phone-based customer service agents. Amazon Web Services also powers AOL's Shop@AOL.

Business results

The company remains profitable: net income was $35.3 million in 2003, $588.50 million in 2004, $359 million in 2005, and $190 million in 2006 (including a $662 million charge for R&D in 2006). The firm's cumulative profit is negative but improving; the accumulated deficit was $730 million in 2008, $1.4 billion in 2007, and $1.8 billion in 2006. Revenues increased thanks to product diversification and an international presence: $3.9 billion in 2002, $5.3 billion in 2003, $6.9 billion in 2004, $8.5 billion in 2005, and $10.7 billion in 2006.

On November 21, 2005, Amazon entered the S&P 500 index, replacing AT&T after it merged with SBC Communications. On December 31, 2008, Amazon entered the S&P 100 index, replacing Merrill Lynch after it was taken over by Bank of America.

Locations

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Amazon.com has offices, fulfillment centers, customer service centers and software development centers across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.^[16]

Headquarters

The company's global headquarters are located on Seattle's Beacon Hill. It has offices throughout other parts of greater Seattle, including Union Station and The Columbia Center.

Amazon has announced plans to move its headquarters to the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle beginning in mid-2010, with full occupancy by 2011. This move will consolidate all Seattle employees onto the new 11-building campus.^[17]

Software development centers

The company employs software developers in medium- to large-sized centers across the globe. While much of Amazon's software development is in Seattle, other locations include:

• Slough (United Kingdom)
• Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
• Dublin (Ireland)
• Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad (India)
• Cape Town (South Africa)
• Iaşi (Romania)
• Shibuya, Tōkyō (Japan)
• Beijing (China)
• Tempe, Arizona (United States)

Fulfillment and warehousing

Fulfillment centers are located in the following cities, often near airports. Amazon offers warehousing and order-fulfillment for third-party sellers including large companies such as Target Corporation:^[18]

• North America:

• Arizona, USA: Phoenix, Goodyear
• Delaware, USA: New Castle
• Indiana, USA: Whitestown, Munster, and Plainfield
• Kansas, USA: Coffeyville
• Kentucky, USA: Campbellsville, Hebron (near CVG), Lexington, and Louisville
• Nevada, USA: Fernley
• New Hampshire, USA: Nashua
• Pennsylvania, USA: Carlisle, Chambersburg, Hazleton, and Lewisberry
• Texas, USA: Dallas/Fort Worth
• Virginia, USA: Sterling
• Ontario, Canada: Mississauga (a Canada Post facility)

In March 2009, Amazon announced plans to close three U.S. distribution centers: Red Rock, Nevada; Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; and Munster, Indiana.^[19]

• Europe:

• Bedfordshire, England: Marston Gate, near Brogborough
• Inverclyde, Scotland: Gourock
• Fife, Scotland: Glenrothes
• Swansea, Wales: Crymlyn Burrows^[20][21] near Jersey Marine^[22]
• Loiret, France: Orléans-Boigny (2000)
• Loiret, France: Orléans-Saran (2007)
• Hessen, Germany: Bad Hersfeld
• Saxony, Germany: Leipzig

• Asia:

• Ichikawa,Chiba, Japan
• Yachiyo, Chiba, Japan
• Sakai,Osaka, Japan
• Guangzhou, China
• Suzhou, China
• Beijing, China

Product lines

Amazon has steadily branched into retail sales of music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items, toys & games, baby products, apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items, beauty products, musical instruments, clothing, industrial & scientific supplies, groceries, and more.

The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, its own Web auctions service, in March 1999. However, it failed to chip away at industry pioneer eBay's juggernaut growth. Amazon.com Auctions was followed by the launch of a fixed-price marketplace business called zShops in September 1999, and a failed Sotheby's/Amazon partnership called sothebys.amazon.com in November.

Amazon no longer mentions either Auctions or zShops on its main pages and the help page for sellers now only mentions the Marketplace.^[23] Old links to zShops now simply redirect to the Amazon home page,^[24] while old links to Auctions take users to a transactions history page.^[25] New product listings are no longer possible for either service.

Although zShops failed to live up to its expectations, it laid the groundwork for the hugely successful Amazon Marketplace service launched in 2001 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Today, Amazon Marketplace's main rival is eBay's Half.com service.

Beginning August 2005,^[26] Amazon began selling products under its own private label, "Pinzon"; the initial trademark applications suggested the company intended to focus on textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.^[26] In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a larger and more diverse list of goods, and to register a new design consisting of the "word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter O whose space appears at the "one o'clock" position.".^[27] The list of products registered for coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry.^[27] On September 2008, Amazon filed to have the name registered. While the USPTO has finished its review of the application, Amazon has yet to receive an official registration for the name.

On May 16, 2007 Amazon announced its intention to launch Amazon MP3, its own online music store.^[28] The store launched in the US in public beta September 25, 2007, selling downloads exclusively in MP3 format without digital rights management.^[29] This is especially notable as it was the first online offering of DRM-free music from all four major record companies.^{[30][31][32][33]}

In August 2007, Amazon announced AmazonFresh,^[34] a grocery service offering perishable and nonperishable foods. Customers can have orders delivered to their homes at dawn or during a specified daytime window. Delivery was initially restricted to residents of Mercer Island, Washington, and was later expanded to several ZIP codes in Seattle proper.^[35] AmazonFresh also operated pick-up locations in the suburbs of Bellevue and Kirkland from summer 2007 through early 2008.

In 2008 Amazon expanded into film production and is currently funding the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox.^[36]

Website

The domain amazon.com attracted at least 615 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey. This was twice the numbers of walmart.com.^[37]

According to the Internet audience measurement website Compete.com, Amazon attracts approximately 50 million U.S. consumers to its website on a monthly basis.^[38]

Reviews

Amazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. As part of their review, users must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. In 2004 a software error accidentally showed the names behind reviews that were submitted anonymously, and some authors were shown to have written glowing reviews of their own books. Amazon created a feature in recent years that allowed users to comment on reviews. Amazon provides an optional badging option for reviewers which indicate the real name of the reviewer (based on confirmation of a credit card account) or which indicate that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers by popularity. The U.S. site generally has the most reviews. A review posted on one site is not necessarily visible on another site.

Amazon.com's customer reviews are monitored for all negative or indecent comments that are directed at anything, or anyone, but the product itself. In regards to the reviews lacking relative restrictions, Robert Spector, who is the author of the book Amazon.com, describes how "when publishers and authors asked Bezos why Amazon.com would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that Amazon.com was ‘taking a different approach...we want to make every book available – the good, the bad, and the ugly...to let truth loose’" (Spector 132).

Reviews for different media of the same product are grouped together (for example, the review page for a particular film, whether on VHS, Blu-Ray, or DVD, will feature reviews from all three media formats). Currently, there is no way to look at reviews only for one version of a product.

Content search

"Search Inside the Book" is a feature which allows customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog.^[39][40] The feature started with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003.^[41] There are currently about 250,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches.

To avoid copyright violations, Amazon.com does not return the computer-readable text of the book. Instead, it returns a picture of the matching page, disables printing, and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. One author observed that his entire book could be read online by searching a few words.^[42] Additionally, customers can purchase online access to the some books via the "Amazon Upgrade" program, although the selection is currently quite limited.

Third-party sellers

According to information in Amazon.com discussion forums,^{[citation needed]} Amazon derives about 40 percent of its sales from affiliates whom they call Associates and third-party sellers who list and sell products on the Amazon websites. Associates receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links on their websites to the Amazon homepage or to specific products. If a referral results in a sale, the Associate receives a commission from Amazon. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.^[43] Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) XML service. A new affiliate product, aStore, allows Associates to embed a subset of Amazon products within, or linked to from, another website.

Amazon reported over 1.3 million sellers sold products through Amazon's World Wide Web sites in 2007. Selling on Amazon has become more popular as Amazon expanded into a variety of categories beyond media and built a variety of features to support volume selling. Unlike eBay, Amazon sellers do not have to maintain separate payment accounts; all payments and payment security are handled by Amazon itself.

Acquisitions and spinoffs

• In April 1998, Amazon bought the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).^[44]
• In August 1998, Amazon bought Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PlanetAll for 800,000 shares of Amazon stock. PlanetAll operated a web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. In the same deal, Amazon acquired Sunnyvale-based Junglee.com, an XML-based data mining startup for 1.6 million shares of Amazon stock. The two deals together were valued at about $280 million at the time.^[45]
• In June 1999, Amazon bought Alexa Internet, Accept.com, and Exchange.com in a set of stock deals worth approximately $645 million.^[46]
• In 2003, Amazon purchased the rival online music retailer CD Now.^{[citation needed]}
• In 2004, Amazon purchased Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce website.^[47] It also debuted A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology.^{[citation needed]}
• In March 2005, Amazon acquired BookSurge,^[48] a print on demand company, and Mobipocket.com, an eBook software company.^{[citation needed]}
• In July 2005, Amazon purchased CreateSpace.com (formerly CustomFlix), a Scotts Valley, California-based distributor of on-demand DVDs.^[49] Since the acquisition, CreateSpace has expanded its online services to include on-demand books and CDs, as well as video downloads.
• On July 30, 2007, the National Archives announced that it would make thousands of historic films available for purchase through CreateSpace.^[50]
• In February 2006, Amazon acquired Shopbop, a Madison, Wisconsin-based retailer of designer clothing and accessories for women.^[51]
• In May 2007, Amazon acquired dpreview.com, a London-based digital photography review website created by Phil Askey as his personal hobby website and Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the United States.^[52]
• In January 2007 created Endless.com, a separate e-commerce brand focusing on shoes^[53].
• In January 2008, Amazon announced that it would acquire audiobook provider Audible.com for $300 million in cash.^{[citation needed]}
• In June 2008, Amazon announced that it had acquired Fabric.com, an online fabric store.^[54]
• In July 2008, Amazon's IMDb subsidiary purchased Box Office Mojo, a site that tracks movie sales in theatres.^[55]
• In August 2008, Amazon announced it had an agreement to purchase Victoria, B.C. based AbeBooks, seller of new, used, out-of-print and rare books.^[56] Later that month Amazon announced that it would acquire Seattle-based Shelfari, a book-based social network site, for an undisclosed sum.^[57] As part of its acquisition of Abebooks Amazon also got an additional stake in Shelfari's competitor LibraryThing, which AbeBooks had previously purchased a 40 percent stake in, and whole ownership of Bookfinder.com, Gojaba.com, and listing-management service FillZ, all owned by AbeBooks at the time of acquisition.
• In October 2008 acquired Reflexive Entertainment^[58], a casual video game development company.
• In July 2009 Amazon agreed to acquire Zappos^[59], an online shoe and apparel retailer. The deal is expected to close in fall 2009.
• In January 2010 is said to buy Touchco^[60]

Products and services

Amazon.com has incorporated a number of products and services into its shopping model, either through development or acquisition. The Honor System was originally launched in 2001 to allow customers to make donations or buy digital content, with Amazon collecting 2.9 percent of the payment plus a flat fee of 30¢. The service was discontinued on December 11, 2008.^[61] It has been superseded by Amazon Payments. Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002. The service provides programmatic access to many features leveraged behind the scenes on its website. Amazon also created "channels" to benefit certain causes. In 2004, Amazon's "Presidential Candidates" allowed customers to donate $5–200 to the campaigns of 2004 U.S. presidential hopefuls. Amazon has periodically reactivated a Red Cross donation channel after such tragedies as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. After the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Amazon set up an online donation channel to the American Red Cross, waiving its processing fee. By January 2005, nearly 200,000 individuals had donated over $15.7 million in the US alone.^[62]

Amazon Prime offers customers unlimited expedited shipping with no minimum purchase amount for a flat annual fee. The service also offers discounted priority shipping rates. Amazon launched the program in the continental United States in 2005, in Japan in June 2007, in the United Kingdom and Germany in November 2007, and in France (as "Amazon Premium") in October 2008. Launched in 2005, Amazon Shorts offers exclusive short form content, including short stories and non-fiction pieces from best-selling authors, all available for immediate download at 49¢. As of June 2007, the program has over 1,700 pieces and is adding about 50 new pieces per week. In November 2005, Amazon.com began testing Amazon Mechanical Turk, an application programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors. In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5 gigabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and for data transferred. In April 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), a distributed queue messaging service. In August 2006, Amazon launched product wikis (later folded into Amapedia) and discussion forums for certain products using guidelines that follow standard message board conventions. In August 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure with its high reliability to run diverse applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting. In 2008, Amazon improved the service adding Elastic Block Store (EBS), offering persistent storage for Amazon EC2 instances and Elastic IP addresses, static IP addresses designed for dynamic cloud computing.

In January 2007 Amazon launched Amapedia, a collaborative wiki for user-generated content to replace ProductWiki. In March 2007, Amazon launched an online video on demand service, Amazon Unbox. In September 2007, Amazon launched a new music store (currently in beta) called Amazon MP3, which sells downloadable tracks, all in the MP3 format and most recorded at 256 kilobits per second variable bitrate (VBR).^[63] Amazon's terms of use agreements legally restrict use of the music, but Amazon does not use DRM to enforce those terms.^[64] :Amazon MP3 sells music from the Big 4 record labels: EMI, Universal, Warner Bros. Records, and Sony BMG, as well as many independents. Previous to the launch of this service, Amazon made an investment in Amie Street, a similar music store with a variable pricing model based on demand.^[65] In August 2007 Amazon launched Amazon Vine, which allows top product reviewers free access to pre-release products from vendors participating in the program. Reviewers may either return the used product to Amazon, or post a review and keep the product, within a few months of receipt. In August 2007 Amazon launched a payment service specifically targeted at developers called Flexible Payment Service FPS. Amazon FPS has facilities for developing many different charging models including micro-payments. The service also gives developers easy access to Amazon customers.^{[citation needed]} In November 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader which downloads content over "Whispernet", a free EV-DO wireless service on the Sprint Nextel network. The screen uses E Ink technology to reduce battery consumption. In 2008 Amazon claimed its library had grown to 200,000 titles. In December 2007, Amazon introduced SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high reliability high performance database system. In August 2007, Amazon launched an invitation-only beta-test for online grocery delivery. It has since rolled out in several Seattle, Washington suburbs.

In January 2008 Amazon announced they would be rolling out their MP3 service to their subsidiary websites worldwide throughout the year.^[66] On December 1, 2008, Amazon MP3 was made available in the UK. At the beginning of September, IMDB and Amazon.com launched a Music metadata browsing site with wiki-like user contribution.^[67] In November, Amazon partnered with manufacturers including Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and electronics manufacturer Transcend to offer products in minimal packaging. This reduces environmental impact of the packaging and frustration with opening "clamshell" type security packaging.^[68] In Amazon Web Services launched a public beta of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud running Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server.^[69] Amazon Connect enables authors to post remarks on their book pages to customers who have bought their books. WebStore by Amazon allows businesses to create e-commerce websites using Amazon technology. Merchants can customize their sites using their own photos and branding. Sellers pay a commission of 7 percent, which includes credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee of $59.95/month for an unlimited number of webstores and listings.

Controversies

Competition

The company has been controversial for its alleged use of patents as a competitive hindrance. The "1-click patent"^[70] is perhaps the best-known example of this. Amazon's use of the one-click patent against competitor Barnes and Noble's website led the Free Software Foundation to announce a boycott of Amazon in December 1999.^[71] The boycott was discontinued in September 2002.^[72] On February 22, 2000, the company was granted a patent covering an Internet-based customer referral system, or what is commonly called an "affiliate program". Reaction was swift and negative. Industry leaders Tim O'Reilly and Charlie Jackson spoke out against the patent,^[73] and O'Reilly published an open letter^[74] to Bezos protesting the 1-click patent and the affiliate program patent, and petitioning him to "avoid any attempts to limit the further development of Internet commerce". O'Reilly collected 10,000 signatures^[75] with this petition. Bezos responded with his own open letter.^[76] The protest ended with O'Reilly and Bezos visiting Washington, D.C. to lobby for patent reform. On February 25, 2003, the company was granted a patent titled "Method and system for conducting a discussion relating to an item on Internet discussion boards".^[77] On May 12, 2006, the USPTO ordered a re-examination^[78] of the "One-Click" patent, based on a request filed by Peter Calveley, who cited as prior art an earlier e-commerce patent and the Digicash electronic cash system.^{[citation needed]}

Amazon has a Canadian site in both English and French, but is prevented from operating any headquarters, servers, fulfillment centers or call centers in Canada by that country's legal restrictions on foreign-owned booksellers. Instead, Amazon's Canadian site originates in the United States, and Amazon has an agreement with Canada Post to handle distribution within Canada and for the use of the Crown corporation's Mississauga, Ontario shipping facility.^[79] The launch of Amazon.ca generated controversy in Canada. In 2002, the Canadian Booksellers Association and Indigo Books and Music sought a court ruling that Amazon's partnership with Canada Post represented an attempt to circumvent Canadian law,^[80] but the litigation was dropped in 2004.^[81]

In March 2008, sales representatives of Amazon's BookSurge division started contacting publishers of print on demand titles to inform them that for Amazon to continue selling their POD-produced books, they were required to sign agreements with Amazon's own BookSurge POD company. Publishers were told that eventually, the only POD titles that Amazon would be selling would be those printed by their own company, BookSurge. Some publishers felt that this ultimatum amounted to monopoly abuse, and questioned the ethics of the move and its legality under anti-trust law.^[82]

In 2008, Amazon UK came under criticism for attempting to prevent publishers from direct selling at discount from their own websites. Amazon's argument was that they should be able to pay the publishers based on the lower prices offered on their websites, rather than on the full RRP.^[83][84]

In June 2008 Amazon UK drew criticism in the British publishing community following their withdrawal from sale of key titles published by Hachette Livre UK. The withdrawal is apparently intended to put pressure on the publisher to provide levels of discount described by the trade as unreasonable. Curtis Brown's managing director Jonathan Lloyd was quoted in The Bookseller magazine as saying: "I think the entire industry of publishers, authors and agents are 100% behind [Hachette]. Someone has to draw a line in the sand. Publishers have given 1% a year away to retailers, so where does it stop? Using authors as a financial football is disgraceful."^[85][86]

Kindle content removal

In July 2009, The New York Times reported that Amazon.com deleted all customer copies of certain books published by MobileReference^[87], including the books 1984 and Animal Farm from users' Kindles. This action was taken with neither prior notification nor specific permission of individual users. Customers did receive a refund of the purchase price and, later, an offer of an Amazon gift certificate or a cheque for $30.^[88]

Products sold and not sold

Amazon at one time carried two cockfighting magazines and two dog fighting videos although the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) contends that the sale of these materials is a violation of U.S. Federal law. The Humane Society of the United States has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.^[89] A campaign to boycott Amazon purchases gained momentum in August 2007 after the much publicized dog fighting case involving NFL quarterback Michael Vick.^[90] On May 21, 2008, Marburger Publishing agreed to settle with the Humane Society by requesting that Amazon stop offering their magazine The Game Cock for subscription. The second magazine named in the Humane Society lawsuit, The Feathered Warrior, remains available.^[91]

On April 12, 2009, it was revealed that some erotic, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, feminist and politically liberal books were being excluded from Amazon's sales rankings.^[92] Various books and media were flagged as "Adult content" (including children's books, self-help books, non-fiction, and non-explicit fiction), with the result that works by established authors like E. M. Forster, Gore Vidal, Jeanette Winterson and D. H. Lawrence were now unranked.^[93] The change first received publicity on the blog of author Mark R. Probst, who reproduced an e-mail from Amazon customer service describing a policy of de-ranking "adult" material.^[92][93] However, Amazon later said that there was no policy of de-ranking LGBT material and blamed the change first on a "glitch"^[94] and then on "an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error" that had affected 57,310 books.^[95]

In September 2009 it emerged that Amazon was selling defamatory MP3 music downloads falsely suggesting a well-known Premier League football manager was a child sex offender. Despite a campaign urging the retailer to withdraw the item, they refused to do so citing freedom of speech.^[96] The company was finally forced to withdraw the item when legal action was threatened.^[97] However, they continued to sell the item on their American, German and French websites.

Collection of sales tax

In 2008 New York passed a law that would force online retailers to collect sales taxes on shipments to New York State residents.^[98] Shortly after the law was signed, Amazon.com filed a complaint in the New York Supreme Court objecting to the law.^[98] The complaint wasn't based on whether instate customers should pay tax, but upon the long-standing practice of it being the responsibility of the customer to report the sales tax (known as use tax in this case) and not that of the out-of-state businesses.^[98] The lawsuit was tossed out of court in January, 2009, when New York State Supreme Court Justice Eileen Bransten stated "there is no basis upon which Amazon can prevail."^[99]

Amazon has created wholly owned subsidiaries for parts of the company that are treated separately for tax matters, a legal technique called "entity isolation". For example, the subsidiary that developed the Kindle is in California, but because it doesn't sell the Kindle directly to consumers, Amazon's legal position is that it isn't required to collect sales taxes in California. In the company's financial report for the quarter ending September 30, 2009, the company told investors in its discussion of risk factors that the imposition of sales-tax collection by more states or Congress could "decrease our future sales."^[100]

Other

In 1999, the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative of Minneapolis, Minnesota sued Amazon.com for trademark infringement. The cooperative had been using the name "Amazon" since 1970, but reached an out-of-court agreement to share the name with the on-line retailer.^[101]

A 2004 glitch in Amazon.ca's review system temporarily revealed that many well-established authors were anonymously giving themselves glowing reviews, with some revealed to be anonymously giving "rival" authors terrible reviews.^[102][103] According to Amazon, those reviews have since been removed or made non-anonymous.

In April 2009, BusinessWeek magazine reported that Amazon.com was one of 25 US companies that paid the least US taxes. Amazon.com paid a 4.1 percent annual tax rate, far less than the standard 35 percent corporate rate, based on an analysis of the company's financial figures for 2005-2008. According to SEC filings, this rate was caused in part by lower tax rates for Amazon.com's international subsidiaries.^[104]

Amazon has opposed efforts by trade unions to organize in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2001, 850 employees in Seattle were laid off by Amazon.com after a unionization drive. The Washington Alliance of Technological Workers (WashTech) accused the company of violating union laws, and claimed Amazon managers subjected them to intimidation and heavy propaganda. Amazon denies any link between the unionization effort and the layoffs.^[105] Also in 2001, Amazon.co.uk hired a US management consultancy organization, The Burke Group, to assist in defeating a campaign by the Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU, now part of Amicus) to achieve recognition in the Milton Keynes distribution depot. It was alleged that the company victimized or sacked four union members during the 2001 recognition drive and held a series of captive meetings with employees.^[106][107]

Following the announcement of the Apple iPad on January 27, 2010, Macmillan Publishers entered into a pricing dispute with Amazon.com regarding electronic publications. Macmillan asked Amazon to accept a new pricing scheme it had worked out with Apple, raising the price of e-books from $9.99 to $15.^[108] Amazon responded by pulling all Macmillan books, both electronic and physical, from their website (although affiliates selling the books were still listed). On January 31, 2010, Amazon "capitulated" to Macmillan's pricing request ^[109]

Entrepreneurship by former employees

A number of companies have been started and founded by former Amazon.com employees.^[110] This is despite a non-compete agreement Amazon employees must sign that prohibits starting a company with another Amazon employee.^{[citation needed]}

• Hulu is led by Jason Kilar, a former SVP at Amazon.com.
• BankBazaar.com was founded by Arjun Shetty, a former Senior product manager at Amazon.com
• Evri was led by Neil Roseman, a former VP at Amazon.com.
• Foodista was founded by Barnaby Dorfman
• Jambool/SocialGold was co-founded by former Amazon engineers Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein.
• MindBloom was founded by Brent Poole
• TeachStreet was founded by Dave Schappell, an early Amazon.com product manager.
• TrackSimple was founded by Jon Ingalls and [[Ajit Banerjee].
• Trusera was founded by Keith Schorsch, an early Amazonian.
• Twilio was founded by Jeff Lawson, an Amazon Technical Product Manager.
• Vittana was co-founded by Kushal Chakrabarti and Brett Witt.
• Pelago was co-founded by Jeff Holden, a former SVP at Amazon.com.
• Wikinvest was founded by Michael Sha.

See also

• Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)
• Statistically Improbable Phrases: Amazon.com's phrase extraction technique for indexing books.
• Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
• Book Stacks Unlimited
• Online shopping

Further reading

• Robert Spector (2000). amazon.com - Get Big Fast : Inside the Revolutionary Business Model That Changed the World. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-662041-4. 
• Mike Daisey (2002). 21 Dog Years. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2580-5. 
• Mara Friedman (2004). Amazon.com for Dummies. Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-5840-4. 
• James Marcus (2004). Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut. W.W. Norton. ISBN 1-56584-870-5. 
• "A conversation with Werner Vogels", ACM Queue, May 2006

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amazon.com

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
  • List of International Websites
• WebStore by Amazon

v • d • e Amazon.com People Jeff Bezos · Tony Hsieh · Brian McBride · Tom Szkutak · Brian Valentine · Werner Vogels · Gregg Zehr Former: Rick Dalzell · Ram Shriram Products and services Websites A9.com · AbeBooks · Alexa (Ranking, Toolbar, Web Services) · Amapedia · Amazon China · Askville · CDNOW · Digital Photography Review · Endless.com · Fresh · IMDb (Box Office Mojo) · Marketplace · Payments · PlanetAll · Shelfari · Zappos.com Web Services AAWS · CloudFront · EC2 · FPS · Mechanical Turk · S3 · SimpleDB · SQS · VPC Digital Audible.com · Kindle · Lexcycle · Mobipocket · MP3 · Reflexive Entertainment · Video on Demand Technology 1-Click · aStore · Carbonado · Dynamo · Gurupa · Lab126 · Obidos Investments 43 Things · Amie Street (Songza) · LibraryThing · Sellaband Other ASIN · Breakthrough Novel Award · Fishbowl · Statistically Improbable Phrases · Vine Annual Revenue: ▲US$19.17 billion (FY 2008) · Employees: 20,500 (FY 2008) · Stock Symbol: NASDAQ: AMZN · Website: Amazon.com

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