Amazon

Amazon.com, or, more generally, Amazon, is the largest online retail outlet in the world. It is the largest Internet-based company in the world by revenue. In 2015, it passed Walmart as the largest retailer in the United States by market value. In 2017, it was the fifth largest publicly traded firm in the United States based on market capitalization, after Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Microsoft, and Facebook. This entry further describes Amazon and discusses its founding, its products and services, its business model, and some criticism of the company.

Amazon’s website attracts 183 million visitors monthly, making it one of the most important anywhere. With annual sales of more than US$135 billion in 2016 and more than 500,000 employees (“Amazonians”) worldwide in 2017, it is ...