Amazon.com was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, after the Wall Street computer financier read a report claiming annual web growth was expected to proceed at a rate of 2,300 percent. Seeing the opportunities in online retail, Bezos drafted a business plan for an ecommerce site on during a cross-country road trip to his home outside of Seattle, Washington.

Choosing the name Amazon.com to reflect the massive nature of the venture, the site launched as an online bookstore in 1995, selling its first product – Douglas Hofstadter’s “Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought” – that July.

Within in no time, Amazon expanded its products to include CDs, DVDs, software, electronics, MP3s, clothing, furniture, toys and even food.

In 1997, the Seattle-based company issued its initial public offering for a price of $18 per share. However, after years of investment, the company did not become profitable until 2001, reporting $5 million with revenues of more than $1 billion.

In 1999, Bezos was named the Time magazine Person of the Year.

The retail giant survived the dotcom bubble burst of the late 1990s to become one of the largest and most profitable retail enterprises in recent decades, rivaling retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Target.