Genesys Systems, Inc., Software License, Order, And Pricing: Fill & Download for Free

Amazo Customer Care 9679824416 NNumber Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.[8] (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon) is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud, along with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook.[9][10][11][12] The company has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", as well as the world's most valuable brand.[13][14]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.Amazon logo.svgLogo since 2000Amazon Spheres 05.jpgThe Amazon Spheres, part of the Amazon headquarters campus in SeattleTrade nameAmazonFormerlyCadabra, Inc. (1994–95)TypePublicTraded asNASDAQ: AMZNNASDAQ-100 componentS&P 100 componentS&P 500 componentISINUS0231351067IndustryCloud computinge-commerceartificial intelligenceconsumer electronicsdigital distributionself-driving carsFoundedJuly 5, 1994; 26 years agoBellevue, Washington, U.S.FounderJeff BezosHeadquartersSeattle, Washington, U.S.Area servedWorldwideKey peopleJeff Bezos (President, CEO, and Chairman)Andy Jassy (CEO-elect)Brian Olsavsky (Senior VP and CFO)ProductsEchoFire TabletFire TVFire OSKindleServicesAmazon.comAmazon AlexaAmazon AppstoreAmazon MusicAmazon PrimeAmazon Prime VideoAmazon Web ServicesRevenueIncrease US$386.064 billion (2020)Operating incomeIncrease US$22.9 billion (2020)Net incomeIncrease US$21.331 billion (2020)Total assetsIncrease US$321.2 billion (2020)Total equityIncrease US$93.404 billion (2020)Number of employeesIncrease 1,298,000 (Dec. 2020)[1]U.S.: 810,000 (Oct. 2020)[2]SubsidiariesA9.comAbeBooksAlexa http://InternetAmazon.com ServicesAmazon AirAmazon BooksAmazon FreshAmazon Game StudiosAmazon Lab126Amazon LogisticsAmazon PharmacyAmazon PublishingAmazon RoboticsAmazon StudiosAWSAudibleBody LabsBook DepositoryComiXologyDigital Photography ReviewGoodreadsGraphiqIMDbPillPackRingSouq.comTwitch InteractiveWhole Foods MarketWootZapposWebsiteOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreFootnotes / references[1][3][4][5][6][7]Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. It started as an online marketplace for books but expanded to sell electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization.[15] In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for US$13.4 billion, which substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer.[16] In 2018, its two-day delivery service, Amazon Prime, surpassed 100 million subscribers worldwide.[17]Amazon is known for its disruption of well-established industries through technological innovation and mass scale.[18][19][20] It is the world's largest online marketplace, AI assistant provider, live-streaming platform and cloud computing platform[21] as measured by revenue and market capitalization.[22] Amazon is the largest Internet company by revenue in the world.[23] It is the second largest private employer in the United States[24] and one of the world's most valuable companies. As of 2020, Amazon has the highest global brand valuation.[25]Amazon distributes downloads and streaming of video, music, and audiobooks through its Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, and Audible subsidiaries. Amazon also has a publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a film and television studio, Amazon Studios, and a cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services. It produces consumer electronics including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices. Its acquisitions over the years include Ring, Twitch, Whole Foods Market, and IMDb.Amazon has been criticized for practices including technological surveillance overreach,[26] a hyper-competitive and demanding work culture,[27] tax avoidance,[28] and anti-competitive behavior.[29][30]HistoryFurther information: History of AmazonThe company's largest campus outside the United States was inaugurated in Hyderabad, India in September 2019.Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in July 1994. He chose Seattle because of technical talent as Microsoft is located there.[31] In May 1997, Amazon went public. It began selling music and videos in 1998, at which time it began operations internationally by acquiring online sellers of books in United Kingdom and Germany. The following year, Amazon began selling items including video games, consumer electronics, home improvement items, software, games, and toys.In 2002, Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provided data on website popularity, Internet traffic patterns and other statistics for marketers and developers. In 2006, Amazon grew its AWS portfolio when Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which rents computer processing power as well as Simple Storage Service (S3), that rents data storage via the Internet, were made available. That same year, Amazon started Fulfillment by Amazon which managed the inventory of individuals and small companies selling their belongings through the company internet site. In 2012, Amazon bought Kiva Systems to automate its inventory-management business, purchasing Whole Foods Market supermarket chain five years later in 2017.[32]In January 2021, Amazon invested with over $278 million by opening two new centers in Italy (Novara and Modena) and creating over 1100 jobs.[33]On February 2, 2021, Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos would be stepping down as CEO and transition to Executive Chair of Amazon's board in Q3 of 2021. Andy Jassy, who is currently CEO of AWS, will replace Bezos as CEO of the company.[34][35]Board of directorsAmazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2016As of September 2020, the board of directors is:[36]Jeff Bezos, President, CEO, and ChairmanKeith B. Alexander, CEO IronNet Cybersecurity, former NSA DirectorRosalind Brewer, Group President, and COO, StarbucksJamie Gorelick, partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale, and DorrDaniel P. Huttenlocher, Dean of the Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJudy McGrath, former CEO, MTV NetworksIndra Nooyi, former CEO, PepsiCoJon Rubinstein, former Chairman, and CEO, Palm, Inc.Thomas O. Ryder, former Chairman, and CEO, Reader's Digest AssociationPatty Stonesifer, President, and CEO, Martha's TableWendell P. Weeks, Chairman, President, and CEO, Corning Inc.Merchant partnershipsIn 2000, U.S. toy retailer Toys "R" Us entered into a 10-year agreement with Amazon, valued at $50 million per year plus a cut of sales, under which Toys "R" Us would be the exclusive supplier of toys and baby products on the service, and the chain's website would redirect to Amazon's Toys & Games category. In 2004, Toys "R" Us sued Amazon, claiming that because of a perceived lack of variety in Toys "R" Us stock, Amazon had knowingly allowed third-party sellers to offer items on the service in categories that Toys "R" Us had been granted exclusivity. In 2006, a court ruled in favor of Toys "R" Us, giving it the right to unwind its agreement with Amazon and establish its own independent e-commerce website. The company was later awarded $51 million in damages.[37][38][39]In 2001, Amazon entered into a similar agreement with Borders Group, under which Amazon would comanage Barnes & Noble Welcomes Borders® Bookstore Customers as a co-branded service.[40] Borders pulled out of the arrangement in 2007, with plans to also launch its own online store.[41]On October 18, 2011, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. The partnership has caused well-known bookstores like Barnes & Noble to remove these titles from their shelves.[42]In November 2013, Amazon announced a partnership with the United States Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included in Amazon's standard shipping rates, initiated in metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York because of the high-volume and inability to deliver in a timely way, with plans to expand into Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix by 2014.[43]In June 2017, Nike confirmed a "pilot" partnership with Amazon to sell goods directly on the platform.[44][45][46] This pilot ended in November 2019.[47]As of October 11, 2017, AmazonFresh sold a range of Booths branded products for home delivery in selected areas.[48]In September 2017, Amazon ventured with one of its sellers JV Appario Retail owned by Patni Group which has recorded a total income of US$ 104.44 million (₹ 759 crore) in financial year 2017–18.[49]In November 2018, Amazon reached an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell selected products through the service, via the company and selected Apple Authorized Resellers. As a result of this partnership, only Apple Authorized Resellers may sell Apple products on Amazon effective January 4, 2019.[50][51]LogisticsAmazon uses many different transportation services to deliver packages. Amazon-branded services include:Amazon Air, a cargo airline for bulk transport, with last mile delivery handled either by Amazon Flex, Amazon Logistics, or the United States Postal Service.Amazon Flex, a smartphone app that enables individuals to act as independent contractors, delivering packages to customers from personal vehicles without uniforms. Deliveries include one or two hour Prime Now, same or next day Amazon Fresh groceries, and standard Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more orders, in addition to orders from local stores that contract with Amazon.[52]Amazon Logistics, in which Amazon contracts with small businesses (which it calls "Delivery Service Partners") to perform deliveries to customers. Each business has a fleet of approximately 20-40 Amazon-branded vans, and employees of the contractors wear Amazon uniforms. As of December 2020, it operates in the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[53]Amazon Prime Air is an experimental drone delivery service.Amazon directly employs people to work at its warehouses, bulk distribution centers, staffed "Amazon Hub Locker+" locations, and delivery stations where drivers pick up packages. As of December 2020, it is not hiring delivery drivers as employees.[54]Rakuten Intelligence estimated that in 2020 in the United States, the proportion of last-mile deliveries was 56% by Amazon's directly contracted services (mostly in urban areas), 30% by the United States Postal Service (mostly in rural areas), and 14% by UPS.[55] The USPS is used to deliver packages to at least some unstaffed Amazon Lockers, according to on-site signage.Products and servicesMain article: List of Amazon products and servicesOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more's product lines available at its website include several media (books, DVDs, music CDs, videotapes and software), apparel, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal-care items, industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry, watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive items and toys & games.[citation needed] In August 2019, Amazon applied to have a liquor store in San Francisco, CA as a means to ship beer and alcohol within the city.[56] Amazon has separate retail websites for some countries and also offers international shipping of some of its products to certain other countries.[57] In November 2020, the company started an online delivery service dedicated to prescription drugs. The service provides discounts up to 80% for generic drugs and up to 40% for branded drugs for Prime subscribe users. The products can be purchased on the company's website or at over 50,000 bricks-and-mortar pharmacies in the United States.[58]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more has a number of products and services available, including:AmazonFreshAmazon PrimeAmazon Web ServicesAlexaAppstoreAmazon DriveEchoKindleFire tabletsFire TVVideoKindle StoreMusicMusic UnlimitedAmazon Digital Game StoreAmazon StudiosAmazonWirelessSubsidiariesSee also: List of Amazon locationsAmazon owns over 40 subsidiaries, including Audible, http://Diapers.com, Goodreads, IMDb, Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), Shopbop, Teachstreet, Twitch and Zappos.[59]http://A9.comhttp://A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology, has been a subsidiary since 2003.[60]Amazon MaritimeAmazon Maritime, Inc. holds a Federal Maritime Commission license to operate as a non-vessel-owning common carrier (NVOCC), which enables the company to manage its own shipments from China into the United States.[61]Annapurna LabsIn January 2015, Amazon Web Services acquired Annapurna Labs, an Israel-based microelectronics company reputedly for US$350–370M.[62][63][64]Unlock a listen for every momentUnlock a listen for every moment is a seller and producer of spoken audio entertainment, information and educational programming on the Internet. Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and television programs and audio versions of magazines and newspapers. Through its production arm, Audible Studios, Audible has also become the world's largest producer of downloadable audiobooks. On January 31, 2008, Amazon announced it would buy Audible for about $300 million. The deal closed in March 2008 and Audible became a subsidiary of Amazon.[65]Beijing Century Joyo Courier ServicesBeijing Century Joyo Courier Services is a subsidiary of Amazon and it applied for a freight forwarding license with the US Maritime Commission. Amazon is also building out its logistics in trucking and air freight to potentially compete with UPS and FedEx.[66][67]Brilliance AudioBrilliance Audio is an audiobook publisher founded in 1984 by Michael Snodgrass in Grand Haven, Michigan.[68] The company produced its first 8 audio titles in 1985.[68] The company was purchased by Amazon in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.[69][70] At the time of the acquisition, Brilliance was producing 12–15 new titles a month.[70] It operates as an independent company within Amazon.In 1984, Brilliance Audio invented a technique for recording twice as much on the same cassette.[71] The technique involved recording on each of the two channels of each stereo track.[71] It has been credited with revolutionizing the burgeoning audiobook market in the mid-1980s since it made unabridged books affordable.[71]ComiXologyComiXology is a cloud-based digital comics platform with over 200 million comic downloads as of September 2013. It offers a selection of more than 40,000 comic books and graphic novels across Android, iOS, Fire OS and Windows 8 devices and over a web browser. Amazon bought the company in April 2014.[72]CreateSpaceCreateSpace, which offers self-publishing services for independent content creators, publishers, film studios, and music labels, became a subsidiary in 2009.[73][74]EeroEero, stylized as eero, is a company that manufactures mesh-capable routers. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco. Amazon announced it would buy Eero in 2019.GoodreadsMain article: GoodreadsGoodreads is a "social cataloging" website founded in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler, a software engineer, and entrepreneur, and Elizabeth Khuri. The website allows individuals to freely search Goodreads' extensive user-populated database of books, annotations, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists. They can also create their own groups of book suggestions and discussions. In December 2007, the site had over 650,000 members and over 10 million books had been added. Amazon bought the company in March 2013.[75]Health NavigatorIn October 2019, Amazon finalized the acquisition of Health Navigator, a startup developing APIs for online health services. The startup will form part of Amazon Care, which is the company's employee healthcare service. This follows the 2018 purchase of PillPack for under $1 billion, which has also been included into Amazon Care.[76]JungleeJunglee is a former online shopping service provided by Amazon that enabled customers to search for products from online and offline retailers in India. Junglee started off as a virtual database that was used to extract information from the Internet and deliver it to enterprise applications. As it progressed, Junglee started to use its database technology to create a single window marketplace on the Internet by making every item from every supplier available for purchase. Web shoppers could locate, compare and transact millions of products from across the Internet shopping mall through one window.[77]Amazon acquired Junglee in 1998, and the website Junglee.com was launched in India in February 2012[78] as a comparison-shopping website. It curated and enabled searching for a diverse variety of products such as clothing, electronics, toys, jewelry and video games, among others, across thousands of online and offline sellers. Millions of products are browsable, the client selects a price, and then they are directed to a seller. In November 2017, Amazon closed down Junglee.com and the former domain currently redirects to Amazon India.[79]Kuiper SystemsMain article: Kuiper SystemsKuiper Systems LLC, is a subsidiary of Amazon, set up to deploy a broadband satellite internet constellation with an announced 3,236 Low Earth orbit satellites to provide satellite based Internet connectivity.[80][81][82]PillPackPillPack is an online pharmacy specializing in shipping pre-sorted medications in by-day packets. It was acquired by Amazon in June 2018.Lab126Main article: Amazon Lab126Lab126, developers of integrated consumer electronics such as the Kindle, became a subsidiary in 2004.[83]RingMain article: Ring Inc.Ring is a home automation company founded by Jamie Siminoff in 2013. It is primarily known for its WiFi powered smart doorbells, but manufactures other devices such as security cameras. Amazon bought Ring for US$1 billion in 2018.[84]ShelfariShelfari was a social cataloging website for books. Shelfari users built virtual bookshelves of the titles which they owned or had read and they could rate, review, tag and discuss their books. Users could also create groups that other members could join, create discussions and talk about books, or other topics. Recommendations could be sent to friends on the site for what books to read. Amazon bought the company in August 2008.[75] Shelfari continued to function as an independent book social network within the Amazon until January 2016, when Amazon announced that it would be merging Shelfari with Goodreads and closing down Shelfari.[85][86]SouqMain article: تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلاتتسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات is the largest E-Commerce platform in the Middle East based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On March 28, 2017, Amazon confirmed it would be acquiring تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات for $580 million.[87] تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات is now a subsidiary of Amazon, and acts as Amazon's arm into the Middle East region.TwitchMain article: Twitch (service)Twitch at the Electronic Entertainment ExpoTwitch is a live streaming platform for video, primarily oriented towards video gaming content. The service was first established as a spin-off of a general-interest streaming service known as http://Justin.tv. Its prominence was eclipsed by that of Twitch, and http://Justin.tv was eventually shut down by its parent company in August 2014 in order to focus exclusively on Twitch.[88] Later that month, Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $970 million.[89] Through Twitch, Amazon also owns Curse, Inc., an operator of video gaming communities and a provider of VoIP services for gaming.[90] Since the acquisition, Twitch began to sell games directly through the platform,[91] and began offering special features for Amazon Prime subscribers.[92]The site's rapid growth had been boosted primarily by the prominence of major esports competitions on the service, leading GameSpot senior esports editor Rod Breslau to have described the service as "the ESPN of esports".[93] As of 2015, the service had over 1.5 million broadcasters and 100 million monthly viewers.[94]On August 10, 2020, Amazon announced the rebranding of Twitch Prime, the live-streaming site, renaming it Prime Gaming [1] in another attempt to crack the video game market after failing a big-budget game effort. With Twitch Prime, users will be given a free subscription to Twitch, with free games from small studios and discounts for larger titles like Grand Theft Auto and League of Legends.[95]On November 2, 2020, Twitch announced a virtual flagship conference and named it GlitchCon instead of TwitchCon to be held on November 14. The main aim of the conference will be to bring its numerous, disparate communities of streamers and fans together where they can be real life confidants.[96]Whole Foods MarketWhole Foods Market store in Ann Arbor, MichiganWhole Foods Market is an American supermarket chain exclusively featuring foods without artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.[97]On August 23, 2017, it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission approved the merger between Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more and Whole Foods Market.[98] The following day it was announced that the deal would be closed on August 28, 2017.[99]Supply chainAmazon first launched its distribution network in 1997 with two fulfillment centers in Seattle and New Castle, Delaware. Amazon has several types of distribution facilities consisting of crossdock centers, fulfillment centers, sortation centers, delivery stations, Prime now hubs, and Prime air hubs. There are 75 fulfillment centers and 25 sortation centers with over 125,000 employees.[100][101] Employees are responsible for five basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing goods in storage and recording their location; picking goods from their computer recorded locations to make up an individual shipment; sorting and packing orders; and shipping. A computer that records the location of goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a key role: employees carry hand-held computers which communicate with the central computer and monitor their rate of progress. Some warehouses are partially automated with systems built by Amazon Robotics.Amazon.fr : livres, DVD, jeux vidéo, musique, high-tech, informatique, jouets, vêtements, chaussures, sport, bricolage, maison, beauté, puériculture, épicerie et plus encore ! fulfillment center in Lauwin-Planque, Francecompra online de electrónica, libros, deporte, hogar, moda y mucho más. fulfillment center in San Fernando de Henares, SpainLow Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more fulfillment center in Glenrothes, Scotland, UKGünstige Preise für Elektronik & Foto, Filme, Musik, Bücher, Games, Spielzeug & mehr fulfillment center in Graben, GermanyAmazon | 本, ファッション, 家電から食品まで | アマゾン fulfillment center in Ichikawa, JapanAmazon fulfillment center in Macon, Georgia, U.S.WebsiteOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more-Logo.svgLogo since 2000ScreenshotOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more screenshot.jpegHomepageType of siteE-commerceAvailable inArabicEnglishFrenchGermanSpanishSwedishItalianChineseJapanesePortugueseDutchTurkishOwnerAmazonURLOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more (original U.S. site)CommercialYesRegistrationOptionalLaunched1995; 26 years agoCurrent statusActiveWritten inC++ and Java[102]The domain Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more attracted at least 615 million visitors annually by 2008;[103] by the beginning of 2016, over 130 million customers were visiting the U.S. website each month.[104] The company has invested heavily in a massive amount of server capacity for its website, especially to handle the excessive traffic during the Christmas holiday season.[105] According to Alexa Internet rankings, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is the third most popular website in the United States and the 14th most popular website worldwide.Results generated by Amazon's search engine are partly determined by promotional fees.[106] The company's localized storefronts, which differ in selection and prices, are differentiated by top-level domain and country code:Region Country Domain name SinceAmericas Brazil Compre livros, Kindle, Echo, Fire Tv e mais. December 2012Canada Low Prices - Fast Shipping - Millions of Items June 2002Mexico Precios bajos - Envío rápido - Millones de productos August 2013United States Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more July 1995Asia China 亚马逊中国 z.cn, 一站放心购全球 September 2004India Online Shopping site in India: Shop Online for Mobiles, Books, Watches, Shoes and More June 2013Japan Amazon | 本, ファッション, 家電から食品まで | アマゾン November 2000Singapore Shop Online for Electronics, Computers, Books, Toys, DVDs, Baby, Grocery, & more July 2017Turkey Amazon.com.tr: Elektronik, bilgisayar, akıllı telefon, kitap, oyuncak, yapı market, ev, mutfak, oyun konsolları ürünleri ve daha fazlası için internet alışveriş sitesi September 2018United Arab Emirates Welcome to Amazon.ae Shop Online in UAE for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Grocery & more May 2019Saudi Arabia تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ,الملابس , الكمبيوترات, البقالة و اكثر - سوق.كوم الان اصبحت أمازون June 2020Europe France Amazon.fr : livres, DVD, jeux vidéo, musique, high-tech, informatique, jouets, vêtements, chaussures, sport, bricolage, maison, beauté, puériculture, épicerie et plus encore ! August 2000Germany Günstige Preise für Elektronik & Foto, Filme, Musik, Bücher, Games, Spielzeug & mehr October 1998Italy elettronica, libri, musica, fashion, videogiochi, DVD e tanto altro November 2010Netherlands Groot aanbod, kleine prijzen in o.a. Elektronica, boeken, sport en meer November 2014Spain compra online de electrónica, libros, deporte, hogar, moda y mucho más. September 2011Sweden Låga priser på Elektronik, Böcker, Sportutrustning & mer October 2020United Kingdom Low Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more October 1998Oceania Australia Shop online for Electronics, Apparel, Toys, Books, DVDs & more November 2017ReviewsSee also: Criticism of Amazon § Amazon reviewsAmazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. Reviewers must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon provides a 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. Customers may comment or vote on the reviews, indicating whether they found a review helpful to them. If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the front page of the product. In 2010, Amazon was reported as being the largest single source of Internet consumer reviews.[107]When publishers asked Bezos why Amazon would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more was "taking a different approach ... we want to make every book available—the good, the bad and the ugly ... to let truth loose".[108]There have been cases of positive reviews being written and posted by public relations companies on behalf of their clients[109] and instances of writers using pseudonyms to leave negative reviews of their rivals' works.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.[110][111] The feature started with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003.[112] There are about 300,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches.[citation needed]To avoid copyright violations, Amazon does not return the computer-readable text of the book. Instead, it returns a picture of the matching page, instructs the web browser to disable printing and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. Additionally, customers can purchase online access to some of the same books via the "Amazon Upgrade" program.[citation needed]Third-party sellersAmazon derives many of its sales (around 40% in 2008) from third-party sellers who sell products on Amazon.[113] Associates receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links to Amazon on their websites if the referral results in a sale. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.[114] In the middle of 2014, the Amazon Affiliate Program is used by 1.2% of all websites and it is the second most popular advertising network after Google Ads.[115] It is frequently used by websites and non-profits to provide a way for supporters to earn them a commission.[116] Amazon reported over 1.3 million sellers sold products through Amazon's websites in 2007. Unlike eBay, Amazon sellers do not have to maintain separate payment accounts; all payments are handled by Amazon.[citation needed]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 another website, or linked to another website. In June 2010, Amazon Seller Product Suggestions was launched (rumored to be internally called "Project Genesis") to provide more transparency to sellers by recommending specific products to third-party sellers to sell on Amazon. Products suggested are based on customers' browsing history.[117] In 2019, Amazon launched a bigger local online store in Singapore to expand its product selection in the face of intensifying competition with competitors in the region.[118]In July 2019 the 3rd U.S. City Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that Amazon can be held accountable for faulty third-party sales.[119] The decision ran counter to a past lower court ruling that had favored Amazon. Heather Oberdorf had sued the company in 2016 over a dog leash that snapped, causing permanent loss of vision in one eye. If upheld, the decision would expose Amazon and similar platform businesses to strict liability lawsuits for defective products, which represents a major change in the law.[120] The panel sent the case back to the lower court, to decide whether the leash was actually defective.[121]Amazon sales rankThe Amazon sales rank (ASR) provides an indication of the popularity of a product sold on any Amazon locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a "best sellers list" for the millions of products stocked by Amazon.[122] While the ASR has no direct effect on the sales of a product, it is used by Amazon to determine which products to include in its bestsellers lists.[122] Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon website and this may lead to an increase in sales. In particular, products that experience large jumps (up or down) in their sales ranks may be included within Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers"; such a listing provides additional exposure that might lead to an increase in sales.[123] For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release actual sales figures to the public. However, Amazon has now begun to release point of sale data via the Nielsen BookScan service to verified authors.[124] While the ASR has been the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers, and marketers, Amazon itself does not release the details of its sales rank calculation algorithm. Some companies have analyzed Amazon sales data to generate sales estimates based on the ASR,[125] though Amazon states:Please keep in mind that our sales rank figures are simply meant to be a guide of general interest for the customer and not definitive sales information for publishers—we assume you have this information regularly from your distribution sources— Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more Help[126]Multi-level sales strategyAmazon employs a multi-level e-commerce strategy. Amazon started by focusing on business-to-consumer relationships between itself and its customers and business-to-business relationships between itself and its suppliers and then moved to facilitate customer-to-customer with the Amazon marketplace which acts as an intermediary to facilitate transactions. The company lets anyone sell nearly anything using its platform. In addition to an affiliate program that lets anyone post Amazon links and earn a commission on click-through sales, there is now a program which lets those affiliates build entire websites based on Amazon's platform.[127]Some other large e-commerce sellers use Amazon to sell their products in addition to selling them through their own websites. The sales are processed through Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more and end up at individual sellers for processing and order fulfillment and Amazon leases space for these retailers. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace to offer goods at a fixed price.[128]In November 2015, Amazon opened a physical Amazon Books store in University Village in Seattle. The store is 5,500 square feet and prices for all products match those on its website.[129] Amazon will open its tenth physical book store in 2017;[130] media speculation suggests Amazon plans to eventually roll out 300 to 400 bookstores around the country.[129]In June 2018, it was reported that Amazon planned to open brick and mortar bookstores in Germany.[131]In September 2020, Amazon launched Luxury Stores on its mobile app, where Oscar de la Renta become the first and only label to partner with the firm.[132]FinancesOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is primarily a retail site with a sales revenue model; Amazon takes a small percentage of the sale price of each item that is sold through its website while also allowing companies to advertise their products by paying to be listed as featured products.[133] As of 2018, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is ranked 8th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[134]For the fiscal year 2018, Amazon reported earnings of US$10.07 billion, with an annual revenue of US$232.887 billion, an increase of 30.9% over the previous fiscal cycle. Since 2007 sales increased from 14.835 billion to 232.887 billion, thanks to continued business expansion.[135]Amazon's market capitalization went over US$1 trillion again in early February 2020 after the announcement of the fourth quarter 2019 results.[136] Amazon's total employees now number 798,000.[136]Year Revenuein mil. USD$ Net incomein mil. USD$ Total Assetsin mil. USD$ Employees2007[137] 14,835 476 6,485 17,0002008[138] 19,166 645 8,314 20,7002009[139] 24,509 902 13,813 24,3002010[140] 34,204 1,152 18,797 33,7002011[141] 48,077 631 25,278 56,2002012[142] 61,093 −39 32,555 88,4002013[143] 74,452 274 40,159 117,3002014[144] 88,988 −241 54,505 154,1002015[145] 107,006 596 64,747 230,8002016[146] 135,987 2,371 83,402 341,4002017[147] 177,866 3,033 131,310 566,0002018[148] 232,887 10,073 162,648 647,5002019[149] 280,522 11,588 225,248 798,0002020[150] 386,064 21,331 321,195 1,298,000ControversiesIt has been suggested that sections about criticism of Amazon be split out and merged into the article titled Criticism of Amazon, which already exists. (Discuss)Main article: Criticism of AmazonSince its founding, the company has attracted criticism and controversy for its actions, including: supplying law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools;[151] forming cloud computing partnerships with the CIA;[152] leading customers away from bookshops;[153] adversely impacting the environment;[154] placing a low priority on warehouse conditions for workers; actively opposing unionization efforts;[155] remotely deleting content purchased by Amazon Kindle users; taking public subsidies; seeking to patent its 1-Click technology; engaging in anti-competitive actions and price discrimination;[29][30] and reclassifying LGBT books as adult content.[156][157] Criticism has also concerned various decisions over whether to censor or publish content such as the WikiLeaks website, works containing libel and material facilitating dogfight, cockfight, or pedophile activities. In December 2011, Amazon faced a backlash from small businesses for running a one-day deal to promote its new Price Check app. Shoppers who used the app to check prices in a brick-and-mortar store were offered a 5% discount to purchase the same item from Amazon.[158] Companies like Groupon, eBay and http://Taap.it countered Amazon's promotion by offering $10 off from their products.[159][160]The company has also faced accusations of putting undue pressure on suppliers to maintain and extend its profitability. One effort to squeeze the most vulnerable book publishers was known within the company as the Gazelle Project, after Bezos suggested, according to Brad Stone, "that Amazon should approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle."[106] In July 2014, the Federal Trade Commission launched a lawsuit against the company alleging it was promoting in-app purchases to children, which were being transacted without parental consent.[161] In 2019, Amazon banned selling skin-lightening and racist products that might affect the consumer's health.[162]Environmental impactIn 2018, Amazon emitted 44.4 million metric tons of CO2.[163]In September 2019, Amazon workers organized a walk-out as part of the Global Climate Strike.[164][165] An internal group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said over 1,800 employees in 25 cities and 14 countries committed to participating in the action to protest Amazon's environmental impact and inaction to climate change.[164] This group of workers petitioned Jeff Bezos and Amazon with three specific demands: to stop donating to politicians and lobbyists that deny climate change, to stop working with fossil fuel companies to accelerate oil and gas extraction, and to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030.[166][165]Amazon has introduced the Shipment Zero program, however Shipment Zero has only committed to reducing 50% of its shipments to net zero by 2030. Also, even that 50% does not necessarily mean a decrease in emissions compared to current levels given Amazon's rate of growth in orders.[167]That said, Amazon's CEO has also signed the Climate Pledge, in which Amazon would meet the Paris climate agreement goals 10 years ahead of schedule, and would be carbon-neutral by 2040. Besides this pledge, it also ordered 100 000 electric delivery trucks from Rivian.[168]Amazon funds both climate denial groups including the Competitive Enterprise Institute and politicians denying climate change including Jim Inhofe.[169][170]In November 2018, a community action group opposed the construction permit delivered to Goodman Group for the construction of a 160,000 square metres (1,700,000 sq ft) logisitics platform Amazon will operate at Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport. In February 2019, Étienne Tête filed a request on behalf of a second regional community action group asking the administrative court to decide whether the platform served a sufficiently important public interest to justify its environmental impact. Construction has been suspended while these matters are decided.[154]Amazon considered making an option for Prime customers to have packages delivered at the most efficient and environmentally-friendly time (allowing the company to combine shipments with the same destination) but decided against it out of fear customers might reduce purchases.[171] Since 2019, the company has instead offered customers an "Amazon Day" option, where all orders are delivered on the same day, emphasizing customer convenience, and it occasionally offers Prime customers credits in return for selecting slower and less expensive shipping options.[171]Selling counterfeit, unsafe and discarded itemsThe selling of counterfeit products by Amazon has attracted widespread notice, with both purchases marked as being fulfilled by third parties and those shipped directly from Amazon warehouses being found to be counterfeit. This has included some products sold directly by Amazon itself and marked as "ships from and sold by Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more".[172] Counterfeit charging cables sold on Amazon as purported Apple products have been found to be a fire hazard.[173][174] Such counterfeits have included a wide array of products, from big ticket items to every day items such as tweezers, gloves,[175] and umbrellas.[176] More recently, this has spread to Amazon's newer grocery services.[177] Counterfeiting was reported to be especially a problem for artists and small businesses whose products were being rapidly copied for sale on the site.[178]One Amazon business practice that encourages counterfeiting is that, by default, seller accounts on Amazon are set to use "commingled inventory". With this practice, the goods that a seller sends to Amazon are mixed with those of the producer of the product and with those of all other sellers that supply what is supposed to be the same product.[179]In June 2019, Buzzfeed reported that some products identified on the site as "Amazon's choice" were low quality, had a history of customer complaints, and exhibited evidence of product review manipulation.[180]In August 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that they had found more than 4,000 items for sale on Amazon's site that had been declared unsafe by federal agencies, had misleading labels, or had been banned by federal regulators.[181]In the wake of the WSJ investigation, three U.S. senators – Richard Blumenthal, Ed Markey, and Bob Menendez – sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos demanding him to take action about the selling of unsafe items on the site. The letter said that "Unquestionably, Amazon is falling short of its commitment to keeping safe those consumers who use its massive platform."[182] The letter included a number of questions about the company's practices and gave Bezos a deadline to respond by September 29, 2019, saying "We call on you to immediately remove from the platform all the problematic products examined in the recent WSJ report; explain how you are going about this process; conduct a sweeping internal investigation of your enforcement and consumer safety policies; and institute changes that will continue to keep unsafe products off your platform."[182] Earlier in the same month, senators Blumenthal and Menendez had sent Bezos a letter about the Buzzfeed report.[182]In December 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that some people were literally retrieving trash out of dumpsters and selling it as new products on Amazon. The reporters ran an experiment and determined that it was easy for a seller to set up an account and sell cleaned up junk as new products. In addition to trash, sellers were obtaining inventory from clearance bins, thrift stores, and pawn shops.[183][184]In August 2020, an appeals court in California ruled that Amazon can be held liable for unsafe products sold on its website. A California woman had bought a replacement laptop battery that caught fire and caused her to receive third-degree burns.[185]Tax avoidanceMain article: Amazon taxAmazon's tax affairs were investigated in China, Germany, Poland, South Korea, France, Japan, Ireland, Singapore, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and Portugal.[186] According to a report released by Fair Tax Mark in 2019, Amazon is the worst offender of tax avoidance, having paid an 12% effective tax rate between 2010-2018, in contrast with 35% corporate tax rate in the US during the same period. Amazon countered that it had an 24% effective tax rate during the same period.[187]Comments by Donald Trump and Bernie SandersIn early 2018, President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Amazon's use of the United States Postal Service and its prices for the delivery of packages, stating, "I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy," Trump tweeted. "Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne [sic] by the American Taxpayer."[188] Amazon's shares fell by 6 percent as a result of Trump's comments. Shepard Smith of Fox News disputed Trump's claims and pointed to evidence that the USPS was offering below-market prices to all customers with no advantage to Amazon. However, analyst Tom Forte pointed to the fact that Amazon's payments to the USPS are not made public and that their contract has a reputation for being "a sweetheart deal".[189][190]Throughout the summer of 2018, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Amazon's wages and working conditions in a series of YouTube videos and media appearances. He also pointed to the fact that Amazon had paid no federal income tax in the previous year.[191] Sanders solicited stories from Amazon warehouse workers who felt exploited by the company.[192] One such story, by James Bloodworth, described the environment as akin to "a low-security prison" and stated that the company's culture used an Orwellian newspeak.[193] These reports cited a finding by New Food Economy that one third of fulfilment center workers in Arizona were on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).[194] Responses by Amazon included incentives for employees to tweet positive stories and a statement which called the salary figures used by Sanders "inaccurate and misleading". The statement also charged that it was inappropriate for him to refer to SNAP as "food stamps".[192] On September 5, 2018, Sanders along with Ro Khanna introduced the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act aimed at Amazon and other alleged beneficiaries of corporate welfare such as Walmart, McDonald's and Uber.[195] Among the bill's supporters were Tucker Carlson of Fox News and Matt Taibbi who criticized himself and other journalists for not covering Amazon's contribution to wealth inequality earlier.[196][197]On October 2, 2018, Amazon announced that its minimum wage for all American employees would be raised to $15 per hour. Sanders congratulated the company for making this decision.[198]Opposition to trade unionsMain article: Amazon worker organizationA sticker expressing an anti-Amazon message is pictured on the back of a street sign in Seattle.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 Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more 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 denied any link between the unionization effort and layoffs.[199] Also in 2001, Low Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more 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 Unite the Union) 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.[200]An Amazon training video that was leaked in 2018 stated "We are not anti-union, but we are not neutral either. We do not believe unions are in the best interest of our customers or shareholders or most importantly, our associates."[201] Two years later, it was found that Whole Foods was using a heat map to track which stores had the highest levels of pro-union sentiment. Factors including racial diversity, proximity to other unions, poverty levels in the surrounding community and calls to the National Labor Relations Board were named as contributors to "unionization risk".[202]In early 2020, an Amazon internal documents were leaked, it said that Whole Foods has been using an interactive heat map to monitor its 510 locations across the U.S. and assign each store a unionization risk score based on such criteria as employee loyalty, turnover rate and racial diversity. Data collected in the heat map suggest that stores with low racial and ethnic diversity, especially those located in poor communities, are more likely to unionize.[203][204]Working conditionsFormer employees, current employees, the media, and politicians have criticized Amazon for poor working conditions at the company.[205][206][207] In 2011, it was publicized that workers had to carry out tasks in 100 °F (38 °C) heat at the Breinigsville, Pennsylvania warehouse. As a result of these inhumane conditions, employees became extremely uncomfortable and suffered from dehydration and collapse. Loading-bay doors were not opened to allow in fresh air because of concerns over theft.[208] Amazon's initial response was to pay for an ambulance to sit outside on call to cart away overheated employees.[208] The company eventually installed air conditioning at the warehouse.[209]Some workers, "pickers", who travel the building with a trolley and a handheld scanner "picking" customer orders can walk up to 15 miles (24 kilometres) during their workday and if they fall behind on their targets, they can be reprimanded. The handheld scanners give real-time information to the employee on how quickly or slowly they are working; the scanners also serve to allow Team Leads and Area Managers to track the specific locations of employees and how much "idle time" they gain when not working.[210][211]In a German television report broadcast in February 2013, journalists Diana Löbl and Peter Onneken conducted a covert investigation at the distribution center of Amazon in the town of Bad Hersfeld in the German state of Hessen. The report highlights the behavior of some of the security guards, themselves being employed by a third party company, who apparently either had a neo-Nazi background or deliberately dressed in neo-Nazi apparel and who were intimidating foreign and temporary female workers at its distribution centers. The third party security company involved was delisted by Amazon as a business contact shortly after that report.[212][213][214][215]In March 2015, it was reported in The Verge that Amazon would be removing non-compete clauses of 18 months in length from its US employment contracts for hourly-paid workers, after criticism that it was acting unreasonably in preventing such employees from finding other work. Even short-term temporary workers have to sign contracts that prohibit them from working at any company where they would "directly or indirectly" support any good or service that competes with those they helped support at Amazon, for 18 months after leaving Amazon, even if they are fired or made redundant.[216][217]A 2015 front-page article in The New York Times profiled several former Amazon employees[218] who together described a "bruising" workplace culture in which workers with illness or other personal crises were pushed out or unfairly evaluated.[15] Bezos responded by writing a Sunday memo to employees,[219] in which he disputed the Times's account of "shockingly callous management practices" that he said would never be tolerated at the company.[15]In an effort to boost employee morale, on November 2, 2015, Amazon announced that it would be extending six weeks of paid leave for new mothers and fathers. This change includes birth parents and adoptive parents and can be applied in conjunction with existing maternity leave and medical leave for new mothers.[220]In mid-2018, investigations by journalists and media outlets such as The Guardian reported poor working conditions at Amazon's fulfillment centers.[221][222] Later in 2018, another article exposed poor working conditions for Amazon's delivery drivers.[223]In response to criticism that Amazon does not pay its workers a livable wage, Jeff Bezos announced beginning November 1, 2018, all US and UK Amazon employees will earn a $15 an hour minimum wage.[224] Amazon will also lobby to make $15 an hour the federal minimum wage.[225] At the same time, Amazon also eliminated stock awards and bonuses for hourly employees.[226]On Black Friday 2018, Amazon warehouse workers in several European countries, including Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, went on strike to protest inhumane working conditions and low pay.[227]The Daily Beast reported in March 2019 that emergency services responded to 189 calls from 46 Amazon warehouses in 17 states between the years 2013 and 2018, all relating to suicidal employees. The workers attributed their mental breakdowns to employer-imposed social isolation, aggressive surveillance, and the hurried and dangerous working conditions at these fulfillment centers. One former employee told The Daily Beast "It's this isolating colony of hell where people having breakdowns is a regular occurrence."[228]On July 15, 2019, during the onset of Amazon's "Prime Day" sale event, Amazon employees working in the United States and Germany went on strike in protest of unfair wages and poor working conditions.[229][230]In March 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak when the government instructed companies to restrict social contact, Amazon's UK staff was forced to work overtime to meet the demand spiked by the disease. A GMB spokesperson said the company had put "profit before safety".[231] GMB has continued to raise concerns regarding "gruelling conditions, unrealistic productivity targets, surveillance, bogus self-employment and a refusal to recognise or engage with unions unless forced", calling for the UK government and safety regulators to take action to address these issues.[232]In August 2019, BBC reported on Amazon's Twitter ambassadors. Their constant support for and defense of Amazon and its practices have led many Twitter users to suspect that they are in fact bots, being used to dismiss the issues effecting Amazon workers.[233]In its 2020 statement to its US shareholders, Amazon stated that "we respect and support the Core Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Operation of these Global Human Rights Principles has been "long-held at Amazon, and codifying them demonstrates our support for fundamental human rights and the dignity of workers everywhere we operate".[234]On November 27, 2020, Amnesty International said, workers in working for Amazon have faced great health and safety risks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Black Friday, one of Amazon's busiest periods, company failed to ensure the key safety features in France, Poland, the United Kingdom and USA. Workers have been risking their health and lives to ensure essential goods are delivered to consumer doorsteps, helping Amazon achieve record profits.[235]On January 6, 2021, Amazon said that it is planning to build 20,000 affordable houses by spending $2 billion in the regions where the major employments are located.[236]On January 24, 2021, Amazon said that it was planning to open a pop-up clinic hosted in partnership with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle in order to vaccinate 2,000 persons against COVID-19 on the first day.[237]In February 2021, Amazon said that it was planning to put cameras in its delivery vehicles. Although many drivers were upset of this decision, Amazon said that the videos were only be sent in certain circumstances.[238]Conflict of interest with the CIA and DODIn 2013, Amazon secured a US$600 million contract with the CIA, which poses a potential conflict of interest involving the Bezos-owned The Washington Post and his newspaper's coverage of the CIA.[239] Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said, "It's a serious potential conflict of interest for a major newspaper like The Washington Post to have a contractual relationship with the government and the most secret part of the government."[240] This was later followed by a US$10 billion contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.[152]Seattle head tax and houselessness servicesIn May 2018, Amazon threatened the Seattle City Council over an employee head tax proposal that would have funded houselessness services and low-income housing. The tax would have cost Amazon about $800 per employee, or 0.7% of their average salary.[241] In retaliation, Amazon paused construction on a new building, threatened to limit further investment in the city, and funded a repeal campaign. Although originally passed, the measure was soon repealed after an expensive repeal campaign spearheaded by Amazon.[242]Nashville Operations Center of ExcellenceThe incentives given by the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County to Amazon for their new Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville Yards, a site owned by developer Southwest Value Partners, have been controversial, including the decision by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to keep the full extent of the agreement secret.[243] The incentives include "$102 million in combined grants and tax credits for a scaled-down Amazon office building" as well as "a $65 million cash grant for capital expenditures" in exchange for the creation of 5,000 jobs over seven years.[243]The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government called for more transparency.[243] Another local organization known as the People's Alliance for Transit, Housing, and Employment (PATHE) suggested no public money should be given to Amazon; instead, it should be spent on building more public housing for the working poor and the homeless and investing in more public transportation for Nashvillians.[244] Others suggested incentives to big corporations do not improve the local economy.[245]In November 2018, the proposal to give Amazon $15 million in incentives was criticized by the Nashville Firefighters Union and the Nashville chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police,[246] who called it "corporate welfare."[247] In February 2019, another $15.2 million in infrastructure was approved by the council, although it was voted down by three council members, including Councilwoman Angie Henderson who dismissed it as "cronyism".[248]Facial recognition technology and law enforcementWhile Amazon has publicly opposed secret government surveillance, as revealed by Freedom of Information Act requests it has supplied facial recognition support to law enforcement in the form of the Rekognition technology and consulting services. Initial testing included the city of Orlando, Florida, and Washington County, Oregon. Amazon offered to connect Washington County with other Amazon government customers interested in Rekognition and a body camera manufacturer. These ventures are opposed by a coalition of civil rights groups with concern that they could lead to an expansion of surveillance and be prone to abuse. Specifically, it could automate the identification and tracking of anyone, particularly in the context of potential police body camera integration.[151][249][250] Because of the backlash, the city of Orlando publicly stated it will no longer use the technology, but may revisit this decision at a later date.[251]Access to NHS dataThe UK government awarded Amazon a contract that gives the company free access to information about healthcare published by the UK's National Health Service.[252] This will, for example, be used by Amazon's Alexa to answer medical questions, although Alexa also uses many other sources of information. The material, which excludes patient data, could also allow the company to make, advertise and sell its own products. The contract allows Amazon access to information on symptoms, causes and definitions of conditions, and "all related copyrightable content and data and other materials". Amazon can then create "new products, applications, cloud-based services and/or distributed software", which the NHS will not benefit from financially. The company can also share the information with third parties. The government said that allowing Alexa devices to offer expert health advice to users will reduce pressure on doctors and pharmacists.[253]Collection of data and surveillanceOn February 17, 2020, a Panorama documentary highlighted the amount of data collected by the company and the move into surveillance causing concerns of politicians and regulators in the US and Europe.[254][255]Antitrust complaintsOn June 11, 2020, the European Union announced that it will be pressing charges against Amazon over its treatment of third-party e-commerce sellers.[256]In July 2020, Amazon along with other tech giants Apple, Google and Facebook were accused of maintaining harmful power and anti-competitive strategies to quash potential competitors in the market.[257] The CEOs of respective firms appeared in a teleconference on July 29, 2020 before the lawmakers of the U.S. House Antitrust Subcommittee.[258] In October 2020, the antitrust subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives released a report accusing Amazon of abusing a monopoly position in ecommerce to unfairly compete with sellers on its own platform.[259]Anti-vaccination and non-scientific cancer 'cures'Anti-vaccination and non evidence-based cancer 'cures' have routinely appeared high in Amazon's books and videos. This may be due to positive reviews posted by supporters of untested methods, or gaming of the algorithms by truther communities, rather than any intent on Amazon's part.[260][261]Wired magazine found that Amazon Prime Video was full of 'pseudoscientific documentaries laden with conspiracy theories and pointing viewers towards unproven treatments'.[262]U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) expressed concern that Amazon was “surfacing and recommending products and content that discourage parents from vaccinating their children.” Amazon subsequently removed five anti-vaccination documentaries.[263] Amazon also removed 12 books that unscientifically claimed bleach could cure conditions including malaria and childhood autism. This followed an NBC News report about parents who used it in a misguided attempt to reverse their children's autism.[264]Response to COVID-19 pandemicHazard pay and overtimeAmazon introduced new policies to reward frontline workers for continuing to come into work during the crisis. One of these policies, announced on March 16, 2020 was a temporary $2-per-hour rise in pay. This policy expired in June 2020.[265] Amazon also announced a policy of unlimited, unpaid time off that lasted until April 30, 2020.[266]Additional hiring as a result of pandemicIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon introduced temporary restrictions on the sale of non-essential goods. In March 2020, it hired some 100,000 more staff in the US to help deal with essential items such as food and medical equipment. It also reported that it was so busy that it was unable to bring on board new customers and therefore had to have a waiting list. In April, the firm announced that it was going to hire up to 75,000 workers to help deal with increased demand.[267] In September 2020, the company announced it would hire an additional 100,000 workers in the United States and Canada.[268]Employee protests during COVID-19During the pandemic there have been protests by the Amazon workers at warehouses in the US, France, and Italy. The BBC reported that there were confirmed coronavirus cases in more than 50 locations.[267] The reason for the protests is the company policy to "run normal shifts" despite many positive cases of the virus.[269] According to the UNI Global Union, "Amazon cannot act like this is business as usual. We are facing a deadly virus that has already taken the lives of thousands of people and paralyzed the world's economy. If distribution centers are not safe for workers right now, they should be closed immediately."[269] In Spain, the company has faced legal complaints over its policies.[270] Despite workers at 19 warehouses in the US having tested positive for COVID-19, Amazon did not shut down warehouses, only doing so when forced by the government or because of protests. A group of US Senators wrote an open letter to Bezos in March 2020, expressing concerns about worker safety.[271]An Amazon warehouse protest on March 30, 2020, in Staten Island led to its organizer, Christian Smalls, being fired. Amazon defended the decision by saying that Smalls was supposed to be in self-isolation at the time and leading the protest put its other workers at risk.[270] Smalls has called this response "ridiculous".[272] The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is considering legal retaliation to the firing which she called "immoral and inhumane."[270] She also asked the National Labor Relations Board to investigate Smalls' firing. Smalls himself accuses the company of retaliating against him for organizing a protest.[272] At the Staten Island warehouse, one case of COVID-19 has been confirmed by Amazon; workers believe there are more, and say that the company has not cleaned the building, given them suitable protection, or informed them of potential cases.[271] Smalls added specifically that there are many workers there in risk categories, and the protest only demanded that the building be sanitized and the employees continue to be paid during that process.[272] Derrick Palmer, another worker at the Staten Island facility, told The Verge that Amazon quickly communicates through text and email when they need the staff to complete mandatory overtime, but have not been using this to tell people when a colleague has contracted the disease, instead waiting days and sending managers to speak to employees in person.[271] Amazon claim that the Staten Island protest only attracted 15 of the facility's 5,000 workers,[273] while other sources describe much larger crowds.[271]On April 14, 2020, two Amazon employees were fired for "repeatedly violating internal policies", after they had circulated a petition about health risks for warehouse workers internally.[274]On May 4, Amazon vice president Tim Bray resigned "in dismay" over the firing of whistle-blower employees who spoke out about the lack of COVID-19 protections, including shortages of face masks and failure to implement widespread temperature checks which were promised by the company. He said that the firings were "chickenshit" and "designed to create a climate of fear" in Amazon warehouses.[275]In a Q1 2020 financial report, Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon expects to spend $4 billion or more (predicted operating profit for Q2) on COVID-19-related issues: personal protective equipment, higher wages for hourly teams, cleaning for facilities, and expanding Amazon's COVID-19 testing capabilities. These measures intend to improve the safety and well-being of hundreds of thousands of the company's employees.[276]From the beginning of 2020 until September of the same year, the company declares that the total number of workers who have contracted the infection is 19,816.[277]Closure in FranceThe SUD (trade unions) brought a court case against Amazon for unsafe working conditions. This resulted in a French district court (Nanterre) ruling on April 15, 2020, ordering the company to limit, under threat of a €1 million per day fine, its deliveries to certain essential items, including electronics, food, medical or hygienic products, and supplies for home improvement, animals, and offices.[278] Instead, Amazon immediately shut down its six warehouses in France, continuing to pay workers but limiting deliveries to items shipped from third-party sellers and warehouses outside of France.[279] The company said the €100,000 fine for each prohibited item shipped could result in billions of dollars in fines even with a small fraction of items misclassified.[280] After losing an appeal and coming to an agreement with labor unions for more pay and staggered schedules, the company reopened its French warehouses on May 19.[279]LobbyingAmazon lobbies the United States federal government and state governments on multiple issues such as the enforcement of sales taxes on online sales, transportation safety, privacy and data protection and intellectual property. According to regulatory filings, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more focuses its lobbying on the United States Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Reserve. Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more spent roughly $3.5 million, $5 million and $9.5 million on lobbying, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.[281]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more was a corporate member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until it dropped membership following protests at its shareholders' meeting on May 24, 2012.[282]In 2014, Amazon expanded its lobbying practices as it prepared to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration to approve its drone delivery program, hiring the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld lobbying firm in June.[283] Amazon and its lobbyists have visited with Federal Aviation Administration officials and aviation committees in Washington, D.C. to explain its plans to deliver packages.[284] In September 2020 this moved one step closer with the granting of a critical certificate by the FAA.[285]In 2019 it spent $16.8m and had a team of 104 lobbyists, up from $14.4m and 103 lobbyists in 2018.[286]See alsoAmazon Breakthrough Novel AwardAmazon Flexible Payments ServiceAmazon MarketplaceAmazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)Camelcamelcamel – a website that tracks the prices of products sold on Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreList of book distributorsInternal carbon pricingStatistically improbable phrases – Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more's phrase extraction technique for indexing booksReferencesInline XBRL Viewerhttps://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872421000004/amzn-20201231.htm#i75de98b9097f40f3b5884e541f532421_73. 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"Missing wages, grueling shifts, and bottles of urine: The disturbing accounts of Amazon delivery drivers may reveal the true human cost of 'free' shipping". http://www.businessinsider.com."Amazon to raise wages for more than 350,000 employees". ABC News. October 2, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2019.Partington, Richard (October 2, 2018). "Amazon raises minimum wage for US and UK employees". http://Theguardian.com. Retrieved January 3, 2019.Soper, Spencer (October 3, 2018). "Amazon Warehouse Workers Lose Bonuses, Stock Awards for Raises". http://Bloomberg.com. Retrieved October 4, 2018.Hamilton, Isobel Asher (November 23, 2018). "'We are not robots': Thousands of Amazon workers across Europe are striking on Black Friday over warehouse working conditions". Business Insider. Retrieved November 24, 2018.Zahn, Max; Paget, Sharif (March 11, 2019). "'Colony of Hell': 911 Calls From Inside Amazon Warehouses". The Daily Beast. Retrieved March 13, 2019.Chen, Michelle (July 16, 2019). "Amazon Prime Day deals aren't worth the moral cost of exploiting their workers". NBC News. Retrieved July 17, 2019.Business, Amy Woodyatt and Barbara Wojazer, CNN. "Amazon workers go on strike in Germany as Prime Day begins". CNN. Retrieved July 15, 2019.Jones, Lora (March 17, 2020). "Amazon staff told to work overtime as virus hits". BBC News. Retrieved March 17, 2020.GMB, Government must stand up to Amazon on workers’ rights, published October 14, 2020, accessed November 15, 2020"'Fake' Amazon ambassadors baited on Twitter". BBC News. August 16, 2019. Retrieved December 14, 2020.Amazon, Notice of 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders & Proxy Statement, published for Annual Meeting, May 27, 2020, accessed November 15, 2020"Black Friday rush must not cost Amazon workers their health and safety". Amnesty International. Retrieved November 27, 2020.Reuters Staff (January 6, 2021). "Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more to spend $2 billion in homebuilding near key U.S. offices". Reuters. Retrieved January 6, 2021.Reuters Staff (January 22, 2021). "Amazon to open pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Seattle headquarters". Reuters. Retrieved January 22, 2021.Business, Matt McFarland, CNN. "Amazon is putting cameras in its delivery vans and some drivers aren't happy". CNN. Retrieved February 26, 2021."The CIA, Amazon, Bezos and the Washington Post : An Exchange with Executive Editor Martin Baron". The Huffington Post. January 8, 2014.Streitfeld, David; Haughney, Christine (August 17, 2013). "Expecting the Unexpected From Jeff Bezos". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 20, 2019."Amazon puts high-profile Seattle plans on ice over proposal to tax large employers". The Seattle Times. May 2, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2018."'Show of force': Business-backed opponents of Seattle head tax outspent supporters 2 to 1". The Seattle Times. July 13, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2018.Reicher, Mike (January 4, 2019). "Tennessee wants to keep its incentives offer for Amazon's HQ2 secret for 5 years". The Tennessean. Retrieved January 6, 2019.White, Peter (December 13, 2018). "Will Amazon be Naughty or Nice?". Tennessee Tribune. Retrieved December 21, 2018. PATHE does not want Metro to give Amazon a dime. They want the city to build at least 5,000 more affordable homes to address the "Amazon effect" on the local housing market. And they want a new transit referendum that focuses on the needs of working people and better public bus service.Mazza, Sandy (November 19, 2018). "Did Tennessee taxpayers get a good deal with $102M Amazon payment?". The Tennessean. Retrieved February 11, 2019.Koehn, Alexandra (November 29, 2018). "Metro employees feel 'left behind' after no pay raise". News Channel 5. Retrieved December 12, 2018."Nashville police union: Amazon getting 'corporate welfare'". AP News. November 30, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2019.Garrison, Joey (February 6, 2019). "Nashville council approves $15M in infrastructure work for future home of Amazon hub". The Tennessean. Retrieved February 10, 2019."Yes, Amazon is tracking people". http://Washingtonexaminer.com."Amazon Teams Up With Government to Deploy Dangerous New Facial Recognition Technology". http://Aclu.org."Orlando Stops Using Amazon's Face-Scanning Tech Amid Spying Concerns". http://Newsweek.com. June 26, 2018."Alexa, what is hidden behind your contract with the NHS?". Privacy International. December 6, 2019. Archived from the original on January 25, 2020. Retrieved January 24, 2020."NHS gives Amazon free use of health data under Alexa advice deal". The Guardian. December 8, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2020."Panorama - Amazon: What They Know About Us" – via http://www.bbc.co.uk."Amazon: How Bezos built his data machine". BBC News.Pop, Valentina; Schechner, Sam (June 11, 2020). "Amazon to Face Antitrust Charges From EU Over Treatment of Third-Party Selles". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 11, 2020."Tech bosses grilled over claims of 'harmful' power". BBC News. July 30, 2020. Retrieved July 30, 2020.Business, Brian Fung, CNN. "Congress grilled the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Here are the big takeaways". CNN. Retrieved July 30, 2020.How Are Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google Monopolies? House Report Counts The WaysNaughton, John (August 8, 2020). "How Amazon puts misinformation at the top of your reading list". The Guardian. Retrieved August 11, 2020."How Amazon's Algorithms Curated a Dystopian Bookstore". Wired. May 3, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2020."Amazon Prime Video is full of dodgy documentaries pushing dangerous cancer 'cures'". Wired. June 3, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2020."House Rep. Schiff calls Amazon's anti-vaccination content 'direct threat to public health' in letter to Bezos". CNBC. March 1, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2020."Amazon removes books promoting dangerous bleach 'cures' for autism and other conditions". NBC News. May 28, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2020.Rey, Jason Del (May 13, 2020). "Amazon extends bonus pay for front-line workers but says it ends in June". Vox. Retrieved June 3, 2020.Davis, Charles. "Amazon set to end 'unlimited unpaid time off' policy". Business Insider. Retrieved June 3, 2020."Amazon hiring spree as orders surge under lockdown". BBC News. April 14, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2020."Amazon to Hire 100,000 in U.S. and Canada". September 14, 2020."Amazon workers protest over normal shifts despite Covid-19 cases". Financial Times. Retrieved March 19, 2020."Amazon workers strike over virus protection". BBC News. March 31, 2020. Retrieved March 31, 2020.Dzieza, Josh (March 30, 2020). "Amazon warehouse workers walk out in rising tide of COVID-19 protests". The Verge. Retrieved March 31, 2020."New York AG Denounces 'Immoral and Inhumane' Firing of Amazon Worker Who Led Protest Over Lack of Coronavirus Protections". Common Dreams. Retrieved March 31, 2020.Rubin, Ben Fox. "Amazon fires warehouse worker who organized Staten Island protest". CNET. Retrieved March 31, 2020.Paul, Kari (April 14, 2020). "Amazon fires two employees who condemned treatment of warehouse workers". the Guardian. Retrieved April 15, 2020.Paul, Kari (May 4, 2020). "Amazon executive resigns over company's 'chickenshit' firings of employee activists". The Guardian. Retrieved May 7, 2020."Amazon Q1 2020 Earnings Release" (PDF). April 30, 2020."Amazon says more than 19,000 workers got Covid-19". http://cnbc.com. October 1, 2020.Olivia Détroyat (April 16, 2020). "Amazon ferme ses entrepôts pour cinq jours en France". Le Figaro (in French)."Amazon is reopening its warehouses in France after dispute with workers ends". May 19, 2020.Amazon loses appeal against worker safety ruling in France that prompted it to close"Amazon's Lobbying Expenditures". http://Opensecrets.org.Parkhurst, Emily (May 24, 2012). "Amazon shareholders met by protesters, company cuts ties with ALEC". http://Bizjournals.com.Romm, Tony. "In Amazon's shopping cart: D.C. influence". http://Politico.com. Politico. Retrieved August 7, 2014.Kang, Cecilia (December 27, 2015). "F.A.A. Drone Laws Start to Clash With Stricter Local Rules". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 20, 2019.Business, Matt McFarland, CNN. "Amazon gets closer to drone delivery with FAA approval". CNN. Retrieved September 4, 2020."Client Profile: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more". Centre for Responsive Politics. Retrieved February 4, 2020.Further readingBrandt, Richard L. (2011). One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more. New York: Portfolio Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59184-375-7.Daisey, Mike (2002). 21 Dog Years. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2580-5.Friedman, Mara (2004). Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more for Dummies. Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-5840-4.Marcus, James (2004). Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the http://Dot.Com Juggernaut. W. W. Norton. ISBN 1-56584-870-5.Spector, Robert (2000). Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more – Get Big Fast: Inside the Revolutionary Business Model That Changed the World. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-662041-4.Stone, Brad (2013). The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. New York: Little Brown and Co. ISBN 978-0-316-21926-6. OCLC 856249407.External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more.Official website Edit this at WikidataAmazon (company) companies grouped at OpenCorporatesBusiness data for Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.:

Phonepe Customer Care ( 09883917368 ) NNumber Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.[8] (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon) is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud, along with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook.[9][10][11][12] The company has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", as well as the world's most valuable brand.[13][14]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.Amazon logo.svgLogo since 2000Amazon Spheres 05.jpgThe Amazon Spheres, part of the Amazon headquarters campus in SeattleTrade nameAmazonFormerlyCadabra, Inc. (1994–95)TypePublicTraded asNASDAQ: AMZNNASDAQ-100 componentS&P 100 componentS&P 500 🧞‍♀️🧞‍♀️🧟‍♂️🧚‍♂️🧚‍♂️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️👰🤵🤵🤵🤵👰👰👰🤵👩‍💼👨‍💼👨‍💼👨‍🎓👨‍🎓👩‍🎓👨‍🎓componentISINUS0231351067IndustryCloud computinge-commerceartificial intelligenceconsumer electronicsdigital distributionself-driving carsFoundedJuly 5, 1994; 26 years agoBellevue, Washington, U.S.FounderJeff BezosHeadquartersSeattle, Washington, U.S.Area servedWorldwideKey peopleJeff Bezos (President, CEO, and Chairman)Andy Jassy (CEO-elect)Brian Olsavsky (Senior VP and CFO)ProductsEchoFire TabletFire TVFire OSKindleServicesAmazon.comAmazon AlexaAmazon AppstoreAmazon MusicAmazon PrimeAmazon Prime VideoAmazon Web ServicesRevenueIncrease US$386.064 billion (2020)Operating incomeIncrease US$22.9 billion (2020)Net incomeIncrease US$21.331 billion (2020)Total assetsIncrease US$321.2 billion (2020)Total equityIncrease US$93.404 billion (2020)Number of employeesIncrease 1,298,000 (Dec. 2020)[1]U.S.: 810,000 (Oct. 2020)[2]SubsidiariesA9.comAbeBooksAlexa http://InternetAmazon.com ServicesAmazon AirAmazon BooksAmazon FreshAmazon Game StudiosAmazon Lab126Amazon LogisticsAmazon PharmacyAmazon PublishingAmazon RoboticsAmazon StudiosAWSAudibleBody LabsBook DepositoryComiXologyDigital Photography ReviewGoodreadsGraphiqIMDbPillPackRingSouq.comTwitch InteractiveWhole Foods MarketWootZapposWebsiteOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreFootnotes / references[1][3][4][5][6][7]Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. It started as an online marketplace for books but expanded to sell electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization.[15] In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for US$13.4 billion, which substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer.[16] In 2018, its two-day delivery service, Amazon Prime, surpassed 100 million subscribers worldwide.[17]Amazon is known for its disruption of well-established industries through technological innovation and mass scale.[18][19][20] It is the world's largest online marketplace, AI assistant provider, live-streaming platform and cloud computing platform[21] as measured by revenue and market capitalization.[22] Amazon is the largest Internet company by revenue in the world.[23] It is the second largest private employer in the United States[24] and one of the world's most valuable companies. As of 2020, Amazon has the highest global brand valuation.[25]Amazon distributes downloads and streaming of video, music, and audiobooks through its Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, and Audible subsidiaries. Amazon also has a publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a film and television studio, Amazon Studios, and a cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services. It produces consumer electronics including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices. Its acquisitions over the years include Ring, Twitch, Whole Foods Market, and IMDb.Amazon has been criticized for practices including technological surveillance overreach,[26] a hyper-competitive and demanding work culture,[27] tax avoidance,[28] and anti-competitive behavior.[29][30]HistoryFurther information: History of AmazonThe company's largest campus outside the United States was inaugurated in Hyderabad, India in September 2019.Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in July 1994. He chose Seattle because of technical talent as Microsoft is located there.[31] In May 1997, Amazon went public. It began selling music and videos in 1998, at which time it began operations internationally by acquiring online sellers of books in United Kingdom and Germany. The following year, Amazon began selling items including video games, consumer electronics, home improvement items, software, games, and http://toys.In 2002, Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provided data on website popularity, Internet traffic patterns and other statistics for marketers and developers. In 2006, Amazon grew its AWS portfolio when Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which rents computer processing power as well as Simple Storage Service (S3), that rents data storage via the Internet, were made available. That same year, Amazon started Fulfillment by Amazon which managed the inventory of individuals and small companies selling their belongings through the company internet site. In 2012, Amazon bought Kiva Systems to automate its inventory-management business, purchasing Whole Foods Market supermarket chain five years later in 2017.[32]In January 2021, Amazon invested with over $278 million by opening two new centers in Italy (Novara and Modena) and creating over 1100 jobs.[33]On February 2, 2021, Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos would be stepping down as CEO and transition to Executive Chair of Amazon's board in Q3 of 2021. Andy Jassy, who is currently CEO of AWS, will replace Bezos as CEO of the company.[34][35]Board of directorsAmazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2016As of September 2020, the board of directors is:[36]Jeff Bezos, President, CEO, and ChairmanKeith B. Alexander, CEO IronNet Cybersecurity, former NSA DirectorRosalind Brewer, Group President, and COO, StarbucksJamie Gorelick, partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale, and DorrDaniel P. Huttenlocher, Dean of the Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJudy McGrath, former CEO, MTV NetworksIndra Nooyi, former CEO, PepsiCoJon Rubinstein, former Chairman, and CEO, Palm, Inc.Thomas O. Ryder, former Chairman, and CEO, Reader's Digest AssociationPatty Stonesifer, President, and CEO, Martha's TableWendell P. Weeks, Chairman, President, and CEO, Corning Inc.Merchant partnershipsIn 2000, U.S. toy retailer Toys "R" Us entered into a 10-year agreement with Amazon, valued at $50 million per year plus a cut of sales, under which Toys "R" Us would be the exclusive supplier of toys and baby products on the service, and the chain's website would redirect to Amazon's Toys & Games category. In 2004, Toys "R" Us sued Amazon, claiming that because of a perceived lack of variety in Toys "R" Us stock, Amazon had knowingly allowed third-party sellers to offer items on the service in categories that Toys "R" Us had been granted exclusivity. In 2006, a court ruled in favor of Toys "R" Us, giving it the right to unwind its agreement with Amazon and establish its own independent e-commerce website. The company was later awarded $51 million in damages.[37][38][39]In 2001, Amazon entered into a similar agreement with Borders Group, under which Amazon would comanage Barnes & Noble Welcomes Borders® Bookstore Customers as a co-branded service.[40] Borders pulled out of the arrangement in 2007, with plans to also launch its own online store.[41]On October 18, 2011, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. The partnership has caused well-known bookstores like Barnes & Noble to remove these titles from their shelves.[42]In November 2013, Amazon announced a partnership with the United States Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included in Amazon's standard shipping rates, initiated in metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York because of the high-volume and inability to deliver in a timely way, with plans to expand into Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix by 2014.[43]In June 2017, Nike confirmed a "pilot" partnership with Amazon to sell goods directly on the platform.[44][45][46] This pilot ended in November 2019.[47]As of October 11, 2017, AmazonFresh sold a range of Booths branded products for home delivery in selected areas.[48]In September 2017, Amazon ventured with one of its sellers JV Appario Retail owned by Patni Group which has recorded a total income of US$ 104.44 million (₹ 759 crore) in financial year 2017–18.[49]In November 2018, Amazon reached an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell selected products through the service, via the company and selected Apple Authorized Resellers. As a result of this partnership, only Apple Authorized Resellers may sell Apple products on Amazon effective January 4, 2019.[50][51]LogisticsAmazon uses many different transportation services to deliver packages. Amazon-branded services include:Amazon Air, a cargo airline for bulk transport, with last mile delivery handled either by Amazon Flex, Amazon Logistics, or the United States Postal Service.Amazon Flex, a smartphone app that enables individuals to act as independent contractors, delivering packages to customers from personal vehicles without uniforms. Deliveries include one or two hour Prime Now, same or next day Amazon Fresh groceries, and standard Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreorders, in addition to orders from local stores that contract with Amazon.[52]Amazon Logistics, in which Amazon contracts with small businesses (which it calls "Delivery Service Partners") to perform deliveries to customers. Each business has a fleet of approximately 20-40 Amazon-branded vans, and employees of the contractors wear Amazon uniforms. As of December 2020, it operates in the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[53]Amazon Prime Air is an experimental drone delivery service.Amazon directly employs people to work at its warehouses, bulk distribution centers, staffed "Amazon Hub Locker+" locations, and delivery stations where drivers pick up packages. As of December 2020, it is not hiring delivery drivers as employees.[54]Rakuten Intelligence estimated that in 2020 in the United States, the proportion of last-mile deliveries was 56% by Amazon's directly contracted services (mostly in urban areas), 30% by the United States Postal Service (mostly in rural areas), and 14% by UPS.[55] The USPS is used to deliver packages to at least some unstaffed Amazon Lockers, according to on-site signage.Products and servicesMain article: List of Amazon products and servicesOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more's product lines available at its website include several media (books, DVDs, music CDs, videotapes and software), apparel, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal-care items, industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry, watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive items and toys & games.[citation needed] In August 2019, Amazon applied to have a liquor store in San Francisco, CA as a means to ship beer and alcohol within the city.[56] Amazon has separate retail websites for some countries and also offers international shipping of some of its products to certain other countries.[57] In November 2020, the company started an online delivery service dedicated to prescription drugs. The service provides discounts up to 80% for generic drugs and up to 40% for branded drugs for Prime subscribe users. The products can be purchased on the company's website or at over 50,000 bricks-and-mortar pharmacies in the United States.[58]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more has a number of products and services available, including:AmazonFreshAmazon PrimeAmazon Web ServicesAlexaAppstoreAmazon DriveEchoKindleFire tabletsFire TVVideoKindle StoreMusicMusic UnlimitedAmazon Digital Game StoreAmazon StudiosAmazonWirelessSubsidiariesSee also: List of Amazon locationsAmazon owns over 40 subsidiaries, including Audible, http://Diapers.com, Goodreads, IMDb, Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), Shopbop, Teachstreet, Twitch and Zappos.[59]http://A9.comhttp://A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology, has been a subsidiary since 2003.[60]Amazon MaritimeAmazon Maritime, Inc. holds a Federal Maritime Commission license to operate as a non-vessel-owning common carrier (NVOCC), which enables the company to manage its own shipments from China into the United States.[61]Annapurna LabsIn January 2015, Amazon Web Services acquired Annapurna Labs, an Israel-based microelectronics company reputedly for US$350–370M.[62][63][64]Unlock a listen for every momentUnlock a listen for every moment is a seller and producer of spoken audio entertainment, information and educational programming on the Internet. Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and television programs and audio versions of magazines and newspapers. Through its production arm, Audible Studios, Audible has also become the world's largest producer of downloadable audiobooks. On January 31, 2008, Amazon announced it would buy Audible for about $300 million. The deal closed in March 2008 and Audible became a subsidiary of Amazon.[65]Beijing Century Joyo Courier ServicesBeijing Century Joyo Courier Services is a subsidiary of Amazon and it applied for a freight forwarding license with the US Maritime Commission. Amazon is also building out its logistics in trucking and air freight to potentially compete with UPS and FedEx.[66][67]Brilliance AudioBrilliance Audio is an audiobook publisher founded in 1984 by Michael Snodgrass in Grand Haven, Michigan.[68] The company produced its first 8 audio titles in 1985.[68] The company was purchased by Amazon in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.[69][70] At the time of the acquisition, Brilliance was producing 12–15 new titles a month.[70] It operates as an independent company within Online Shopping site in India: Shop Online for Mobiles, Books, Watches, Shoes and More 1984, Brilliance Audio invented a technique for recording twice as much on the same cassette.[71] The technique involved recording on each of the two channels of each stereo track.[71] It has been credited with revolutionizing the burgeoning audiobook market in the mid-1980s since it made unabridged books affordable.[71]ComiXologyComiXology is a cloud-based digital comics platform with over 200 million comic downloads as of September 2013. It offers a selection of more than 40,000 comic books and graphic novels across Android, iOS, Fire OS and Windows 8 devices and over a web browser. Amazon bought the company in April 2014.[72]CreateSpaceCreateSpace, which offers self-publishing services for independent content creators, publishers, film studios, and music labels, became a subsidiary in 2009.[73][74]EeroEero, stylized as eero, is a company that manufactures mesh-capable routers. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco. Amazon announced it would buy Eero in 2019.GoodreadsMain article: GoodreadsGoodreads is a "social cataloging" website founded in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler, a software engineer, and entrepreneur, and Elizabeth Khuri. The website allows individuals to freely search Goodreads' extensive user-populated database of books, annotations, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists. They can also create their own groups of book suggestions and discussions. In December 2007, the site had over 650,000 members and over 10 million books had been added. Amazon bought the company in March 2013.[75]Health NavigatorIn October 2019, Amazon finalized the acquisition of Health Navigator, a startup developing APIs for online health services. The startup will form part of Amazon Care, which is the company's employee healthcare service. This follows the 2018 purchase of PillPack for under $1 billion, which has also been included into Amazon Care.[76]JungleeJunglee is a former online shopping service provided by Amazon that enabled customers to search for products from online and offline retailers in India. Junglee started off as a virtual database that was used to extract information from the Internet and deliver it to enterprise applications. As it progressed, Junglee started to use its database technology to create a single window marketplace on the Internet by making every item from every supplier available for purchase. Web shoppers could locate, compare and transact millions of products from across the Internet shopping mall through one window.[77]Amazon acquired Junglee in 1998, and the website Junglee.comwas launched in India in February 2012[78] as a comparison-shopping website. It curated and enabled searching for a diverse variety of products such as clothing, electronics, toys, jewelry and video games, among others, across thousands of online and offline sellers. Millions of products are browsable, the client selects a price, and then they are directed to a seller. In November 2017, Amazon closed down Junglee.com and the former domain currently redirects to Amazon India.[79]Kuiper SystemsMain article: Kuiper SystemsKuiper Systems LLC, is a subsidiary of Amazon, set up to deploy a broadband satellite internet constellation with an announced 3,236 Low Earth orbit satellites to provide satellite based Internet connectivity.[80][81][82]PillPackPillPack is an online pharmacy specializing in shipping pre-sorted medications in by-day packets. It was acquired by Amazon in June 2018.Lab126Main article: Amazon Lab126Lab126, developers of integrated consumer electronics such as the Kindle, became a subsidiary in 2004.[83]RingMain article: Ring Inc.Ring is a home automation company founded by Jamie Siminoff in 2013. It is primarily known for its WiFi powered smart doorbells, but manufactures other devices such as security cameras. Amazon bought Ring for US$1 billion in 2018.[84]ShelfariShelfari was a social cataloging website for books. Shelfari users built virtual bookshelves of the titles which they owned or had read and they could rate, review, tag and discuss their books. Users could also create groups that other members could join, create discussions and talk about books, or other topics. Recommendations could be sent to friends on the site for what books to read. Amazon bought the company in August 2008.[75] Shelfari continued to function as an independent book social network within the Amazon until January 2016, when Amazon announced that it would be merging Shelfari with Goodreads and closing down Shelfari.[85][86]SouqMain article: تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلاتتسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات is the largest E-Commerce platform in the Middle East based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On March 28, 2017, Amazon confirmed it would be acquiring تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات for $580 million.[87] تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات is now a subsidiary of Amazon, and acts as Amazon's arm into the Middle East region.TwitchMain article: Twitch (service)Twitch at the Electronic Entertainment ExpoTwitch is a live streaming platform for video, primarily oriented towards video gaming content. The service was first established as a spin-off of a general-interest streaming service known as http://Justin.tv. Its prominence was eclipsed by that of Twitch, and http://Justin.tv was eventually shut down by its parent company in August 2014 in order to focus exclusively on Twitch.[88] Later that month, Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $970 million.[89] Through Twitch, Amazon also owns Curse, Inc., an operator of video gaming communities and a provider of VoIP services for gaming.[90] Since the acquisition, Twitch began to sell games directly through the platform,[91] and began offering special features for Amazon Prime subscribers.[92]The site's rapid growth had been boosted primarily by the prominence of major esports competitions on the service, leading GameSpot senior esports editor Rod Breslau to have described the service as "the ESPN of esports".[93] As of 2015, the service had over 1.5 million broadcasters and 100 million monthly viewers.[94]On August 10, 2020, Amazon announced the rebranding of Twitch Prime, the live-streaming site, renaming it Prime Gaming [1] in another attempt to crack the video game market after failing a big-budget game effort. With Twitch Prime, users will be given a free subscription to Twitch, with free games from small studios and discounts for larger titles like Grand Theft Auto and League of Legends.[95]On November 2, 2020, Twitch announced a virtual flagship conference and named it GlitchCon instead of TwitchCon to be held on November 14. The main aim of the conference will be to bring its numerous, disparate communities of streamers and fans together where they can be real life confidants.[96]Whole Foods MarketWhole Foods Market store in Ann Arbor, MichiganWhole Foods Market is an American supermarket chain exclusively featuring foods without artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.[97]On August 23, 2017, it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission approved the merger between Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more and Whole Foods Market.[98] The following day it was announced that the deal would be closed on August 28, 2017.[99]Supply chainAmazon first launched its distribution network in 1997 with two fulfillment centers in Seattle and New Castle, Delaware. Amazon has several types of distribution facilities consisting of crossdock centers, fulfillment centers, sortation centers, delivery stations, Prime now hubs, and Prime air hubs. There are 75 fulfillment centers and 25 sortation centers with over 125,000 employees.[100][101] Employees are responsible for five basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing goods in storage and recording their location; picking goods from their computer recorded locations to make up an individual shipment; sorting and packing orders; and shipping. A computer that records the location of goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a key role: employees carry hand-held computers which communicate with the central computer and monitor their rate of progress. Some warehouses are partially automated with systems built by Amazon Robotics.Amazon.fr : livres, DVD, jeux vidéo, musique, high-tech, informatique, jouets, vêtements, chaussures, sport, bricolage, maison, beauté, puériculture, épicerie et plus encore ! fulfillment center in Lauwin-Planque, Francecompra online de electrónica, libros, deporte, hogar, moda y mucho más. fulfillment center in San Fernando de Henares, SpainLow Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more fulfillment center in Glenrothes, Scotland, UKGünstige Preise für Elektronik & Foto, Filme, Musik, Bücher, Games, Spielzeug & mehr fulfillment center in Graben, GermanyAmazon | 本, ファッション, 家電から食品まで | アマゾン fulfillment center in Ichikawa, JapanAmazon fulfillment center in Macon, Georgia, U.S.WebsiteOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more-Logo.svgLogo since 2000ScreenshotOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & morescreenshot.jpegHomepageType of siteE-commerceAvailable inArabicEnglishFrenchGermanSpanishSwedishItalianChineseJapanesePortugueseDutchTurkishOwnerAmazonURLOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more(original U.S. site)CommercialYesRegistrationOptionalLaunched1995; 26 years agoCurrent statusActiveWritten inC++ and Java[102]The domain Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more attracted at least 615 million visitors annually by 2008;[103] by the beginning of 2016, over 130 million customers were visiting the U.S. website each month.[104] The company has invested heavily in a massive amount of server capacity for its website, especially to handle the excessive traffic during the Christmas holiday season.[105] According to Alexa Internet rankings, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is the third most popular website in the United States and the 14th most popular website worldwide.Results generated by Amazon's search engine are partly determined by promotional fees.[106] The company's localized storefronts, which differ in selection and prices, are differentiated by top-level domain and country code:Region Country Domain name SinceAmericas Brazil Compre livros, Kindle, Echo, Fire Tv e mais. December 2012Canada Low Prices - Fast Shipping - Millions of Items June 2002Mexico Precios bajos - Envío rápido - Millones de productos August 2013United States Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more July 1995Asia China 亚马逊中国 z.cn, 一站放心购全球 September 2004India Online Shopping site in India: Shop Online for Mobiles, Books, Watches, Shoes and More June 2013Japan Amazon | 本, ファッション, 家電から食品まで | アマゾンNovember 2000Singapore Shop Online for Electronics, Computers, Books, Toys, DVDs, Baby, Grocery, & more July 2017Turkey Amazon.com.tr: Elektronik, bilgisayar, akıllı telefon, kitap, oyuncak, yapı market, ev, mutfak, oyun konsolları ürünleri ve daha fazlası için internet alışveriş sitesi September 2018United Arab Emirates Welcome to Amazon.ae Shop Online in UAE for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Grocery & more May 2019Saudi Arabia تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ,الملابس , الكمبيوترات, البقالة و اكثر - سوق.كوم الان اصبحت أمازونJune 2020Europe France Amazon.fr : livres, DVD, jeux vidéo, musique, high-tech, informatique, jouets, vêtements, chaussures, sport, bricolage, maison, beauté, puériculture, épicerie et plus encore ! August 2000Germany Günstige Preise für Elektronik & Foto, Filme, Musik, Bücher, Games, Spielzeug & mehr October 1998Italy elettronica, libri, musica, fashion, videogiochi, DVD e tanto altro November 2010Netherlands Groot aanbod, kleine prijzen in o.a. Elektronica, boeken, sport en meer November 2014Spain compra online de electrónica, libros, deporte, hogar, moda y mucho más. September 2011Sweden Låga priser på Elektronik, Böcker, Sportutrustning & mer October 2020United Kingdom Low Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more October 1998Oceania Australia Shop online for Electronics, Apparel, Toys, Books, DVDs & more November 2017ReviewsSee also: Criticism of Amazon § Amazon reviewsAmazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. Reviewers must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon provides a 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. Customers may comment or vote on the reviews, indicating whether they found a review helpful to them. If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the front page of the product. In 2010, Amazon was reported as being the largest single source of Internet consumer reviews.[107]When publishers asked Bezos why Amazon would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more was "taking a different approach ... we want to make every book available—the good, the bad and the ugly ... to let truth loose".[108]There have been cases of positive reviews being written and posted by public relations companies on behalf of their clients[109] and instances of writers using pseudonyms to leave negative reviews of their rivals' works.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.[110][111] The feature started with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003.[112] There are about 300,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches.[citation needed]To avoid copyright violations, Amazon does not return the computer-readable text of the book. Instead, it returns a picture of the matching page, instructs the web browser to disable printing and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. Additionally, customers can purchase online access to some of the same books via the "Amazon Upgrade" program.[citation needed]Third-party sellersAmazon derives many of its sales (around 40% in 2008) from third-party sellers who sell products on Amazon.[113] Associates receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links to Amazon on their websites if the referral results in a sale. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.[114] In the middle of 2014, the Amazon Affiliate Program is used by 1.2% of all websites and it is the second most popular advertising network after Google Ads.[115] It is frequently used by websites and non-profits to provide a way for supporters to earn them a commission.[116] Amazon reported over 1.3 million sellers sold products through Amazon's websites in 2007. Unlike eBay, Amazon sellers do not have to maintain separate payment accounts; all payments are handled by Amazon.[citation needed]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 another website, or linked to another website. In June 2010, Amazon Seller Product Suggestions was launched (rumored to be internally called "Project Genesis") to provide more transparency to sellers by recommending specific products to third-party sellers to sell on Amazon. Products suggested are based on customers' browsing history.[117] In 2019, Amazon launched a bigger local online store in Singapore to expand its product selection in the face of intensifying competition with competitors in the region.[118]In July 2019 the 3rd U.S. City Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that Amazon can be held accountable for faulty third-party sales.[119] The decision ran counter to a past lower court ruling that had favored Amazon. Heather Oberdorf had sued the company in 2016 over a dog leash that snapped, causing permanent loss of vision in one eye. If upheld, the decision would expose Amazon and similar platform businesses to strict liability lawsuits for defective products, which represents a major change in the law.[120] The panel sent the case back to the lower court, to decide whether the leash was actually defective.[121]Amazon sales rankThe Amazon sales rank (ASR) provides an indication of the popularity of a product sold on any Amazon locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a "best sellers list" for the millions of products stocked by Amazon.[122] While the ASR has no direct effect on the sales of a product, it is used by Amazon to determine which products to include in its bestsellers lists.[122] Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon website and this may lead to an increase in sales. In particular, products that experience large jumps (up or down) in their sales ranks may be included within Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers"; such a listing provides additional exposure that might lead to an increase in sales.[123] For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release actual sales figures to the public. However, Amazon has now begun to release point of sale data via the Nielsen BookScan service to verified authors.[124] While the ASR has been the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers, and marketers, Amazon itself does not release the details of its sales rank calculation algorithm. Some companies have analyzed Amazon sales data to generate sales estimates based on the ASR,[125] though Amazon states:Please keep in mind that our sales rank figures are simply meant to be a guide of general interest for the customer and not definitive sales information for publishers—we assume you have this information regularly from your distribution sources— Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreHelp[126]Multi-level sales strategyAmazon employs a multi-level e-commerce strategy. Amazon started by focusing on business-to-consumer relationships between itself and its customers and business-to-business relationships between itself and its suppliers and then moved to facilitate customer-to-customer with the Amazon marketplace which acts as an intermediary to facilitate transactions. The company lets anyone sell nearly anything using its platform. In addition to an affiliate program that lets anyone post Amazon links and earn a commission on click-through sales, there is now a program which lets those affiliates build entire websites based on Amazon's platform.[127]Some other large e-commerce sellers use Amazon to sell their products in addition to selling them through their own websites. The sales are processed through Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more and end up at individual sellers for processing and order fulfillment and Amazon leases space for these retailers. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace to offer goods at a fixed price.[128]In November 2015, Amazon opened a physical Amazon Books store in University Village in Seattle. The store is 5,500 square feet and prices for all products match those on its website.[129] Amazon will open its tenth physical book store in 2017;[130] media speculation suggests Amazon plans to eventually roll out 300 to 400 bookstores around the country.[129]In June 2018, it was reported that Amazon planned to open brick and mortar bookstores in Germany.[131]In September 2020, Amazon launched Luxury Stores on its mobile app, where Oscar de la Renta become the first and only label to partner with the firm.[132]FinancesOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is primarily a retail site with a sales revenue model; Amazon takes a small percentage of the sale price of each item that is sold through its website while also allowing companies to advertise their products by paying to be listed as featured products.[133] As of 2018, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is ranked 8th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[134]For the fiscal year 2018, Amazon reported earnings of US$10.07 billion, with an annual revenue of US$232.887 billion, an increase of 30.9% over the previous fiscal cycle. Since 2007 sales increased from 14.835 billion to 232.887 billion, thanks to continued business expansion.[135]Amazon's market capitalization went over US$1 trillion again in early February 2020 after the announcement of the fourth quarter 2019 results.[136] Amazon's total employees now number 798,000.[136]Year Revenuein mil. USD$ Net incomein mil. USD$ Total Assetsin mil. USD$ Employees2007[137] 14,835 476 6,485 17,0002008[138] 19,166 645 8,314 20,7002009[139] 24,509 902 13,813 24,3002010[140] 34,204 1,152 18,797 33,7002011[141] 48,077 631 25,278 56,2002012[142] 61,093 −39 32,555 88,4002013[143] 74,452 274 40,159 117,3002014[144] 88,988 −241 54,505 154,1002015[145] 107,006 596 64,747 230,8002016[146] 135,987 2,371 83,402 341,4002017[147] 177,866 3,033 131,310 566,0002018[148] 232,887 10,073 162,648 647,5002019[149] 280,522 11,588 225,248 798,0002020[150] 386,064 21,331 321,195 1,298,000ControversiesIt has been suggested that sections about criticism of Amazon be split out and merged into the article titled Criticism of Amazon, which already exists. (Discuss)Main article: Criticism of AmazonSince its founding, the company has attracted criticism and controversy for its actions, including: supplying law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools;[151] forming cloud computing partnerships with the CIA;[152] leading customers away from bookshops;[153] adversely impacting the environment;[154] placing a low priority on warehouse conditions for workers; actively opposing unionization efforts;[155] remotely deleting content purchased by Amazon Kindle users; taking public subsidies; seeking to patent its 1-Click technology; engaging in anti-competitive actions and price discrimination;[29][30] and reclassifying LGBT books as adult content.[156][157] Criticism has also concerned various decisions over whether to censor or publish content such as the WikiLeaks website, works containing libel and material facilitating dogfight, cockfight, or pedophile activities. In December 2011, Amazon faced a backlash from small businesses for running a one-day deal to promote its new Price Check app. Shoppers who used the app to check prices in a brick-and-mortar store were offered a 5% discount to purchase the same item from Amazon.[158] Companies like Groupon, eBay and http://Taap.it countered Amazon's promotion by offering $10 off from their products.[159][160]The company has also faced accusations of putting undue pressure on suppliers to maintain and extend its profitability. One effort to squeeze the most vulnerable book publishers was known within the company as the Gazelle Project, after Bezos suggested, according to Brad Stone, "that Amazon should approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle."[106] In July 2014, the Federal Trade Commission launched a lawsuit against the company alleging it was promoting in-app purchases to children, which were being transacted without parental consent.[161] In 2019, Amazon banned selling skin-lightening and racist products that might affect the consumer's health.[162]Environmental impactIn 2018, Amazon emitted 44.4 million metric tons of CO2.[163]In September 2019, Amazon workers organized a walk-out as part of the Global Climate Strike.[164][165] An internal group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said over 1,800 employees in 25 cities and 14 countries committed to participating in the action to protest Amazon's environmental impact and inaction to climate change.[164] This group of workers petitioned Jeff Bezos and Amazon with three specific demands: to stop donating to politicians and lobbyists that deny climate change, to stop working with fossil fuel companies to accelerate oil and gas extraction, and to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030.[166][165]Amazon has introduced the Shipment Zero program, however Shipment Zero has only committed to reducing 50% of its shipments to net zero by 2030. Also, even that 50% does not necessarily mean a decrease in emissions compared to current levels given Amazon's rate of growth in orders.[167]That said, Amazon's CEO has also signed the Climate Pledge, in which Amazon would meet the Paris climate agreement goals 10 years ahead of schedule, and would be carbon-neutral by 2040. Besides this pledge, it also ordered 100 000 electric delivery trucks from Rivian.[168]Amazon funds both climate denial groups including the Competitive Enterprise Institute and politicians denying climate change including Jim Inhofe.[169][170]In November 2018, a community action group opposed the construction permit delivered to Goodman Group for the construction of a 160,000 square metres (1,700,000 sq ft) logisitics platform Amazon will operate at Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport. In February 2019, Étienne Tête filed a request on behalf of a second regional community action group asking the administrative court to decide whether the platform served a sufficiently important public interest to justify its environmental impact. Construction has been suspended while these matters are decided.[154]Amazon considered making an option for Prime customers to have packages delivered at the most efficient and environmentally-friendly time (allowing the company to combine shipments with the same destination) but decided against it out of fear customers might reduce purchases.[171] Since 2019, the company has instead offered customers an "Amazon Day" option, where all orders are delivered on the same day, emphasizing customer convenience, and it occasionally offers Prime customers credits in return for selecting slower and less expensive shipping options.[171]Selling counterfeit, unsafe and discarded itemsThe selling of counterfeit products by Amazon has attracted widespread notice, with both purchases marked as being fulfilled by third parties and those shipped directly from Amazon warehouses being found to be counterfeit. This has included some products sold directly by Amazon itself and marked as "ships from and sold by Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more".[172] Counterfeit charging cables sold on Amazon as purported Apple products have been found to be a fire hazard.[173][174] Such counterfeits have included a wide array of products, from big ticket items to every day items such as tweezers, gloves,[175] and umbrellas.[176] More recently, this has spread to Amazon's newer grocery services.[177] Counterfeiting was reported to be especially a problem for artists and small businesses whose products were being rapidly copied for sale on the site.[178]One Amazon business practice that encourages counterfeiting is that, by default, seller accounts on Amazon are set to use "commingled inventory". With this practice, the goods that a seller sends to Amazon are mixed with those of the producer of the product and with those of all other sellers that supply what is supposed to be the same product.[179]In June 2019, Buzzfeed reported that some products identified on the site as "Amazon's choice" were low quality, had a history of customer complaints, and exhibited evidence of product review manipulation.[180]In August 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that they had found more than 4,000 items for sale on Amazon's site that had been declared unsafe by federal agencies, had misleading labels, or had been banned by federal regulators.[181]In the wake of the WSJ investigation, three U.S. senators – Richard Blumenthal, Ed Markey, and Bob Menendez – sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos demanding him to take action about the selling of unsafe items on the site. The letter said that "Unquestionably, Amazon is falling short of its commitment to keeping safe those consumers who use its massive platform."[182] The letter included a number of questions about the company's practices and gave Bezos a deadline to respond by September 29, 2019, saying "We call on you to immediately remove from the platform all the problematic products examined in the recent WSJ report; explain how you are going about this process; conduct a sweeping internal investigation of your enforcement and consumer safety policies; and institute changes that will continue to keep unsafe products off your platform."[182] Earlier in the same month, senators Blumenthal and Menendez had sent Bezos a letter about the Buzzfeed report.[182]In December 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that some people were literally retrieving trash out of dumpsters and selling it as new products on Amazon. The reporters ran an experiment and determined that it was easy for a seller to set up an account and sell cleaned up junk as new products. In addition to trash, sellers were obtaining inventory from clearance bins, thrift stores, and pawn shops.[183][184]In August 2020, an appeals court in California ruled that Amazon can be held liable for unsafe products sold on its website. A California woman had bought a replacement laptop battery that caught fire and caused her to receive third-degree burns.[185]Tax avoidanceMain article: Amazon taxAmazon's tax affairs were investigated in China, Germany, Poland, South Korea, France, Japan, Ireland, Singapore, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and Portugal.[186] According to a report released by Fair Tax Mark in 2019, Amazon is the worst offender of tax avoidance, having paid an 12% effective tax rate between 2010-2018, in contrast with 35% corporate tax rate in the US during the same period. Amazon countered that it had an 24% effective tax rate during the same period.[187]Comments by Donald Trump and Bernie SandersIn early 2018, President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Amazon's use of the United States Postal Service and its prices for the delivery of packages, stating, "I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy," Trump tweeted. "Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne [sic] by the American Taxpayer."[188] Amazon's shares fell by 6 percent as a result of Trump's comments. Shepard Smith of Fox News disputed Trump's claims and pointed to evidence that the USPS was offering below-market prices to all customers with no advantage to Amazon. However, analyst Tom Forte pointed to the fact that Amazon's payments to the USPS are not made public and that their contract has a reputation for being "a sweetheart deal".[189][190]Throughout the summer of 2018, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Amazon's wages and working conditions in a series of YouTube videos and media appearances. He also pointed to the fact that Amazon had paid no federal income tax in the previous year.[191] Sanders solicited stories from Amazon warehouse workers who felt exploited by the company.[192] One such story, by James Bloodworth, described the environment as akin to "a low-security prison" and stated that the company's culture used an Orwellian newspeak.[193] These reports cited a finding by New Food Economy that one third of fulfilment center workers in Arizona were on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).[194] Responses by Amazon included incentives for employees to tweet positive stories and a statement which called the salary figures used by Sanders "inaccurate and misleading". The statement also charged that it was inappropriate for him to refer to SNAP as "food stamps".[192] On September 5, 2018, Sanders along with Ro Khanna introduced the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act aimed at Amazon and other alleged beneficiaries of corporate welfare such as Walmart, McDonald's and Uber.[195] Among the bill's supporters were Tucker Carlson of Fox News and Matt Taibbi who criticized himself and other journalists for not covering Amazon's contribution to wealth inequality earlier.[196][197]On October 2, 2018, Amazon announced that its minimum wage for all American employees would be raised to $15 per hour. Sanders congratulated the company for making this decision.[198]Opposition to trade unionsMain article: Amazon worker organizationA sticker expressing an anti-Amazon message is pictured on the back of a street sign in Seattle.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 Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more 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 denied any link between the unionization effort and layoffs.[199] Also in 2001, Low Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more 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 Unite the Union) 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.[200]An Amazon training video that was leaked in 2018 stated "We are not anti-union, but we are not neutral either. We do not believe unions are in the best interest of our customers or shareholders or most importantly, our associates."[201] Two years later, it was found that Whole Foods was using a heat map to track which stores had the highest levels of pro-union sentiment. Factors including racial diversity, proximity to other unions, poverty levels in the surrounding community and calls to the National Labor Relations Board were named as contributors to "unionization risk".[202]In early 2020, an Amazon internal documents were leaked, it said that Whole Foods has been using an interactive heat map to monitor its 510 locations across the U.S. and assign each store a unionization risk score based on such criteria as employee loyalty, turnover rate and racial diversity. Data collected in the heat map suggest that stores with low racial and ethnic diversity, especially those located in poor communities, are more likely to unionize.[203][204]Working conditionsFormer employees, current employees, the media, and politicians have criticized Amazon for poor working conditions at the company.[205][206][207] In 2011, it was publicized that workers had to carry out tasks in 100 °F (38 °C) heat at the Breinigsville, Pennsylvania warehouse. As a result of these inhumane conditions, employees became extremely uncomfortable and suffered from dehydration and collapse. Loading-bay doors were not opened to allow in fresh air because of concerns over theft.[208] Amazon's initial response was to pay for an ambulance to sit outside on call to cart away overheated employees.[208] The company eventually installed air conditioning at the warehouse.[209]Some workers, "pickers", who travel the building with a trolley and a handheld scanner "picking" customer orders can walk up to 15 miles (24 kilometres) during their workday and if they fall behind on their targets, they can be reprimanded. The handheld scanners give real-time information to the employee on how quickly or slowly they are working; the scanners also serve to allow Team Leads and Area Managers to track the specific locations of employees and how much "idle time" they gain when not working.[210][211]In a German television report broadcast in February 2013, journalists Diana Löbl and Peter Onneken conducted a covert investigation at the distribution center of Amazon in the town of Bad Hersfeld in the German state of Hessen. The report highlights the behavior of some of the security guards, themselves being employed by a third party company, who apparently either had a neo-Nazi background or deliberately dressed in neo-Nazi apparel and who were intimidating foreign and temporary female workers at its distribution centers. The third party security company involved was delisted by Amazon as a business contact shortly after that report.[212][213][214][215]In March 2015, it was reported in The Verge that Amazon would be removing non-compete clauses of 18 months in length from its US employment contracts for hourly-paid workers, after criticism that it was acting unreasonably in preventing such employees from finding other work. Even short-term temporary workers have to sign contracts that prohibit them from working at any company where they would "directly or indirectly" support any good or service that competes with those they helped support at Amazon, for 18 months after leaving Amazon, even if they are fired or made redundant.[216][217]A 2015 front-page article in The New York Times profiled several former Amazon employees[218] who together described a "bruising" workplace culture in which workers with illness or other personal crises were pushed out or unfairly evaluated.[15] Bezos responded by writing a Sunday memo to employees,[219] in which he disputed the Times's account of "shockingly callous management practices" that he said would never be tolerated at the company.[15]In an effort to boost employee morale, on November 2, 2015, Amazon announced that it would be extending six weeks of paid leave for new mothers and fathers. This change includes birth parents and adoptive parents and can be applied in conjunction with existing maternity leave and medical leave for new mothers.[220]In mid-2018, investigations by journalists and media outlets such as The Guardian reported poor working conditions at Amazon's fulfillment centers.[221][222] Later in 2018, another article exposed poor working conditions for Amazon's delivery drivers.[223]In response to criticism that Amazon does not pay its workers a livable wage, Jeff Bezos announced beginning November 1, 2018, all US and UK Amazon employees will earn a $15 an hour minimum wage.[224] Amazon will also lobby to make $15 an hour the federal minimum wage.[225] At the same time, Amazon also eliminated stock awards and bonuses for hourly employees.[226]On Black Friday 2018, Amazon warehouse workers in several European countries, including Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, went on strike to protest inhumane working conditions and low pay.[227]The Daily Beast reported in March 2019 that emergency services responded to 189 calls from 46 Amazon warehouses in 17 states between the years 2013 and 2018, all relating to suicidal employees. The workers attributed their mental breakdowns to employer-imposed social isolation, aggressive surveillance, and the hurried and dangerous working conditions at these fulfillment centers. One former employee told The Daily Beast "It's this isolating colony of hell where people having breakdowns is a regular occurrence."[228]On July 15, 2019, during the onset of Amazon's "Prime Day" sale event, Amazon employees working in the United States and Germany went on strike in protest of unfair wages and poor working conditions.[229][230]In March 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak when the government instructed companies to restrict social contact, Amazon's UK staff was forced to work overtime to meet the demand spiked by the disease. A GMB spokesperson said the company had put "profit before safety".[231] GMB has continued to raise concerns regarding "gruelling conditions, unrealistic productivity targets, surveillance, bogus self-employment and a refusal to recognise or engage with unions unless forced", calling for the UK government and safety regulators to take action to address these issues.[232]In August 2019, BBC reported on Amazon's Twitter ambassadors. Their constant support for and defense of Amazon and its practices have led many Twitter users to suspect that they are in fact bots, being used to dismiss the issues effecting Amazon workers.[233]In its 2020 statement to its US shareholders, Amazon stated that "we respect and support the Core Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Operation of these Global Human Rights Principles has been "long-held at Amazon, and codifying them demonstrates our support for fundamental human rights and the dignity of workers everywhere we operate".[234]On November 27, 2020, Amnesty International said, workers in working for Amazon have faced great health and safety risks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Black Friday, one of Amazon's busiest periods, company failed to ensure the key safety features in France, Poland, the United Kingdom and USA. Workers have been risking their health and lives to ensure essential goods are delivered to consumer doorsteps, helping Amazon achieve record profits.[235]On January 6, 2021, Amazon said that it is planning to build 20,000 affordable houses by spending $2 billion in the regions where the major employments are located.[236]On January 24, 2021, Amazon said that it was planning to open a pop-up clinic hosted in partnership with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle in order to vaccinate 2,000 persons against COVID-19 on the first day.[237]In February 2021, Amazon said that it was planning to put cameras in its delivery vehicles. Although many drivers were upset of this decision, Amazon said that the videos were only be sent in certain circumstances.[238]Conflict of interest with the CIA and DODIn 2013, Amazon secured a US$600 million contract with the CIA, which poses a potential conflict of interest involving the Bezos-owned The Washington Post and his newspaper's coverage of the CIA.[239] Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said, "It's a serious potential conflict of interest for a major newspaper like The Washington Post to have a contractual relationship with the government and the most secret part of the government."[240] This was later followed by a US$10 billion contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.[152]Seattle head tax and houselessness servicesIn May 2018, Amazon threatened the Seattle City Council over an employee head tax proposal that would have funded houselessness services and low-income housing. The tax would have cost Amazon about $800 per employee, or 0.7% of their average salary.[241] In retaliation, Amazon paused construction on a new building, threatened to limit further investment in the city, and funded a repeal campaign. Although originally passed, the measure was soon repealed after an expensive repeal campaign spearheaded by Amazon.[242]Nashville Operations Center of ExcellenceThe incentives given by the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County to Amazon for their new Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville Yards, a site owned by developer Southwest Value Partners, have been controversial, including the decision by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to keep the full extent of the agreement secret.[243] The incentives include "$102 million in combined grants and tax credits for a scaled-down Amazon office building" as well as "a $65 million cash grant for capital expenditures" in exchange for the creation of 5,000 jobs over seven years.[243]The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government called for more transparency.[243] Another local organization known as the People's Alliance for Transit, Housing, and Employment (PATHE) suggested no public money should be given to Amazon; instead, it should be spent on building more public housing for the working poor and the homeless and investing in more public transportation for Nashvillians.[244] Others suggested incentives to big corporations do not improve the local economy.[245]In November 2018, the proposal to give Amazon $15 million in incentives was criticized by the Nashville Firefighters Union and the Nashville chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police,[246] who called it "corporate welfare."[247] In February 2019, another $15.2 million in infrastructure was approved by the council, although it was voted down by three council members, including Councilwoman Angie Henderson who dismissed it as "cronyism".[248]Facial recognition technology and law enforcementWhile Amazon has publicly opposed secret government surveillance, as revealed by Freedom of Information Act requests it has supplied facial recognition support to law enforcement in the form of the Rekognition technology and consulting services. Initial testing included the city of Orlando, Florida, and Washington County, Oregon. Amazon offered to connect Washington County with other Amazon government customers interested in Rekognition and a body camera manufacturer. These ventures are opposed by a coalition of civil rights groups with concern that they could lead to an expansion of surveillance and be prone to abuse. Specifically, it could automate the identification and tracking of anyone, particularly in the context of potential police body camera integration.[151][249][250] Because of the backlash, the city of Orlando publicly stated it will no longer use the technology, but may revisit this decision at a later date.[251]Access to NHS dataThe UK government awarded Amazon a contract that gives the company free access to information about healthcare published by the UK's National Health Service.[252] This will, for example, be used by Amazon's Alexa to answer medical questions, although Alexa also uses many other sources of information. The material, which excludes patient data, could also allow the company to make, advertise and sell its own products. The contract allows Amazon access to information on symptoms, causes and definitions of conditions, and "all related copyrightable content and data and other materials". Amazon can then create "new products, applications, cloud-based services and/or distributed software", which the NHS will not benefit from financially. The company can also share the information with third parties. The government said that allowing Alexa devices to offer expert health advice to users will reduce pressure on doctors and pharmacists.[253]Collection of data and surveillanceOn February 17, 2020, a Panorama documentary highlighted the amount of data collected by the company and the move into surveillance causing concerns of politicians and regulators in the US and Europe.[254][255]Antitrust complaintsOn June 11, 2020, the European Union announced that it will be pressing charges against Amazon over its treatment of third-party e-commerce sellers.[256]In July 2020, Amazon along with other tech giants Apple, Google and Facebook were accused of maintaining harmful power and anti-competitive strategies to quash potential competitors in the market.[257] The CEOs of respective firms appeared in a teleconference on July 29, 2020 before the lawmakers of the U.S. House Antitrust Subcommittee.[258] In October 2020, the antitrust subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives released a report accusing Amazon of abusing a monopoly position in ecommerce to unfairly compete with sellers on its own platform.[259]Anti-vaccination and non-scientific cancer 'cures'Anti-vaccination and non evidence-based cancer 'cures' have routinely appeared high in Amazon's books and videos. This may be due to positive reviews posted by supporters of untested methods, or gaming of the algorithms by truther communities, rather than any intent on Amazon's part.[260][261]Wired magazine found that Amazon Prime Video was full of 'pseudoscientific documentaries laden with conspiracy theories and pointing viewers towards unproven treatments'.[262]U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) expressed concern that Amazon was “surfacing and recommending products and content that discourage parents from vaccinating their children.” Amazon subsequently removed five anti-vaccination documentaries.[263] Amazon also removed 12 books that unscientifically claimed bleach could cure conditions including malaria and childhood autism. This followed an NBC News report about parents who used it in a misguided attempt to reverse their children's autism.[264]Response to COVID-19 pandemicHazard pay and overtimeAmazon introduced new policies to reward frontline workers for continuing to come into work during the crisis. One of these policies, announced on March 16, 2020 was a temporary $2-per-hour rise in pay. This policy expired in June 2020.[265] Amazon also announced a policy of unlimited, unpaid time off that lasted until April 30, 2020.[266]Additional hiring as a result of pandemicIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon introduced temporary restrictions on the sale of non-essential goods. In March 2020, it hired some 100,000 more staff in the US to help deal with essential items such as food and medical equipment. It also reported that it was so busy that it was unable to bring on board new customers and therefore had to have a waiting list. In April, the firm announced that it was going to hire up to 75,000 workers to help deal with increased demand.[267] In September 2020, the company announced it would hire an additional 100,000 workers in the United States and Canada.[268]Employee protests during COVID-19During the pandemic there have been protests by the Amazon workers at warehouses in the US, France, and Italy. The BBC reported that there were confirmed coronavirus cases in more than 50 locations.[267] The reason for the protests is the company policy to "run normal shifts" despite many positive cases of the virus.[269] According to the UNI Global Union, "Amazon cannot act like this is business as usual. We are facing a deadly virus that has already taken the lives of thousands of people and paralyzed the world's economy. If distribution centers are not safe for workers right now, they should be closed immediately."[269] In Spain, the company has faced legal complaints over its policies.[270] Despite workers at 19 warehouses in the US having tested positive for COVID-19, Amazon did not shut down warehouses, only doing so when forced by the government or because of protests. A group of US Senators wrote an open letter to Bezos in March 2020, expressing concerns about worker safety.[271]An Amazon warehouse protest on March 30, 2020, in Staten Island led to its organizer, Christian Smalls, being fired. Amazon defended the decision by saying that Smalls was supposed to be in self-isolation at the time and leading the protest put its other workers at risk.[270] Smalls has called this response "ridiculous".[272] The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is considering legal retaliation to the firing which she called "immoral and inhumane."[270] She also asked the National Labor Relations Board to investigate Smalls' firing. Smalls himself accuses the company of retaliating against him for organizing a protest.[272] At the Staten Island warehouse, one case of COVID-19 has been confirmed by Amazon; workers believe there are more, and say that the company has not cleaned the building, given them suitable protection, or informed them of potential cases.[271] Smalls added specifically that there are many workers there in risk categories, and the protest only demanded that the building be sanitized and the employees continue to be paid during that process.[272] Derrick Palmer, another worker at the Staten Island facility, told The Verge that Amazon quickly communicates through text and email when they need the staff to complete mandatory overtime, but have not been using this to tell people when a colleague has contracted the disease, instead waiting days and sending managers to speak to employees in person.[271] Amazon claim that the Staten Island protest only attracted 15 of the facility's 5,000 workers,[273] while other sources describe much larger crowds.[271]On April 14, 2020, two Amazon employees were fired for "repeatedly violating internal policies", after they had circulated a petition about health risks for warehouse workers internally.[274]On May 4, Amazon vice president Tim Bray resigned "in dismay" over the firing of whistle-blower employees who spoke out about the lack of COVID-19 protections, including shortages of face masks and failure to implement widespread temperature checks which were promised by the company. He said that the firings were "chickenshit" and "designed to create a climate of fear" in Amazon warehouses.[275]In a Q1 2020 financial report, Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon expects to spend $4 billion or more (predicted operating profit for Q2) on COVID-19-related issues: personal protective equipment, higher wages for hourly teams, cleaning for facilities, and expanding Amazon's COVID-19 testing capabilities. These measures intend to improve the safety and well-being of hundreds of thousands of the company's employees.[276]From the beginning of 2020 until September of the same year, the company declares that the total number of workers who have contracted the infection is 19,816.[277]Closure in FranceThe SUD (trade unions) brought a court case against Amazon for unsafe working conditions. This resulted in a French district court (Nanterre) ruling on April 15, 2020, ordering the company to limit, under threat of a €1 million per day fine, its deliveries to certain essential items, including electronics, food, medical or hygienic products, and supplies for home improvement, animals, and offices.[278] Instead, Amazon immediately shut down its six warehouses in France, continuing to pay workers but limiting deliveries to items shipped from third-party sellers and warehouses outside of France.[279] The company said the €100,000 fine for each prohibited item shipped could result in billions of dollars in fines even with a small fraction of items misclassified.[280] After losing an appeal and coming to an agreement with labor unions for more pay and staggered schedules, the company reopened its French warehouses on May 19.[279]LobbyingAmazon lobbies the United States federal government and state governments on multiple issues such as the enforcement of sales taxes on online sales, transportation safety, privacy and data protection and intellectual property. According to regulatory filings, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more focuses its lobbying on the United States Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Reserve. Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & morespent roughly $3.5 million, $5 million and $9.5 million on lobbying, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.[281]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more was a corporate member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until it dropped membership following protests at its shareholders' meeting on May 24, 2012.[282]In 2014, Amazon expanded its lobbying practices as it prepared to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration to approve its drone delivery program, hiring the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld lobbying firm in June.[283] Amazon and its lobbyists have visited with Federal Aviation Administration officials and aviation committees in Washington, D.C. to explain its plans to deliver packages.[284] In September 2020 this moved one step closer with the granting of a critical certificate by the FAA.[285]In 2019 it spent $16.8m and had a team of 104 lobbyists, up from $14.4m and 103 lobbyists in 2018.[286]See alsoAmazon Breakthrough Novel AwardAmazon Flexible Payments ServiceAmazon MarketplaceAmazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)Camelcamelcamel – a website that tracks the prices of products sold on Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreList of book distributorsInternal carbon pricingStatistically improbable phrases – Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more's phrase extraction technique for indexing booksReferencesInline XBRL http://Viewerhttps://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872421000004/amzn-20201231.htm#i75de98b9097f40f3b5884e541f532421_73. 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Financial Times. Retrieved April 21, 2013."Kritik an Arbeitsbedingungen bei Amazon". http://tagesschau.de. Retrieved February 20, 2013."Ausgeliefert! Leiharbeiter ... – Ausgeliefert! Leiharbeiter bei Amazon – Reportage & Documentation – ARD | Das Erste". http://Daserste.de. February 13, 2013. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2013.Paterson, Tony (February 14, 2013). "Amazon 'used neo-Nazi guards to keep immigrant workforce under control' in Germany – Europe – World". The Independent. London. Retrieved February 20, 2013."Amazon to investigate reports temporary staff in Germany were mistreated". http://Globalnews.ca. Retrieved July 14, 2015.Woodman, Spencer (March 26, 2015). "Exclusive: Amazon makes even temporary warehouse workers sign 18-month non-competes". The Verge. Retrieved March 28, 2015.Kasperkevic, Jana (March 27, 2015). "Amazon to remove non-compete clause from contracts for hourly workers". The Guardian. 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Retrieved August 11, 2020."Amazon removes books promoting dangerous bleach 'cures' for autism and other conditions". NBC News. May 28, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2020.Rey, Jason Del (May 13, 2020). "Amazon extends bonus pay for front-line workers but says it ends in June". Vox. Retrieved June 3, 2020.Davis, Charles. "Amazon set to end 'unlimited unpaid time off' policy". Business Insider. Retrieved June 3, 2020."Amazon hiring spree as orders surge under lockdown". BBC News. April 14, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2020."Amazon to Hire 100,000 in U.S. and Canada". September 14, 2020."Amazon workers protest over normal shifts despite Covid-19 cases". Financial Times. Retrieved March 19, 2020."Amazon workers strike over virus protection". BBC News. March 31, 2020. Retrieved March 31, 2020.Dzieza, Josh (March 30, 2020). "Amazon warehouse workers walk out in rising tide of COVID-19 protests". The Verge. Retrieved March 31, 2020."New York AG Denounces 'Immoral and Inhumane' Firing of Amazon Worker Who Led Protest Over Lack of Coronavirus Protections". Common Dreams. Retrieved March 31, 2020.Rubin, Ben Fox. "Amazon fires warehouse worker who organized Staten Island protest". CNET. Retrieved March 31, 2020.Paul, Kari (April 14, 2020). "Amazon fires two employees who condemned treatment of warehouse workers". the Guardian. Retrieved April 15, 2020.Paul, Kari (May 4, 2020). "Amazon executive resigns over company's 'chickenshit' firings of employee activists". The Guardian. Retrieved May 7, 2020."Amazon Q1 2020 Earnings Release" (PDF). April 30, 2020."Amazon says more than 19,000 workers got Covid-19". http://cnbc.com. October 1, 2020.Olivia Détroyat (April 16, 2020). "Amazon ferme ses entrepôts pour cinq jours en France". Le Figaro (in French)."Amazon is reopening its warehouses in France after dispute with workers ends". May 19, 2020.Amazon loses appeal against worker safety ruling in France that prompted it to close"Amazon's Lobbying Expenditures". http://Opensecrets.org.Parkhurst, Emily (May 24, 2012). "Amazon shareholders met by protesters, company cuts ties with ALEC". http://Bizjournals.com.Romm, Tony. "In Amazon's shopping cart: D.C. influence". http://Politico.com. Politico. Retrieved August 7, 2014.Kang, Cecilia (December 27, 2015). "F.A.A. Drone Laws Start to Clash With Stricter Local Rules". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 20, 2019.Business, Matt McFarland, CNN. "Amazon gets closer to drone delivery with FAA approval". CNN. Retrieved September 4, 2020."Client Profile: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more". Centre for Responsive Politics. Retrieved February 4, 2020.Further readingBrandt, Richard L. (2011). One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more. New York: Portfolio Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59184-375-7.Daisey, Mike (2002). 21 Dog Years. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2580-5.Friedman, Mara (2004). Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more for Dummies. Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-5840-4.Marcus, James (2004). Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the http://Dot.Com Juggernaut. W. W. Norton. ISBN 1-56584-870-5.Spector, Robert (2000). Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more – Get Big Fast: Inside the Revolutionary Business Model That Changed the World. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-662041-4.Stone, Brad (2013). The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. New York: Little Brown and Co. ISBN 978-0-316-21926-6. OCLC 856249407.External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more.Official website Edit this at WikidataAmazon (company) companies grouped at OpenCorporatesBusiness data for Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.:Quorahttps://www.quora.com/How-can-I-speak-directly-to-the-Amazon-Indias-customer-service-department/answer/Hansi-Kumar/log#57 viewsPhonepe Customer Care ' NNumber Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.[8] (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon) is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud, along with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook.[9][10][11][12] The company has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", as well as the world's most valuable brand.[13][14]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.Amazon logo.svgLogo since 2000Amazon Spheres 05.jpgThe Amazon Spheres, part of the Amazon headquarters campus in SeattleTrade nameAmazonFormerlyCadabra, Inc. (1994–95)TypePublicTraded asNASDAQ: AMZNNASDAQ-100 componentS&P 100 componentS&P 500 🧞‍♀️🧞‍♀️🧟‍♂️🧚‍♂️🧚‍♂️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️👰🤵🤵🤵🤵👰👰👰🤵👩‍💼👨‍💼👨‍💼👨‍🎓👨‍🎓👩‍🎓👨‍🎓componentISINUS0231351067IndustryCloud computinge-commerceartificial intelligenceconsumer electronicsdigital distributionself-driving carsFoundedJuly 5, 1994; 26 years agoBellevue, Washington, U.S.FounderJeff BezosHeadquartersSeattle, Washington, U.S.Area servedWorldwideKey peopleJeff Bezos (President, CEO, and Chairman)Andy Jassy (CEO-elect)Brian Olsavsky (Senior VP and CFO)ProductsEchoFire TabletFire TVFire OSKindleServicesAmazon.comAmazon AlexaAmazon AppstoreAmazon MusicAmazon PrimeAmazon Prime VideoAmazon Web ServicesRevenueIncrease US$386.064 billion (2020)Operating incomeIncrease US$22.9 billion (2020)Net incomeIncrease US$21.331 billion (2020)Total assetsIncrease US$321.2 billion (2020)Total equityIncrease US$93.404 billion (2020)Number of employeesIncrease 1,298,000 (Dec. 2020)[1]U.S.: 810,000 (Oct. 2020)[2]SubsidiariesA9.comAbeBooksAlexa http://InternetAmazon.com ServicesAmazon AirAmazon BooksAmazon FreshAmazon Game StudiosAmazon Lab126Amazon LogisticsAmazon PharmacyAmazon PublishingAmazon RoboticsAmazon StudiosAWSAudibleBody LabsBook DepositoryComiXologyDigital Photography ReviewGoodreadsGraphiqIMDbPillPackRingSouq.comTwitch InteractiveWhole Foods MarketWootZapposWebsiteOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreFootnotes / references[1][3][4][5][6][7]Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. It started as an online marketplace for books but expanded to sell electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization.[15] In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for US$13.4 billion, which substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer.[16] In 2018, its two-day delivery service, Amazon Prime, surpassed 100 million subscribers worldwide.[17]Amazon is known for its disruption of well-established industries through technological innovation and mass scale.[18][19][20] It is the world's largest online marketplace, AI assistant provider, live-streaming platform and cloud computing platform[21] as measured by revenue and market capitalization.[22] Amazon is the largest Internet company by revenue in the world.[23] It is the second largest private employer in the United States[24] and one of the world's most valuable companies. As of 2020, Amazon has the highest global brand valuation.[25]Amazon distributes downloads and streaming of video, music, and audiobooks through its Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, and Audible subsidiaries. Amazon also has a publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a film and television studio, Amazon Studios, and a cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services. It produces consumer electronics including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices. Its acquisitions over the years include Ring, Twitch, Whole Foods Market, and IMDb.Amazon has been criticized for practices including technological surveillance overreach,[26] a hyper-competitive and demanding work culture,[27] tax avoidance,[28] and anti-competitive behavior.[29][30]HistoryFurther information: History of AmazonThe company's largest campus outside the United States was inaugurated in Hyderabad, India in September 2019.Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in July 1994. He chose Seattle because of technical talent as Microsoft is located there.[31] In May 1997, Amazon went public. It began selling music and videos in 1998, at which time it began operations internationally by acquiring online sellers of books in United Kingdom and Germany. The following year, Amazon began selling items including video games, consumer electronics, home improvement items, software, games, and http://toys.In 2002, Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provided data on website popularity, Internet traffic patterns and other statistics for marketers and developers. In 2006, Amazon grew its AWS portfolio when Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which rents computer processing power as well as Simple Storage Service (S3), that rents data storage via the Internet, were made available. That same year, Amazon started Fulfillment by Amazon which managed the inventory of individuals and small companies selling their belongings through the company internet site. In 2012, Amazon bought Kiva Systems to automate its inventory-management business, purchasing Whole Foods Market supermarket chain five years later in 2017.[32]In January 2021, Amazon invested with over $278 million by opening two new centers in Italy (Novara and Modena) and creating over 1100 jobs.[33]On February 2, 2021, Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos would be stepping down as CEO and transition to Executive Chair of Amazon's board in Q3 of 2021. Andy Jassy, who is currently CEO of AWS, will replace Bezos as CEO of the company.[34][35]Board of directorsAmazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2016As of September 2020, the board of directors is:[36]Jeff Bezos, President, CEO, and ChairmanKeith B. Alexander, CEO IronNet Cybersecurity, former NSA DirectorRosalind Brewer, Group President, and COO, StarbucksJamie Gorelick, partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale, and DorrDaniel P. Huttenlocher, Dean of the Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJudy McGrath, former CEO, MTV NetworksIndra Nooyi, former CEO, PepsiCoJon Rubinstein, former Chairman, and CEO, Palm, Inc.Thomas O. Ryder, former Chairman, and CEO, Reader's Digest AssociationPatty Stonesifer, President, and CEO, Martha's TableWendell P. Weeks, Chairman, President, and CEO, Corning Inc.Merchant partnershipsIn 2000, U.S. toy retailer Toys "R" Us entered into a 10-year agreement with Amazon, valued at $50 million per year plus a cut of sales, under which Toys "R" Us would be the exclusive supplier of toys and baby products on the service, and the chain's website would redirect to Amazon's Toys & Games category. In 2004, Toys "R" Us sued Amazon, claiming that because of a perceived lack of variety in Toys "R" Us stock, Amazon had knowingly allowed third-party sellers to offer items on the service in categories that Toys "R" Us had been granted exclusivity. In 2006, a court ruled in favor of Toys "R" Us, giving it the right to unwind its agreement with Amazon and establish its own independent e-commerce website. The company was later awarded $51 million in damages.[37][38][39]In 2001, Amazon entered into a similar agreement with Borders Group, under which Amazon would comanage Barnes & Noble Welcomes Borders® Bookstore Customers as a co-branded service.[40] Borders pulled out of the arrangement in 2007, with plans to also launch its own online store.[41]On October 18, 2011, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. The partnership has caused well-known bookstores like Barnes & Noble to remove these titles from their shelves.[42]In November 2013, Amazon announced a partnership with the United States Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included in Amazon's standard shipping rates, initiated in metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York because of the high-volume and inability to deliver in a timely way, with plans to expand into Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix by 2014.[43]In June 2017, Nike confirmed a "pilot" partnership with Amazon to sell goods directly on the platform.[44][45][46] This pilot ended in November 2019.[47]As of October 11, 2017, AmazonFresh sold a range of Booths branded products for home delivery in selected areas.[48]In September 2017, Amazon ventured with one of its sellers JV Appario Retail owned by Patni Group which has recorded a total income of US$ 104.44 million (₹ 759 crore) in financial year 2017–18.[49]In November 2018, Amazon reached an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell selected products through the service, via the company and selected Apple Authorized Resellers. As a result of this partnership, only Apple Authorized Resellers may sell Apple products on Amazon effective January 4, 2019.[50][51]LogisticsAmazon uses many different transportation services to deliver packages. Amazon-branded services include:Amazon Air, a cargo airline for bulk transport, with last mile delivery handled either by Amazon Flex, Amazon Logistics, or the United States Postal Service.Amazon Flex, a smartphone app that enables individuals to act as independent contractors, delivering packages to customers from personal vehicles without uniforms. Deliveries include one or two hour Prime Now, same or next day Amazon Fresh groceries, and standard Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreorders, in addition to orders from local stores that contract with Amazon.[52]Amazon Logistics, in which Amazon contracts with small businesses (which it calls "Delivery Service Partners") to perform deliveries to customers. Each business has a fleet of approximately 20-40 Amazon-branded vans, and employees of the contractors wear Amazon uniforms. As of December 2020, it operates in the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[53]Amazon Prime Air is an experimental drone delivery service.Amazon directly employs people to work at its warehouses, bulk distribution centers, staffed "Amazon Hub Locker+" locations, and delivery stations where drivers pick up packages. As of December 2020, it is not hiring delivery drivers as employees.[54]Rakuten Intelligence estimated that in 2020 in the United States, the proportion of last-mile deliveries was 56% by Amazon's directly contracted services (mostly in urban areas), 30% by the United States Postal Service (mostly in rural areas), and 14% by UPS.[55] The USPS is used to deliver packages to at least some unstaffed Amazon Lockers, according to on-site signage.Products and servicesMain article: List of Amazon products and servicesOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more's product lines available at its website include several media (books, DVDs, music CDs, videotapes and software), apparel, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal-care items, industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry, watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive items and toys & games.[citation needed] In August 2019, Amazon applied to have a liquor store in San Francisco, CA as a means to ship beer and alcohol within the city.[56] Amazon has separate retail websites for some countries and also offers international shipping of some of its products to certain other countries.[57] In November 2020, the company started an online delivery service dedicated to prescription drugs. The service provides discounts up to 80% for generic drugs and up to 40% for branded drugs for Prime subscribe users. The products can be purchased on the company's website or at over 50,000 bricks-and-mortar pharmacies in the United States.[58]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more has a number of products and services available, including:AmazonFreshAmazon PrimeAmazon Web ServicesAlexaAppstoreAmazon DriveEchoKindleFire tabletsFire TVVideoKindle StoreMusicMusic UnlimitedAmazon Digital Game StoreAmazon StudiosAmazonWirelessSubsidiariesSee also: List of Amazon locationsAmazon owns over 40 subsidiaries, including Audible, http://Diapers.com, Goodreads, IMDb, Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), Shopbop, Teachstreet, Twitch and Zappos.[59]http://A9.comhttp://A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology, has been a subsidiary since 2003.[60]Amazon MaritimeAmazon Maritime, Inc. holds a Federal Maritime Commission license to operate as a non-vessel-owning common carrier (NVOCC), which enables the company to manage its own shipments from China into the United States.[61]Annapurna LabsIn January 2015, Amazon Web Services acquired Annapurna Labs, an Israel-based microelectronics company reputedly for US$350–370M.[62][63][64]Unlock a listen for every momentUnlock a listen for every moment is a seller and producer of spoken audio entertainment, information and educational programming on the Internet. Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and television programs and audio versions of magazines and newspapers. Through its production arm, Audible Studios, Audible has also become the world's largest producer of downloadable audiobooks. On January 31, 2008, Amazon announced it would buy Audible for about $300 million. The deal closed in March 2008 and Audible became a subsidiary of Amazon.[65]Beijing Century Joyo Courier ServicesBeijing Century Joyo Courier Services is a subsidiary of Amazon and it applied for a freight forwarding license with the US Maritime Commission. Amazon is also building out its logistics in trucking and air freight to potentially compete with UPS and FedEx.[66][67]Brilliance AudioBrilliance Audio is an audiobook publisher founded in 1984 by Michael Snodgrass in Grand Haven, Michigan.[68] The company produced its first 8 audio titles in 1985.[68] The company was purchased by Amazon in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.[69][70] At the time of the acquisition, Brilliance was producing 12–15 new titles a month.[70] It operates as an independent company within Online Shopping site in India: Shop Online for Mobiles, Books, Watches, Shoes and More 1984, Brilliance Audio invented a technique for recording twice as much on the same cassette.[71] The technique involved recording on each of the two channels of each stereo track.[71] It has been credited with revolutionizing the burgeoning audiobook market in the mid-1980s since it made unabridged books affordable.[71]ComiXologyComiXology is a cloud-based digital comics platform with over 200 million comic downloads as of September 2013. It offers a selection of more than 40,000 comic books and graphic novels across Android, iOS, Fire OS and Windows 8 devices and over a web browser. Amazon bought the company in April 2014.[72]CreateSpaceCreateSpace, which offers self-publishing services for independent content creators, publishers, film studios, and music labels, became a subsidiary in 2009.[73][74]EeroEero, stylized as eero, is a company that manufactures mesh-capable routers. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco. Amazon announced it would buy Eero in 2019.GoodreadsMain article: GoodreadsGoodreads is a "social cataloging" website founded in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler, a software engineer, and entrepreneur, and Elizabeth Khuri. The website allows individuals to freely search Goodreads' extensive user-populated database of books, annotations, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists. They can also create their own groups of book suggestions and discussions. In December 2007, the site had over 650,000 members and over 10 million books had been added. Amazon bought the company in March 2013.[75]Health NavigatorIn October 2019, Amazon finalized the acquisition of Health Navigator, a startup developing APIs for online health services. The startup will form part of Amazon Care, which is the company's employee healthcare service. This follows the 2018 purchase of PillPack for under $1 billion, which has also been included into Amazon Care.[76]JungleeJunglee is a former online shopping service provided by Amazon that enabled customers to search for products from online and offline retailers in India. Junglee started off as a virtual database that was used to extract information from the Internet and deliver it to enterprise applications. As it progressed, Junglee started to use its database technology to create a single window marketplace on the Internet by making every item from every supplier available for purchase. Web shoppers could locate, compare and transact millions of products from across the Internet shopping mall through one window.[77]Amazon acquired Junglee in 1998, and the website Junglee.comwas launched in India in February 2012[78] as a comparison-shopping website. It curated and enabled searching for a diverse variety of products such as clothing, electronics, toys, jewelry and video games, among others, across thousands of online and offline sellers. Millions of products are browsable, the client selects a price, and then they are directed to a seller. In November 2017, Amazon closed down Junglee.com and the former domain currently redirects to Amazon India.[79]Kuiper SystemsMain article: Kuiper SystemsKuiper Systems LLC, is a subsidiary of Amazon, set up to deploy a broadband satellite internet constellation with an announced 3,236 Low Earth orbit satellites to provide satellite based Internet connectivity.[80][81][82]PillPackPillPack is an online pharmacy specializing in shipping pre-sorted medications in by-day packets. It was acquired by Amazon in June 2018.Lab126Main article: Amazon Lab126Lab126, developers of integrated consumer electronics such as the Kindle, became a subsidiary in 2004.[83]RingMain article: Ring Inc.Ring is a home automation company founded by Jamie Siminoff in 2013. It is primarily known for its WiFi powered smart doorbells, but manufactures other devices such as security cameras. Amazon bought Ring for US$1 billion in 2018.[84]ShelfariShelfari was a social cataloging website for books. Shelfari users built virtual bookshelves of the titles which they owned or had read and they could rate, review, tag and discuss their books. Users could also create groups that other members could join, create discussions and talk about books, or other topics. Recommendations could be sent to friends on the site for what books to read. Amazon bought the company in August 2008.[75] Shelfari continued to function as an independent book social network within the Amazon until January 2016, when Amazon announced that it would be merging Shelfari with Goodreads and closing down Shelfari.[85][86]SouqMain article: تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلاتتسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات is the largest E-Commerce platform in the Middle East based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On March 28, 2017, Amazon confirmed it would be acquiring تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات for $580 million.[87] تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ، الملابس ، الكمبيوترات، موبايلات is now a subsidiary of Amazon, and acts as Amazon's arm into the Middle East region.TwitchMain article: Twitch (service)Twitch at the Electronic Entertainment ExpoTwitch is a live streaming platform for video, primarily oriented towards video gaming content. The service was first established as a spin-off of a general-interest streaming service known as http://Justin.tv. Its prominence was eclipsed by that of Twitch, and http://Justin.tv was eventually shut down by its parent company in August 2014 in order to focus exclusively on Twitch.[88] Later that month, Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $970 million.[89] Through Twitch, Amazon also owns Curse, Inc., an operator of video gaming communities and a provider of VoIP services for gaming.[90] Since the acquisition, Twitch began to sell games directly through the platform,[91] and began offering special features for Amazon Prime subscribers.[92]The site's rapid growth had been boosted primarily by the prominence of major esports competitions on the service, leading GameSpot senior esports editor Rod Breslau to have described the service as "the ESPN of esports".[93] As of 2015, the service had over 1.5 million broadcasters and 100 million monthly viewers.[94]On August 10, 2020, Amazon announced the rebranding of Twitch Prime, the live-streaming site, renaming it Prime Gaming [1] in another attempt to crack the video game market after failing a big-budget game effort. With Twitch Prime, users will be given a free subscription to Twitch, with free games from small studios and discounts for larger titles like Grand Theft Auto and League of Legends.[95]On November 2, 2020, Twitch announced a virtual flagship conference and named it GlitchCon instead of TwitchCon to be held on November 14. The main aim of the conference will be to bring its numerous, disparate communities of streamers and fans together where they can be real life confidants.[96]Whole Foods MarketWhole Foods Market store in Ann Arbor, MichiganWhole Foods Market is an American supermarket chain exclusively featuring foods without artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.[97]On August 23, 2017, it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission approved the merger between Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more and Whole Foods Market.[98] The following day it was announced that the deal would be closed on August 28, 2017.[99]Supply chainAmazon first launched its distribution network in 1997 with two fulfillment centers in Seattle and New Castle, Delaware. Amazon has several types of distribution facilities consisting of crossdock centers, fulfillment centers, sortation centers, delivery stations, Prime now hubs, and Prime air hubs. There are 75 fulfillment centers and 25 sortation centers with over 125,000 employees.[100][101] Employees are responsible for five basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing goods in storage and recording their location; picking goods from their computer recorded locations to make up an individual shipment; sorting and packing orders; and shipping. A computer that records the location of goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a key role: employees carry hand-held computers which communicate with the central computer and monitor their rate of progress. Some warehouses are partially automated with systems built by Amazon Robotics.Amazon.fr : livres, DVD, jeux vidéo, musique, high-tech, informatique, jouets, vêtements, chaussures, sport, bricolage, maison, beauté, puériculture, épicerie et plus encore ! fulfillment center in Lauwin-Planque, Francecompra online de electrónica, libros, deporte, hogar, moda y mucho más. fulfillment center in San Fernando de Henares, SpainLow Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more fulfillment center in Glenrothes, Scotland, UKGünstige Preise für Elektronik & Foto, Filme, Musik, Bücher, Games, Spielzeug & mehr fulfillment center in Graben, GermanyAmazon | 本, ファッション, 家電から食品まで | アマゾン fulfillment center in Ichikawa, JapanAmazon fulfillment center in Macon, Georgia, U.S.WebsiteOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more-Logo.svgLogo since 2000ScreenshotOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & morescreenshot.jpegHomepageType of siteE-commerceAvailable inArabicEnglishFrenchGermanSpanishSwedishItalianChineseJapanesePortugueseDutchTurkishOwnerAmazonURLOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more(original U.S. site)CommercialYesRegistrationOptionalLaunched1995; 26 years agoCurrent statusActiveWritten inC++ and Java[102]The domain Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more attracted at least 615 million visitors annually by 2008;[103] by the beginning of 2016, over 130 million customers were visiting the U.S. website each month.[104] The company has invested heavily in a massive amount of server capacity for its website, especially to handle the excessive traffic during the Christmas holiday season.[105] According to Alexa Internet rankings, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is the third most popular website in the United States and the 14th most popular website worldwide.Results generated by Amazon's search engine are partly determined by promotional fees.[106] The company's localized storefronts, which differ in selection and prices, are differentiated by top-level domain and country code:Region Country Domain name SinceAmericas Brazil Compre livros, Kindle, Echo, Fire Tv e mais. December 2012Canada Low Prices - Fast Shipping - Millions of Items June 2002Mexico Precios bajos - Envío rápido - Millones de productos August 2013United States Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more July 1995Asia China 亚马逊中国 z.cn, 一站放心购全球 September 2004India Online Shopping site in India: Shop Online for Mobiles, Books, Watches, Shoes and More June 2013Japan Amazon | 本, ファッション, 家電から食品まで | アマゾンNovember 2000Singapore Shop Online for Electronics, Computers, Books, Toys, DVDs, Baby, Grocery, & more July 2017Turkey Amazon.com.tr: Elektronik, bilgisayar, akıllı telefon, kitap, oyuncak, yapı market, ev, mutfak, oyun konsolları ürünleri ve daha fazlası için internet alışveriş sitesi September 2018United Arab Emirates Welcome to Amazon.ae Shop Online in UAE for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Grocery & more May 2019Saudi Arabia تسوق اون لاين الاجهزة الالكترونية ,الملابس , الكمبيوترات, البقالة و اكثر - سوق.كوم الان اصبحت أمازونJune 2020Europe France Amazon.fr : livres, DVD, jeux vidéo, musique, high-tech, informatique, jouets, vêtements, chaussures, sport, bricolage, maison, beauté, puériculture, épicerie et plus encore ! August 2000Germany Günstige Preise für Elektronik & Foto, Filme, Musik, Bücher, Games, Spielzeug & mehr October 1998Italy elettronica, libri, musica, fashion, videogiochi, DVD e tanto altro November 2010Netherlands Groot aanbod, kleine prijzen in o.a. Elektronica, boeken, sport en meer November 2014Spain compra online de electrónica, libros, deporte, hogar, moda y mucho más. September 2011Sweden Låga priser på Elektronik, Böcker, Sportutrustning & mer October 2020United Kingdom Low Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more October 1998Oceania Australia Shop online for Electronics, Apparel, Toys, Books, DVDs & more November 2017ReviewsSee also: Criticism of Amazon § Amazon reviewsAmazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. Reviewers must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon provides a 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. Customers may comment or vote on the reviews, indicating whether they found a review helpful to them. If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the front page of the product. In 2010, Amazon was reported as being the largest single source of Internet consumer reviews.[107]When publishers asked Bezos why Amazon would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more was "taking a different approach ... we want to make every book available—the good, the bad and the ugly ... to let truth loose".[108]There have been cases of positive reviews being written and posted by public relations companies on behalf of their clients[109] and instances of writers using pseudonyms to leave negative reviews of their rivals' works.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.[110][111] The feature started with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003.[112] There are about 300,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches.[citation needed]To avoid copyright violations, Amazon does not return the computer-readable text of the book. Instead, it returns a picture of the matching page, instructs the web browser to disable printing and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. Additionally, customers can purchase online access to some of the same books via the "Amazon Upgrade" program.[citation needed]Third-party sellersAmazon derives many of its sales (around 40% in 2008) from third-party sellers who sell products on Amazon.[113] Associates receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links to Amazon on their websites if the referral results in a sale. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.[114] In the middle of 2014, the Amazon Affiliate Program is used by 1.2% of all websites and it is the second most popular advertising network after Google Ads.[115] It is frequently used by websites and non-profits to provide a way for supporters to earn them a commission.[116] Amazon reported over 1.3 million sellers sold products through Amazon's websites in 2007. Unlike eBay, Amazon sellers do not have to maintain separate payment accounts; all payments are handled by Amazon.[citation needed]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 another website, or linked to another website. In June 2010, Amazon Seller Product Suggestions was launched (rumored to be internally called "Project Genesis") to provide more transparency to sellers by recommending specific products to third-party sellers to sell on Amazon. Products suggested are based on customers' browsing history.[117] In 2019, Amazon launched a bigger local online store in Singapore to expand its product selection in the face of intensifying competition with competitors in the region.[118]In July 2019 the 3rd U.S. City Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that Amazon can be held accountable for faulty third-party sales.[119] The decision ran counter to a past lower court ruling that had favored Amazon. Heather Oberdorf had sued the company in 2016 over a dog leash that snapped, causing permanent loss of vision in one eye. If upheld, the decision would expose Amazon and similar platform businesses to strict liability lawsuits for defective products, which represents a major change in the law.[120] The panel sent the case back to the lower court, to decide whether the leash was actually defective.[121]Amazon sales rankThe Amazon sales rank (ASR) provides an indication of the popularity of a product sold on any Amazon locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a "best sellers list" for the millions of products stocked by Amazon.[122] While the ASR has no direct effect on the sales of a product, it is used by Amazon to determine which products to include in its bestsellers lists.[122] Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon website and this may lead to an increase in sales. In particular, products that experience large jumps (up or down) in their sales ranks may be included within Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers"; such a listing provides additional exposure that might lead to an increase in sales.[123] For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release actual sales figures to the public. However, Amazon has now begun to release point of sale data via the Nielsen BookScan service to verified authors.[124] While the ASR has been the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers, and marketers, Amazon itself does not release the details of its sales rank calculation algorithm. Some companies have analyzed Amazon sales data to generate sales estimates based on the ASR,[125] though Amazon states:Please keep in mind that our sales rank figures are simply meant to be a guide of general interest for the customer and not definitive sales information for publishers—we assume you have this information regularly from your distribution sources— Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreHelp[126]Multi-level sales strategyAmazon employs a multi-level e-commerce strategy. Amazon started by focusing on business-to-consumer relationships between itself and its customers and business-to-business relationships between itself and its suppliers and then moved to facilitate customer-to-customer with the Amazon marketplace which acts as an intermediary to facilitate transactions. The company lets anyone sell nearly anything using its platform. In addition to an affiliate program that lets anyone post Amazon links and earn a commission on click-through sales, there is now a program which lets those affiliates build entire websites based on Amazon's platform.[127]Some other large e-commerce sellers use Amazon to sell their products in addition to selling them through their own websites. The sales are processed through Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more and end up at individual sellers for processing and order fulfillment and Amazon leases space for these retailers. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace to offer goods at a fixed price.[128]In November 2015, Amazon opened a physical Amazon Books store in University Village in Seattle. The store is 5,500 square feet and prices for all products match those on its website.[129] Amazon will open its tenth physical book store in 2017;[130] media speculation suggests Amazon plans to eventually roll out 300 to 400 bookstores around the country.[129]In June 2018, it was reported that Amazon planned to open brick and mortar bookstores in Germany.[131]In September 2020, Amazon launched Luxury Stores on its mobile app, where Oscar de la Renta become the first and only label to partner with the firm.[132]FinancesOnline Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is primarily a retail site with a sales revenue model; Amazon takes a small percentage of the sale price of each item that is sold through its website while also allowing companies to advertise their products by paying to be listed as featured products.[133] As of 2018, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more is ranked 8th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[134]For the fiscal year 2018, Amazon reported earnings of US$10.07 billion, with an annual revenue of US$232.887 billion, an increase of 30.9% over the previous fiscal cycle. Since 2007 sales increased from 14.835 billion to 232.887 billion, thanks to continued business expansion.[135]Amazon's market capitalization went over US$1 trillion again in early February 2020 after the announcement of the fourth quarter 2019 results.[136] Amazon's total employees now number 798,000.[136]Year Revenuein mil. USD$ Net incomein mil. USD$ Total Assetsin mil. USD$ Employees2007[137] 14,835 476 6,485 17,0002008[138] 19,166 645 8,314 20,7002009[139] 24,509 902 13,813 24,3002010[140] 34,204 1,152 18,797 33,7002011[141] 48,077 631 25,278 56,2002012[142] 61,093 −39 32,555 88,4002013[143] 74,452 274 40,159 117,3002014[144] 88,988 −241 54,505 154,1002015[145] 107,006 596 64,747 230,8002016[146] 135,987 2,371 83,402 341,4002017[147] 177,866 3,033 131,310 566,0002018[148] 232,887 10,073 162,648 647,5002019[149] 280,522 11,588 225,248 798,0002020[150] 386,064 21,331 321,195 1,298,000ControversiesIt has been suggested that sections about criticism of Amazon be split out and merged into the article titled Criticism of Amazon, which already exists. (Discuss)Main article: Criticism of AmazonSince its founding, the company has attracted criticism and controversy for its actions, including: supplying law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools;[151] forming cloud computing partnerships with the CIA;[152] leading customers away from bookshops;[153] adversely impacting the environment;[154] placing a low priority on warehouse conditions for workers; actively opposing unionization efforts;[155] remotely deleting content purchased by Amazon Kindle users; taking public subsidies; seeking to patent its 1-Click technology; engaging in anti-competitive actions and price discrimination;[29][30] and reclassifying LGBT books as adult content.[156][157] Criticism has also concerned various decisions over whether to censor or publish content such as the WikiLeaks website, works containing libel and material facilitating dogfight, cockfight, or pedophile activities. In December 2011, Amazon faced a backlash from small businesses for running a one-day deal to promote its new Price Check app. Shoppers who used the app to check prices in a brick-and-mortar store were offered a 5% discount to purchase the same item from Amazon.[158] Companies like Groupon, eBay and http://Taap.it countered Amazon's promotion by offering $10 off from their products.[159][160]The company has also faced accusations of putting undue pressure on suppliers to maintain and extend its profitability. One effort to squeeze the most vulnerable book publishers was known within the company as the Gazelle Project, after Bezos suggested, according to Brad Stone, "that Amazon should approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle."[106] In July 2014, the Federal Trade Commission launched a lawsuit against the company alleging it was promoting in-app purchases to children, which were being transacted without parental consent.[161] In 2019, Amazon banned selling skin-lightening and racist products that might affect the consumer's health.[162]Environmental impactIn 2018, Amazon emitted 44.4 million metric tons of CO2.[163]In September 2019, Amazon workers organized a walk-out as part of the Global Climate Strike.[164][165] An internal group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said over 1,800 employees in 25 cities and 14 countries committed to participating in the action to protest Amazon's environmental impact and inaction to climate change.[164] This group of workers petitioned Jeff Bezos and Amazon with three specific demands: to stop donating to politicians and lobbyists that deny climate change, to stop working with fossil fuel companies to accelerate oil and gas extraction, and to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030.[166][165]Amazon has introduced the Shipment Zero program, however Shipment Zero has only committed to reducing 50% of its shipments to net zero by 2030. Also, even that 50% does not necessarily mean a decrease in emissions compared to current levels given Amazon's rate of growth in orders.[167]That said, Amazon's CEO has also signed the Climate Pledge, in which Amazon would meet the Paris climate agreement goals 10 years ahead of schedule, and would be carbon-neutral by 2040. Besides this pledge, it also ordered 100 000 electric delivery trucks from Rivian.[168]Amazon funds both climate denial groups including the Competitive Enterprise Institute and politicians denying climate change including Jim Inhofe.[169][170]In November 2018, a community action group opposed the construction permit delivered to Goodman Group for the construction of a 160,000 square metres (1,700,000 sq ft) logisitics platform Amazon will operate at Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport. In February 2019, Étienne Tête filed a request on behalf of a second regional community action group asking the administrative court to decide whether the platform served a sufficiently important public interest to justify its environmental impact. Construction has been suspended while these matters are decided.[154]Amazon considered making an option for Prime customers to have packages delivered at the most efficient and environmentally-friendly time (allowing the company to combine shipments with the same destination) but decided against it out of fear customers might reduce purchases.[171] Since 2019, the company has instead offered customers an "Amazon Day" option, where all orders are delivered on the same day, emphasizing customer convenience, and it occasionally offers Prime customers credits in return for selecting slower and less expensive shipping options.[171]Selling counterfeit, unsafe and discarded itemsThe selling of counterfeit products by Amazon has attracted widespread notice, with both purchases marked as being fulfilled by third parties and those shipped directly from Amazon warehouses being found to be counterfeit. This has included some products sold directly by Amazon itself and marked as "ships from and sold by Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more".[172] Counterfeit charging cables sold on Amazon as purported Apple products have been found to be a fire hazard.[173][174] Such counterfeits have included a wide array of products, from big ticket items to every day items such as tweezers, gloves,[175] and umbrellas.[176] More recently, this has spread to Amazon's newer grocery services.[177] Counterfeiting was reported to be especially a problem for artists and small businesses whose products were being rapidly copied for sale on the site.[178]One Amazon business practice that encourages counterfeiting is that, by default, seller accounts on Amazon are set to use "commingled inventory". With this practice, the goods that a seller sends to Amazon are mixed with those of the producer of the product and with those of all other sellers that supply what is supposed to be the same product.[179]In June 2019, Buzzfeed reported that some products identified on the site as "Amazon's choice" were low quality, had a history of customer complaints, and exhibited evidence of product review manipulation.[180]In August 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that they had found more than 4,000 items for sale on Amazon's site that had been declared unsafe by federal agencies, had misleading labels, or had been banned by federal regulators.[181]In the wake of the WSJ investigation, three U.S. senators – Richard Blumenthal, Ed Markey, and Bob Menendez – sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos demanding him to take action about the selling of unsafe items on the site. The letter said that "Unquestionably, Amazon is falling short of its commitment to keeping safe those consumers who use its massive platform."[182] The letter included a number of questions about the company's practices and gave Bezos a deadline to respond by September 29, 2019, saying "We call on you to immediately remove from the platform all the problematic products examined in the recent WSJ report; explain how you are going about this process; conduct a sweeping internal investigation of your enforcement and consumer safety policies; and institute changes that will continue to keep unsafe products off your platform."[182] Earlier in the same month, senators Blumenthal and Menendez had sent Bezos a letter about the Buzzfeed report.[182]In December 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that some people were literally retrieving trash out of dumpsters and selling it as new products on Amazon. The reporters ran an experiment and determined that it was easy for a seller to set up an account and sell cleaned up junk as new products. In addition to trash, sellers were obtaining inventory from clearance bins, thrift stores, and pawn shops.[183][184]In August 2020, an appeals court in California ruled that Amazon can be held liable for unsafe products sold on its website. A California woman had bought a replacement laptop battery that caught fire and caused her to receive third-degree burns.[185]Tax avoidanceMain article: Amazon taxAmazon's tax affairs were investigated in China, Germany, Poland, South Korea, France, Japan, Ireland, Singapore, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and Portugal.[186] According to a report released by Fair Tax Mark in 2019, Amazon is the worst offender of tax avoidance, having paid an 12% effective tax rate between 2010-2018, in contrast with 35% corporate tax rate in the US during the same period. Amazon countered that it had an 24% effective tax rate during the same period.[187]Comments by Donald Trump and Bernie SandersIn early 2018, President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Amazon's use of the United States Postal Service and its prices for the delivery of packages, stating, "I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy," Trump tweeted. "Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne [sic] by the American Taxpayer."[188] Amazon's shares fell by 6 percent as a result of Trump's comments. Shepard Smith of Fox News disputed Trump's claims and pointed to evidence that the USPS was offering below-market prices to all customers with no advantage to Amazon. However, analyst Tom Forte pointed to the fact that Amazon's payments to the USPS are not made public and that their contract has a reputation for being "a sweetheart deal".[189][190]Throughout the summer of 2018, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Amazon's wages and working conditions in a series of YouTube videos and media appearances. He also pointed to the fact that Amazon had paid no federal income tax in the previous year.[191] Sanders solicited stories from Amazon warehouse workers who felt exploited by the company.[192] One such story, by James Bloodworth, described the environment as akin to "a low-security prison" and stated that the company's culture used an Orwellian newspeak.[193] These reports cited a finding by New Food Economy that one third of fulfilment center workers in Arizona were on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).[194] Responses by Amazon included incentives for employees to tweet positive stories and a statement which called the salary figures used by Sanders "inaccurate and misleading". The statement also charged that it was inappropriate for him to refer to SNAP as "food stamps".[192] On September 5, 2018, Sanders along with Ro Khanna introduced the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act aimed at Amazon and other alleged beneficiaries of corporate welfare such as Walmart, McDonald's and Uber.[195] Among the bill's supporters were Tucker Carlson of Fox News and Matt Taibbi who criticized himself and other journalists for not covering Amazon's contribution to wealth inequality earlier.[196][197]On October 2, 2018, Amazon announced that its minimum wage for all American employees would be raised to $15 per hour. Sanders congratulated the company for making this decision.[198]Opposition to trade unionsMain article: Amazon worker organizationA sticker expressing an anti-Amazon message is pictured on the back of a street sign in Seattle.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 Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more 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 denied any link between the unionization effort and layoffs.[199] Also in 2001, Low Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more 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 Unite the Union) 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.[200]An Amazon training video that was leaked in 2018 stated "We are not anti-union, but we are not neutral either. We do not believe unions are in the best interest of our customers or shareholders or most importantly, our associates."[201] Two years later, it was found that Whole Foods was using a heat map to track which stores had the highest levels of pro-union sentiment. Factors including racial diversity, proximity to other unions, poverty levels in the surrounding community and calls to the National Labor Relations Board were named as contributors to "unionization risk".[202]In early 2020, an Amazon internal documents were leaked, it said that Whole Foods has been using an interactive heat map to monitor its 510 locations across the U.S. and assign each store a unionization risk score based on such criteria as employee loyalty, turnover rate and racial diversity. Data collected in the heat map suggest that stores with low racial and ethnic diversity, especially those located in poor communities, are more likely to unionize.[203][204]Working conditionsFormer employees, current employees, the media, and politicians have criticized Amazon for poor working conditions at the company.[205][206][207] In 2011, it was publicized that workers had to carry out tasks in 100 °F (38 °C) heat at the Breinigsville, Pennsylvania warehouse. As a result of these inhumane conditions, employees became extremely uncomfortable and suffered from dehydration and collapse. Loading-bay doors were not opened to allow in fresh air because of concerns over theft.[208] Amazon's initial response was to pay for an ambulance to sit outside on call to cart away overheated employees.[208] The company eventually installed air conditioning at the warehouse.[209]Some workers, "pickers", who travel the building with a trolley and a handheld scanner "picking" customer orders can walk up to 15 miles (24 kilometres) during their workday and if they fall behind on their targets, they can be reprimanded. The handheld scanners give real-time information to the employee on how quickly or slowly they are working; the scanners also serve to allow Team Leads and Area Managers to track the specific locations of employees and how much "idle time" they gain when not working.[210][211]In a German television report broadcast in February 2013, journalists Diana Löbl and Peter Onneken conducted a covert investigation at the distribution center of Amazon in the town of Bad Hersfeld in the German state of Hessen. The report highlights the behavior of some of the security guards, themselves being employed by a third party company, who apparently either had a neo-Nazi background or deliberately dressed in neo-Nazi apparel and who were intimidating foreign and temporary female workers at its distribution centers. The third party security company involved was delisted by Amazon as a business contact shortly after that report.[212][213][214][215]In March 2015, it was reported in The Verge that Amazon would be removing non-compete clauses of 18 months in length from its US employment contracts for hourly-paid workers, after criticism that it was acting unreasonably in preventing such employees from finding other work. Even short-term temporary workers have to sign contracts that prohibit them from working at any company where they would "directly or indirectly" support any good or service that competes with those they helped support at Amazon, for 18 months after leaving Amazon, even if they are fired or made redundant.[216][217]A 2015 front-page article in The New York Times profiled several former Amazon employees[218] who together described a "bruising" workplace culture in which workers with illness or other personal crises were pushed out or unfairly evaluated.[15] Bezos responded by writing a Sunday memo to employees,[219] in which he disputed the Times's account of "shockingly callous management practices" that he said would never be tolerated at the company.[15]In an effort to boost employee morale, on November 2, 2015, Amazon announced that it would be extending six weeks of paid leave for new mothers and fathers. This change includes birth parents and adoptive parents and can be applied in conjunction with existing maternity leave and medical leave for new mothers.[220]In mid-2018, investigations by journalists and media outlets such as The Guardian reported poor working conditions at Amazon's fulfillment centers.[221][222] Later in 2018, another article exposed poor working conditions for Amazon's delivery drivers.[223]In response to criticism that Amazon does not pay its workers a livable wage, Jeff Bezos announced beginning November 1, 2018, all US and UK Amazon employees will earn a $15 an hour minimum wage.[224] Amazon will also lobby to make $15 an hour the federal minimum wage.[225] At the same time, Amazon also eliminated stock awards and bonuses for hourly employees.[226]On Black Friday 2018, Amazon warehouse workers in several European countries, including Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, went on strike to protest inhumane working conditions and low pay.[227]The Daily Beast reported in March 2019 that emergency services responded to 189 calls from 46 Amazon warehouses in 17 states between the years 2013 and 2018, all relating to suicidal employees. The workers attributed their mental breakdowns to employer-imposed social isolation, aggressive surveillance, and the hurried and dangerous working conditions at these fulfillment centers. One former employee told The Daily Beast "It's this isolating colony of hell where people having breakdowns is a regular occurrence."[228]On July 15, 2019, during the onset of Amazon's "Prime Day" sale event, Amazon employees working in the United States and Germany went on strike in protest of unfair wages and poor working conditions.[229][230]In March 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak when the government instructed companies to restrict social contact, Amazon's UK staff was forced to work overtime to meet the demand spiked by the disease. A GMB spokesperson said the company had put "profit before safety".[231] GMB has continued to raise concerns regarding "gruelling conditions, unrealistic productivity targets, surveillance, bogus self-employment and a refusal to recognise or engage with unions unless forced", calling for the UK government and safety regulators to take action to address these issues.[232]In August 2019, BBC reported on Amazon's Twitter ambassadors. Their constant support for and defense of Amazon and its practices have led many Twitter users to suspect that they are in fact bots, being used to dismiss the issues effecting Amazon workers.[233]In its 2020 statement to its US shareholders, Amazon stated that "we respect and support the Core Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Operation of these Global Human Rights Principles has been "long-held at Amazon, and codifying them demonstrates our support for fundamental human rights and the dignity of workers everywhere we operate".[234]On November 27, 2020, Amnesty International said, workers in working for Amazon have faced great health and safety risks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Black Friday, one of Amazon's busiest periods, company failed to ensure the key safety features in France, Poland, the United Kingdom and USA. Workers have been risking their health and lives to ensure essential goods are delivered to consumer doorsteps, helping Amazon achieve record profits.[235]On January 6, 2021, Amazon said that it is planning to build 20,000 affordable houses by spending $2 billion in the regions where the major employments are located.[236]On January 24, 2021, Amazon said that it was planning to open a pop-up clinic hosted in partnership with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle in order to vaccinate 2,000 persons against COVID-19 on the first day.[237]In February 2021, Amazon said that it was planning to put cameras in its delivery vehicles. Although many drivers were upset of this decision, Amazon said that the videos were only be sent in certain circumstances.[238]Conflict of interest with the CIA and DODIn 2013, Amazon secured a US$600 million contract with the CIA, which poses a potential conflict of interest involving the Bezos-owned The Washington Post and his newspaper's coverage of the CIA.[239] Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said, "It's a serious potential conflict of interest for a major newspaper like The Washington Post to have a contractual relationship with the government and the most secret part of the government."[240] This was later followed by a US$10 billion contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.[152]Seattle head tax and houselessness servicesIn May 2018, Amazon threatened the Seattle City Council over an employee head tax proposal that would have funded houselessness services and low-income housing. The tax would have cost Amazon about $800 per employee, or 0.7% of their average salary.[241] In retaliation, Amazon paused construction on a new building, threatened to limit further investment in the city, and funded a repeal campaign. Although originally passed, the measure was soon repealed after an expensive repeal campaign spearheaded by Amazon.[242]Nashville Operations Center of ExcellenceThe incentives given by the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County to Amazon for their new Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville Yards, a site owned by developer Southwest Value Partners, have been controversial, including the decision by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to keep the full extent of the agreement secret.[243] The incentives include "$102 million in combined grants and tax credits for a scaled-down Amazon office building" as well as "a $65 million cash grant for capital expenditures" in exchange for the creation of 5,000 jobs over seven years.[243]The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government called for more transparency.[243] Another local organization known as the People's Alliance for Transit, Housing, and Employment (PATHE) suggested no public money should be given to Amazon; instead, it should be spent on building more public housing for the working poor and the homeless and investing in more public transportation for Nashvillians.[244] Others suggested incentives to big corporations do not improve the local economy.[245]In November 2018, the proposal to give Amazon $15 million in incentives was criticized by the Nashville Firefighters Union and the Nashville chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police,[246] who called it "corporate welfare."[247] In February 2019, another $15.2 million in infrastructure was approved by the council, although it was voted down by three council members, including Councilwoman Angie Henderson who dismissed it as "cronyism".[248]Facial recognition technology and law enforcementWhile Amazon has publicly opposed secret government surveillance, as revealed by Freedom of Information Act requests it has supplied facial recognition support to law enforcement in the form of the Rekognition technology and consulting services. Initial testing included the city of Orlando, Florida, and Washington County, Oregon. Amazon offered to connect Washington County with other Amazon government customers interested in Rekognition and a body camera manufacturer. These ventures are opposed by a coalition of civil rights groups with concern that they could lead to an expansion of surveillance and be prone to abuse. Specifically, it could automate the identification and tracking of anyone, particularly in the context of potential police body camera integration.[151][249][250] Because of the backlash, the city of Orlando publicly stated it will no longer use the technology, but may revisit this decision at a later date.[251]Access to NHS dataThe UK government awarded Amazon a contract that gives the company free access to information about healthcare published by the UK's National Health Service.[252] This will, for example, be used by Amazon's Alexa to answer medical questions, although Alexa also uses many other sources of information. The material, which excludes patient data, could also allow the company to make, advertise and sell its own products. The contract allows Amazon access to information on symptoms, causes and definitions of conditions, and "all related copyrightable content and data and other materials". Amazon can then create "new products, applications, cloud-based services and/or distributed software", which the NHS will not benefit from financially. The company can also share the information with third parties. The government said that allowing Alexa devices to offer expert health advice to users will reduce pressure on doctors and pharmacists.[253]Collection of data and surveillanceOn February 17, 2020, a Panorama documentary highlighted the amount of data collected by the company and the move into surveillance causing concerns of politicians and regulators in the US and Europe.[254][255]Antitrust complaintsOn June 11, 2020, the European Union announced that it will be pressing charges against Amazon over its treatment of third-party e-commerce sellers.[256]In July 2020, Amazon along with other tech giants Apple, Google and Facebook were accused of maintaining harmful power and anti-competitive strategies to quash potential competitors in the market.[257] The CEOs of respective firms appeared in a teleconference on July 29, 2020 before the lawmakers of the U.S. House Antitrust Subcommittee.[258] In October 2020, the antitrust subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives released a report accusing Amazon of abusing a monopoly position in ecommerce to unfairly compete with sellers on its own platform.[259]Anti-vaccination and non-scientific cancer 'cures'Anti-vaccination and non evidence-based cancer 'cures' have routinely appeared high in Amazon's books and videos. This may be due to positive reviews posted by supporters of untested methods, or gaming of the algorithms by truther communities, rather than any intent on Amazon's part.[260][261]Wired magazine found that Amazon Prime Video was full of 'pseudoscientific documentaries laden with conspiracy theories and pointing viewers towards unproven treatments'.[262]U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) expressed concern that Amazon was “surfacing and recommending products and content that discourage parents from vaccinating their children.” Amazon subsequently removed five anti-vaccination documentaries.[263] Amazon also removed 12 books that unscientifically claimed bleach could cure conditions including malaria and childhood autism. This followed an NBC News report about parents who used it in a misguided attempt to reverse their children's autism.[264]Response to COVID-19 pandemicHazard pay and overtimeAmazon introduced new policies to reward frontline workers for continuing to come into work during the crisis. One of these policies, announced on March 16, 2020 was a temporary $2-per-hour rise in pay. This policy expired in June 2020.[265] Amazon also announced a policy of unlimited, unpaid time off that lasted until April 30, 2020.[266]Additional hiring as a result of pandemicIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon introduced temporary restrictions on the sale of non-essential goods. In March 2020, it hired some 100,000 more staff in the US to help deal with essential items such as food and medical equipment. It also reported that it was so busy that it was unable to bring on board new customers and therefore had to have a waiting list. In April, the firm announced that it was going to hire up to 75,000 workers to help deal with increased demand.[267] In September 2020, the company announced it would hire an additional 100,000 workers in the United States and Canada.[268]Employee protests during COVID-19During the pandemic there have been protests by the Amazon workers at warehouses in the US, France, and Italy. The BBC reported that there were confirmed coronavirus cases in more than 50 locations.[267] The reason for the protests is the company policy to "run normal shifts" despite many positive cases of the virus.[269] According to the UNI Global Union, "Amazon cannot act like this is business as usual. We are facing a deadly virus that has already taken the lives of thousands of people and paralyzed the world's economy. If distribution centers are not safe for workers right now, they should be closed immediately."[269] In Spain, the company has faced legal complaints over its policies.[270] Despite workers at 19 warehouses in the US having tested positive for COVID-19, Amazon did not shut down warehouses, only doing so when forced by the government or because of protests. A group of US Senators wrote an open letter to Bezos in March 2020, expressing concerns about worker safety.[271]An Amazon warehouse protest on March 30, 2020, in Staten Island led to its organizer, Christian Smalls, being fired. Amazon defended the decision by saying that Smalls was supposed to be in self-isolation at the time and leading the protest put its other workers at risk.[270] Smalls has called this response "ridiculous".[272] The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is considering legal retaliation to the firing which she called "immoral and inhumane."[270] She also asked the National Labor Relations Board to investigate Smalls' firing. Smalls himself accuses the company of retaliating against him for organizing a protest.[272] At the Staten Island warehouse, one case of COVID-19 has been confirmed by Amazon; workers believe there are more, and say that the company has not cleaned the building, given them suitable protection, or informed them of potential cases.[271] Smalls added specifically that there are many workers there in risk categories, and the protest only demanded that the building be sanitized and the employees continue to be paid during that process.[272] Derrick Palmer, another worker at the Staten Island facility, told The Verge that Amazon quickly communicates through text and email when they need the staff to complete mandatory overtime, but have not been using this to tell people when a colleague has contracted the disease, instead waiting days and sending managers to speak to employees in person.[271] Amazon claim that the Staten Island protest only attracted 15 of the facility's 5,000 workers,[273] while other sources describe much larger crowds.[271]On April 14, 2020, two Amazon employees were fired for "repeatedly violating internal policies", after they had circulated a petition about health risks for warehouse workers internally.[274]On May 4, Amazon vice president Tim Bray resigned "in dismay" over the firing of whistle-blower employees who spoke out about the lack of COVID-19 protections, including shortages of face masks and failure to implement widespread temperature checks which were promised by the company. He said that the firings were "chickenshit" and "designed to create a climate of fear" in Amazon warehouses.[275]In a Q1 2020 financial report, Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon expects to spend $4 billion or more (predicted operating profit for Q2) on COVID-19-related issues: personal protective equipment, higher wages for hourly teams, cleaning for facilities, and expanding Amazon's COVID-19 testing capabilities. These measures intend to improve the safety and well-being of hundreds of thousands of the company's employees.[276]From the beginning of 2020 until September of the same year, the company declares that the total number of workers who have contracted the infection is 19,816.[277]Closure in FranceThe SUD (trade unions) brought a court case against Amazon for unsafe working conditions. This resulted in a French district court (Nanterre) ruling on April 15, 2020, ordering the company to limit, under threat of a €1 million per day fine, its deliveries to certain essential items, including electronics, food, medical or hygienic products, and supplies for home improvement, animals, and offices.[278] Instead, Amazon immediately shut down its six warehouses in France, continuing to pay workers but limiting deliveries to items shipped from third-party sellers and warehouses outside of France.[279] The company said the €100,000 fine for each prohibited item shipped could result in billions of dollars in fines even with a small fraction of items misclassified.[280] After losing an appeal and coming to an agreement with labor unions for more pay and staggered schedules, the company reopened its French warehouses on May 19.[279]LobbyingAmazon lobbies the United States federal government and state governments on multiple issues such as the enforcement of sales taxes on online sales, transportation safety, privacy and data protection and intellectual property. According to regulatory filings, Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more focuses its lobbying on the United States Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Reserve. Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & morespent roughly $3.5 million, $5 million and $9.5 million on lobbying, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.[281]Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more was a corporate member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until it dropped membership following protests at its shareholders' meeting on May 24, 2012.[282]In 2014, Amazon expanded its lobbying practices as it prepared to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration to approve its drone delivery program, hiring the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld lobbying firm in June.[283] Amazon and its lobbyists have visited with Federal Aviation Administration officials and aviation committees in Washington, D.C. to explain its plans to deliver packages.[284] In September 2020 this moved one step closer with the granting of a critical certificate by the FAA.[285]In 2019 it spent $16.8m and had a team of 104 lobbyists, up from $14.4m and 103 lobbyists in 2018.[286]See alsoAmazon Breakthrough Novel AwardAmazon Flexible Payments ServiceAmazon MarketplaceAmazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)Camelcamelcamel – a website that tracks the prices of products sold on Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & moreList of book distributorsInternal carbon pricingStatistically improbable phrases – Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more's phrase extraction technique for indexing booksReferencesInline XBRL http://Viewerhttps://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872421000004/amzn-20201231.htm#i75de98b9097f40f3b5884e541f532421_73. 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May 19, 2020.Amazon loses appeal against worker safety ruling in France that prompted it to close"Amazon's Lobbying Expenditures". http://Opensecrets.org.Parkhurst, Emily (May 24, 2012). "Amazon shareholders met by protesters, company cuts ties with ALEC". http://Bizjournals.com.Romm, Tony. "In Amazon's shopping cart: D.C. influence". http://Politico.com. Politico. Retrieved August 7, 2014.Kang, Cecilia (December 27, 2015). "F.A.A. Drone Laws Start to Clash With Stricter Local Rules". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 20, 2019.Business, Matt McFarland, CNN. "Amazon gets closer to drone delivery with FAA approval". CNN. Retrieved September 4, 2020."Client Profile: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more". Centre for Responsive Politics. Retrieved February 4, 2020.Further readingBrandt, Richard L. (2011). One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more. New York: Portfolio Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59184-375-7.Daisey, Mike (2002). 21 Dog Years. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2580-5.Friedman, Mara (2004). Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more for Dummies. Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-5840-4.Marcus, James (2004). Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the http://Dot.Com Juggernaut. W. W. Norton. ISBN 1-56584-870-5.Spector, Robert (2000). Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more – Get Big Fast: Inside the Revolutionary Business Model That Changed the World. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-662041-4.Stone, Brad (2013). The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. New York: Little Brown and Co. ISBN 978-0-316-21926-6. OCLC 856249407.External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more.Official website Edit this at WikidataAmazon (company) companies grouped at OpenCorporatesBusiness data for Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more, Inc.:Quorahttps://www.quora.com/How-can-I-speak-directly-to-the-Amazon-Indias-customer-service-department/answer/Hansi-Kumar/log#57 views

Well then let me tell you the full history of The Marvel Comics.Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s, had generally become known as Atlas Comics. The Marvel branding began in 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others.Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Wolverine, the Hulk, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and the Punisher, such teams as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Guardians of the Galaxy, and antagonists including Doctor Doom, Red Skull, Green Goblin, Thanos, Ultron, Doctor Octopus, Magneto, Venom and Loki. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with most locations mirroring real-life places; many major characters are based in New York City.[2]HistoryEditTimely PublicationsEditMain article: Timely ComicsMarvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), the first comic from Marvel precursor Timely Comics. Cover art by Frank R. Paul.Pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodmanfounded the company later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939.[3][4]Goodman, who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. Launching his new line from his existing company's offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, he officially held the titles of editor, managing editor, and business manager, with Abraham Goodman (Martin's brother)[5]officially listed as publisher.[4]Timely's first publication, Marvel Comics #1 (cover dated Oct. 1939), included the first appearance of Carl Burgos' android superherothe Human Torch, and the first appearances of Bill Everett's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner,[6]among other features.[3]The issue was a great success; it and a second printing the following month sold a combined nearly 900,000 copies.[7]While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc.,[3]Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. The company's first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed with artist Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superhero,[8]Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). It, too, proved a hit, with sales of nearly one million.[7]Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc., beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941.[9][10]While no other Timely character would achieve the success of these three characters, some notable heroes—many of which continue to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks—include the Whizzer, Miss America, the Destroyer, the original Vision, and the Angel. Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features, "Powerhouse Pepper",[11][12]as well as a line of children's funny-animal comics featuring characters like Super Rabbit and the duo Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.Goodman hired his wife's cousin,[13]Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939.[14]When editor Simon left the company in late 1941,[15]Goodman made Lieber—by then writing pseudonymously as "Stan Lee"—interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles.Goodman's business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff.[10]One of these shell companiesthrough which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55 (May 1944). As well, some comics' covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12 (Winter 1946–47), were labeled "A Marvel Magazine" many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961.[16]Atlas ComicsEditMain article: Atlas Comics (1950s)The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion.[17]Goodman's comic book line dropped them for the most part and expanded into a wider variety of genres than even Timely had published, featuring horror, Westerns, humor, funny animal, men's adventure-drama, giant monster, crime, and war comics, and later adding jungle books, romance titles, espionage, and even medieval adventure, Bible stories and sports.Goodman began using the globe logo of the Atlas News Company, the newsstand-distribution company he owned,[18]on comics cover-dated November 1951 even though another company, Kable News, continued to distribute his comics through the August 1952 issues.[19]This globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications.[20]Atlas, rather than innovate, took a proven route of following popular trends in television and movies—Westerns and war dramas prevailing for a time, drive-in movie monsters another time—and even other comic books, particularly the EC horror line.[21]Atlas also published a plethora of children's and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlo's Homer the Happy Ghost (similar to Casper the Friendly Ghost) and Homer Hooper (à la Archie Andrews). Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch (art by Syd Shores and Dick Ayers, variously), the Sub-Mariner (drawn and most stories written by Bill Everett), and Captain America (writer Stan Lee, artist John Romita Sr.). Atlas did not achieve any breakout hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply, and at a passable quality.[22]The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961). Cover art by Jack Kirby (penciler) and unconfirmed inker.Marvel ComicsEditThe first modern comic books under the Marvel Comics brand were the science-fictionanthology Journey into Mystery #69 and the teen-humor title Patsy Walker #95 (both cover dated June 1961), which each displayed an "MC" box on its cover.[23]Then, in the wake of DC Comics' success in reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly with the Flash, Green Lantern, and other members of the team the Justice League of America, Marvel followed suit.[n 1]In 1961, writer-editor Stan Lee revolutionized superhero comics by introducing superheroes designed to appeal to older readers than the predominantly child audiences of the medium. Modern Marvel's first superhero team, the titular stars of The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961),[24]broke convention with other comic book archetypes of the time by squabbling, holding grudges both deep and petty, and eschewing anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status. Subsequently, Marvel comics developed a reputation for focusing on characterization and adult issues to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them, a quality which the new generation of older readers appreciated.[25]This applied to The Amazing Spider-Man title in particular, which turned out to be Marvel's most successful book. Its young hero suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager, something with which many readers could identify.Lee and freelance artist and eventual co-plotter Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four originated in a Cold War culture that led their creators to revise the superhero conventions of previous eras to better reflect the psychological spirit of their age.[26]Eschewing such comic-book tropes as secret identities and even costumes at first, having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters bicker and complain in what was later called a "superheroes in the real world" approach, the series represented a change that proved to be a great success.[27]Marvel often presented flawed superheroes, freaks, and misfits—unlike the perfect, handsome, athletic heroes found in previous traditional comic books. Some Marvel heroes looked like villains and monsters such as the Hulk and the Thing. This naturalistic approach even extended into topical politics.Comics historian Mike Benton also noted:In the world of [rival DC Comics'] Superman comic books, communism did not exist. Superman rarely crossed national borders or involved himself in political disputes.[28]From 1962 to 1965, there were more communists [in Marvel Comics] than on the subscription list of Pravda. Communist agents attack Ant-Man in his laboratory, red henchmen jump the Fantastic Four on the moon, and Viet Cong guerrillas take potshots at Iron Man.[29]All of these elements struck a chord with the older readers, such as college-aged adults. In 1965, Spider-Man and the Hulk were both featured in Esquire magazine's list of 28 college campus heroes, alongside John F. Kennedy and Bob Dylan.[30]In 2009, writer Geoff Boucher reflected that, "Superman and DC Comics instantly seemed like boring old Pat Boone; Marvel felt like The Beatles and the British Invasion. It was Kirby's artwork with its tension and psychedelia that made it perfect for the times—or was it Lee's bravado and melodrama, which was somehow insecure and brash at the same time?"[31]In addition to Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, Marvel began publishing further superhero titles featuring such heroes and antiheroes as the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, Daredevil, the Inhumans, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marveland the Silver Surfer, and such memorable antagonists as Doctor Doom, Magneto, Galactus, Loki, the Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus, all existing in a shared reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locations that mirror real-life cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.Marvel even lampooned itself and other comics companies in a parody comic, Not Brand Echh (a play on Marvel's dubbing of other companies as "Brand Echh", à la the then-common phrase "Brand X").[32]The Avengers #4 (March 1964), with (from left to right), the Wasp, Giant-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Thorand (inset) the Sub-Mariner. Cover art by Jack Kirby and George Roussos.Cadence Industries ownershipEditIn 1968, while selling 50 million comic books a year, company founder Goodman revised the constraining distribution arrangement with Independent News he had reached under duress during the Atlas years, allowing him now to release as many titles as demand warranted.[18]Late that year, he sold Marvel Comics and its parent company, Magazine Management, to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation, with Goodman remaining as publisher.[33]In 1969, Goodman finally ended his distribution deal with Independent by signing with Curtis Circulation Company.[18]In 1971, the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approached Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Manstory portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. However, the industry's self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, refused to approve the story because of the presence of narcotics, deeming the context of the story irrelevant. Lee, with Goodman's approval, published the story regardless in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (May–July 1971), without the Comics Code seal. The market reacted well to the storyline, and the CCA subsequently revised the Code the same year.[34]Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and installed his son, Chip, as publisher.[35]Shortly thereafter, Lee succeeded him as publisher and also became Marvel's president[35]for a brief time.[36]During his time as president, he appointed his associate editor, prolific writer Roy Thomas, as editor-in-chief. Thomas added "Stan Lee Presents" to the opening page of each comic book.[35]Howard the Duck #8 (Jan. 1977). Cover art by Gene Colan and Steve LeialohaA series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code published titles themed to horror (The Tomb of Dracula), martial arts (Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu), sword-and-sorcery (Conan the Barbarian in 1970,[37]Red Sonja), satire (Howard the Duck) and science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey, "Killraven" in Amazing Adventures, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and, late in the decade, the long-running Star Warsseries). Some of these were published in larger-format black and white magazines, under its Curtis Magazines imprint.Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comicsin 1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux.[38]Goodman increased the price and size of Marvel's November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 36 pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel the following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages, offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount.[39]In 1973, Perfect Film and Chemical renamed itself as Cadence Industries and renamed Magazine Management as Marvel Comics Group.[40]Goodman, now disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Seaboard Periodicals in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name for a new Atlas Comics line, but this lasted only a year and a half.[41]In the mid-1970s a decline of the newsstand distribution network affected Marvel. Cult hits such as Howard the Duck fell victim to the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low sales when in fact the first specialty comic book stores resold them at a later date.[citation needed]But by the end of the decade, Marvel's fortunes were reviving, thanks to the rise of direct market distribution—selling through those same comics-specialty stores instead of newsstands.Marvel ventured into audio in 1975 with a radio series and a record, both had Stan Lee as narrator. The radio series was Fantastic Four. The record was Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero concept album for music fans.[42]Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 (May 1984). Cover art by Mike Zeck.[43]Marvel held its own comic book convention, Marvelcon '75, in spring 1975, and promised a Marvelcon '76. At the 1975 event, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Jack Kirby, the artist co-creator of most of Marvel's signature characters, was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for rival DC Comics.[44]In October 1976, Marvel, which already licensed reprints in different countries, including the UK, created a superhero specifically for the British market. Captain Britain debuted exclusively in the UK, and later appeared in American comics.[45]During this time, Marvel and the Iowa-based Register and Tribune Syndicate launched a number of syndicated comic strips — The Amazing Spider-Man, Howard the Duck, Conan the Barbarian, and The Incredible Hulk. None of the strips lasted past 1982, except for The Amazing Spider-Man, which is still being published.In 1978, Jim Shooter became Marvel's editor-in-chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. During Shooter's nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller's run on Daredevil became critical and commercial successes.[46]Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market,[47]institutionalized creator royalties, starting with the Epic Comics imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars; and in 1986 launched the ultimately unsuccessful New Universe line to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. Star Comics, a children-oriented line differing from the regular Marvel titles, was briefly successful during this period.Despite Marvel's successes in the early 1980s, it lost ground to rival DC in the latter half of the decade as many former Marvel stars defected to the competitor. DC scored critical and sales victories[48]with titles and limited series such as Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Byrne's revamp of Superman, and Alan Moore's Swamp Thing.Marvel Entertainment Group ownershipEditIn 1986, Marvel's parent, Marvel Entertainment Group, was sold to New World Entertainment, which within three years sold it to MacAndrews and Forbes, owned by Revlonexecutive Ronald Perelman in 1989. In 1991 Perelman took MEG public. Following the rapid rise of this stock, Perelman issued a series of junk bonds that he used to acquire other entertainment companies, secured by MEG stock.[49]Marvel's logo, circa 1990s.Marvel earned a great deal of money with their 1980s children's comics imprint Star Comics and they earned a great deal more money and worldwide success during the comic book boom of the early 1990s, launching the successful 2099 line of comics set in the future (Spider-Man 2099, etc.) and the creatively daring though commercially unsuccessful Razorline imprint of superherocomics created by novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker.[50][51]In 1990, Marvel began selling Marvel Universe Cards with trading card maker SkyBox International. These were collectible trading cards that featured the characters and events of the Marvel Universe. The 1990s saw the rise of variant covers, cover enhancements, swimsuit issues, and company-wide crossovers that affected the overall continuity of the Marvel Universe.Spider-Man #1, later renamed "Peter Parker: Spider-Man" (August 1990; second printing). Cover art by Todd McFarlane.Marvel suffered a blow in early 1992, when seven of its most prized artists — Todd McFarlane (known for his work on Spider-Man), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino(Guardians of the Galaxy), and Whilce Portacio(Uncanny X-Men) — left to form Image Comics[52]in a deal brokered by Malibu Comics' owner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.[53]Three years later Rosenberg sold Malibu to Marvel on November 3.who acquired the then-leading standard for computer coloring of comic books (developed by Rosenberg) in the process,[59]but also integrating the Ultraverse into Marvel's multiverse and ownership of the Genesis Universe.In late 1994, Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use as its own exclusive distributor.[60]As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc.[61][62]Then, by the middle of the decade, the industry had slumped, and in December 1996 MEG filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[49]In early 1997, when Marvel's Heroes World endeavor failed, Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with Marvel[63]—giving the company its own section of its comics catalog Previews.[64]In 1996, Marvel had some of its titles participate in "Heroes Reborn", a crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, and outsource them to the studios of two of the former Marvel artists turned Image Comics founders, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The relaunched titles, which saw the characters transported to a parallel universe with a history distinct from the mainstream Marvel Universe, were a solid success amidst a generally struggling industry,[65]but Marvel discontinued the experiment after a one-year run and returned the characters to the Marvel Universe proper.Marvel EnterprisesEditIn 1997, Toy Biz bought Marvel Entertainment Group to end the bankruptcy, forming a new corporation, Marvel Enterprises.[49]With his business partner Avi Arad, publisher Bill Jemas, and editor-in-chief Bob Harras, Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter helped stabilize the comics line.[66]In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place just outside Marvel continuity with better production qualtity. The imprint was helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada; it featured tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Daredevil,[67]Inhumans and Black Panther.With the new millennium, Marvel Comics emerged from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. In 2001, Marvel withdrew from the Comics Code Authority and established its own Marvel Rating System for comics. The first title from this era to not have the code was X-Force #119 (October 2001). Marvel also created new imprints, such as MAX (an explicit-content line) and Marvel Adventures (developed for child audiences). In addition, the company created an alternate universe imprint, Ultimate Marvel, that allowed the company to reboot its major titles by revising and updating its characters to introduce to a new generation.Some of its characters have been turned into successful film franchises, such as the Men in Black movie series, starting in 1997, Blademovie series, starting in 1998, X-Men movie series, starting in 2000, and the highest grossing series Spider-Man, beginning in 2002.[68]Marvel's Conan the Barbarian title stopped in 1993 after 275 issues. The Savage Sword of Conan magazine had 235 issues. Marvel published additional titles including miniseries until 2000 for a total of 650 issues. Conan was pick up by Dark Horse three years later.[37]In a cross-promotion, the November 1, 2006, episode of the CBS soap opera The Guiding Light, titled "She's a Marvel", featured the character Harley Davidson Cooper (played by Beth Ehlers) as a superheroine named the Guiding Light.[69]The character's story continued in an eight-page backup feature, "A New Light", that appeared in several Marvel titles published November 1 and 8.[70]Also that year, Marvel created a wiki on its Web site.[71]In late 2007 the company launched Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues available for viewing, for a monthly or annual subscription fee.[72]In 2009 Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring comic book artists, saying the time-consuming review process had produced no suitably professional work.[73]The same year, the company commemorated its 70th anniversary, dating to its inception as Timely Comics, by issuing the one-shot Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 and a variety of other special issues.[74][75]Disney conglomerate unitEditWriters of Marvel titles in the 2010s include (seated left to right) Ed Brubaker, Christos Gage, Matt Fraction, and Brian Michael Bendis.On August 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced a deal to acquire Marvel Comics' parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment, for $4 billion[76]or $4.2 billion,[77]with Marvel shareholders to receive $30 and 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they own.[76]As of 2008, Marvel and its major, longtime competitor DC Comicsshared over 80% of the American comic-book market.[78]As of September 2010, Marvel switched its bookstores distribution company from Diamond Book Distributors to Hachette Distribution Services.[79]Marvel relaunched the CrossGen imprint, owned by Disney Publishing Worldwide, in March 2011.[80]Marvel and Disney Publishing began jointly publishing Disney/Pixar Presentsmagazine that May.[81]Marvel discontinued its Marvel Adventuresimprint in March 2012,[82]and replaced them with a line of two titles connected to the Marvel Universe TV block.[83]Also in March, Marvel announced its Marvel ReEvolution initiative that included Infinite Comics,[84]a line of digital comics, Marvel AR, an application software that provides an augmented reality experience to readers and Marvel NOW!, a relaunch of most of the company's major titles with different creative teams.[85][86]Marvel NOW! also saw the debut of new flagship titles including Uncanny Avengers and All-New X-Men.[87]In April 2013, Marvel and other Disney conglomerate components began announcing joint projects. With ABC, a Once Upon a Timegraphic novel was announced for publication in September.[88]With Disney, Marvel announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first title under their joint "Disney Kingdoms" imprint "Seekers of the Weird", a five-issue miniseries.[77]On January 3, 2014, fellow Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm announced that as of 2015, Star Wars comics would once again be published by Marvel.[89]Following the events of the company-wide crossover "Secret Wars" in 2015, a relaunched Marvel universe began in September 2015, called the All-New, All-Different Marvel.[90]Marvel Legacy was the company's Fall 2017 relaunch banner starting in September. The banner had comics with lenticular variant covers which required comic book stores to double their regular issue order to be able to order the variants. The owner of two Comix Experience stores complained about the set up of forcing retailers to be stuck with copies they cannot sell for the variant that they can sell. With other complaints too, Marvel did adjust down requirements for new titles no adjustment was made for any other. Thusforthly MyComicShop.com and at least 70 other comic book stores were boycotting these variant covers.[91]With a handful of Marvel movies, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Logan, Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Homecoming, in theaters, none of those characters' titles were in the top 10 and even the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book series was canceled. Thus films do not affect comic book sales.[92]Conan Properties International announced on January 12, 2018 that Conan would return to Marvel in early 2019.[37]On January 19, 2018, Joshua Yehl, editor of ign.com, speculated on potential changes if Disney's Proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox goes through. He expects Fox franchises licensed out to other firms would be moved to Marvel and that Fox's Marvel film properties would be treated better by the publishing division.[93]However, Marvel had licensed Archie Comics to publish Marvel Digests collections for the newsstand market.[94]While Disney has licensed IDW Publishing to produce the classic, all-ages Disney comics since the Marvel purchase[95]and a Big Hero 6 comic book to go along with the TV seriesdespite the fact that the Disney movie was based on a Marvel Comic book. Then on July 17, 2018, Marvel Entertainment announced the licensing of Marvel characters to IDW for a line of middle-grade reader market comic books to start publishing in November 2018.[94]