Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle that ... then they are directed to a seller. In November 2017, Amazon closed down Junglee.com and the former domain currently redirects to Amazon India.

Amazon.Com, Inc., is an American multinational technology organization based totally in Seattle that makes a speciality of e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and synthetic intelligence. It is considered one of the Big Four tech businesses, along with Google, Apple, and Facebook. It's been referred to as "one of the maximum influential monetary and cultural forces inside the world."

Amazon is understood for its disruption of well-hooked up industries thru technological innovation and mass scale. It is the world's largest on-line market, AI assistant provider, and cloud computing platform as measured by using sales and marketplace capitalization. Amazon is the most important Internet employer with the aid of revenue in the world. It is the 2d largest private corporation in the United States and one of the world's maximum precious companies.

Amazon became based via Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, in July 1994. The enterprise initially commenced as an online marketplace for books but later expanded to sell electronics, software, video games, garb, furniture, food, toys, and jewellery. In 2015, Amazon passed Walmart because the most treasured retailer within the United States through marketplace capitalization. In 2017, Amazon received Whole Foods Market for US$13.four billion, which vastly increased Amazon's presence as a brick-and-mortar retailer. In 2018, Bezos introduced that its two-day delivery service, Amazon Prime, had handed 100 million subscribers worldwide.

Amazon distributes downloads and streaming of video, track, and audiobooks via its Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Audible subsidiaries. Amazon also has a publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a movie and tv studio, Amazon Studios, and a cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services. It produces consumer electronics such as Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices. In addition, Amazon acquisitions include Ring, Twitch, Whole Foods Market, and IMDb. Among numerous controversies, the business enterprise has been criticized for technological surveillance overreach, a hyper-aggressive and annoying work subculture, tax avoidance, and anti-aggressive practices.

Further information: History of Amazon

Company's largest campus outdoor USA inaugurated in Hyderabad, India in September 2019
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in July 1994. He selected Seattle due to technical expertise as Microsoft is located there. In May 1997, the company went public. The organization started promoting tune and motion pictures in 1998, at which time it commenced operations across the world via acquiring on-line dealers of books in United Kingdom and Germany. The following year, the agency additionally sold video games, customer electronics, home-improvement items, software, games, and toys in addition to different gadgets.

In 2002, the business enterprise started out Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provided records on Web web page popularity, Internet visitors patterns and different information for entrepreneurs and developers. In 2006, the company grew its AWS portfolio whilst Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which rents computer processing electricity in addition to Simple Storage Service (S3), that rents information storage thru the Internet, had been made available. That identical year, the company started Fulfilment by using Amazon which managed the inventory of people and small corporations selling their assets via the employer net website. In 2012, Amazon offered Kiva Systems to automate its inventory-control enterprise, purchasing Whole Foods Market supermarket chain 5 years later in 2017.

Main article: List of Amazon merchandise and services
Amazon.Com's product lines available at its website include numerous media (books, DVDs, song CDs, videotapes and software), apparel, baby products, customer electronics, splendour products, gourmet food, groceries, health and non-public-care items, industrial & clinical supplies, kitchen objects, jewellery, watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive objects and toys & games.[citation needed] In August 2019, Amazon implemented to have a liquor save in San Francisco, CA as a way to deliver beer and alcohol in the town. Amazon has separate retail web sites for some nations and also offers international delivery of some of its products to positive other nations.

Amazon.Com has a number of products and services available, which include:

Amazon Fresh
Amazon Prime
Amazon Web Services
Alexa
Appstore
Amazon Drive
Echo
Kindle
Fire tablets
Fire TV
Video
Kindle Store
Music
Music Unlimited
Amazon Digital Game Store
Amazon Studios
Amazon Wireless

Controversies

Main article: Criticism of Amazon

Since its founding, the enterprise has attracted grievance and controversy for its actions, together with: supplying law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools; forming cloud computing partnerships with the CIA; leading clients far from bookshops; adversely impacting the environment; putting a low priority on warehouse situations for workers; actively opposing unionization efforts; remotely deleting content purchased by way of Amazon Kindle users; taking public subsidies; in search of to patent its 1-Click technology; undertaking anti-aggressive actions and fee discrimination; and reclassifying LGBT books as person content. Criticism has additionally concerned diverse decisions over whether to censor or publish content material consisting of the WikiLeaks website, works containing libel and fabric facilitating dogfight, cockfight, or paedophile activities. In December 2011, Amazon faced a backlash from small businesses for jogging a one-day deal to promote its new Price Check app. Shoppers who used the app to check charges in a brick-and-mortar save have been presented a 5% discount to buy the equal object from Amazon.[147] Companies like Groupon, eBay and Taap. It countered Amazon's promotion with the aid of imparting $10 off from their products. The organisation has also confronted accusations of setting undue pressure on providers to hold and extend its profitability. One effort to squeeze the maximum vulnerable ebook publishers turned into known in the organisation as the Gazelle Project, after Bezos suggested, in line with Brad Stone, "that Amazon ought to technique those small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle." In July 2014, the Federal Trade Commission released a lawsuit towards the corporation alleging it become selling in-app purchases to children, which had been being transacted without parental consent. In 2019, Amazon banned selling skin-lightening and racist products that could impact the customer health.

Environmental impact

In 2018, Amazon's emitted 44, four million metric lots of CO2.

In September 2019, Amazon people prepared a stroll-out as part of the Global Climate Strike. An inner group referred to as Amazon Employees for Climate Justice stated over 1,800 employees in 25 cities and 14 countries devoted to participating in the movement to protest Amazon's environmental effect and inaction to climate change. This personnel petitioned Jeff Bezos and Amazon with 3 precise demands: to forestall donating to politicians and lobbyists that deny climate alternate, to stop running with fossil fuel corporations to boost up oil and gas extraction, and to acquire zero carbon emissions by using 2030.

Amazon has added the Shipment Zero program, but Shipment Zero has only dedicated to lowering 50% of its shipments to net zero through 2030. Also, even that 50% does now not always imply a lower in emissions as compared to cutting-edge levels because Amazon’s price of growth desires to be taken into account.

That stated, Amazon's CEO has also signed the Climate Pledge, wherein Amazon might meet the Paris climate settlement goals 10 year beforehand of schedule, and would be carbon-neutral by means of 2040. Besides this pledge, it also ordered one hundred 000 electric delivery trucks from Rivian.

Amazon finances both weather denial businesses together with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and politicians denying climate alternate which include Jim Inhofe.

In November 2018, a community action organization adversarial the construction permit brought to Goodman Group for the construction of a 160,000 rectangular metres (1,700,000 sq ft) logisitics platform Amazon will perform at Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport. In February 2019, Étienne Tête filed a request on behalf of a 2nd regional community movement organization asking the administrative court docket to decide whether the platform served a sufficiently essential public interest to justify its environmental effect. Construction has been suspended at the same time as those subjects are decided.

Selling counterfeit gadgets
On October 16, 2016, Apple filed a trademark infringement case towards Mobile Star LLC for promoting counterfeit Apple products to Amazon. In the suit, Apple provided proof that Amazon changed into promoting those counterfeit Apple products and advertising them as genuine. Through buying, Apple discovered that it changed into able to pick out counterfeit products with a success charge of 90%. Amazon become sourcing and promoting objects with out well determining if they're genuine. Mobile Star LLC settled with Apple for an undisclosed amount on April 27, 2017.

Sales and use taxes

Main article: Amazon tax
Amazon's kingdom income tax series policy has changed through the years since it did no longer accumulate any sales taxes in its early years. In the U.S., nation and neighborhood sales taxes are levied with the aid of kingdom and neighborhood governments, now not at the federal level. In most international locations wherein Amazon operates, a income tax or value brought tax is uniform for the duration of the country, and Amazon is obliged to acquire it from all customers. Proponents of forcing Amazon.Com to acquire income tax—at the least in states where it keeps a bodily presence—argue the agency wields an anticompetitive gain over storefront corporations forced to collect income tax.

Many U.S. States in the 21st century have passed online shopping income tax legal guidelines designed to compel Amazon.Com and different e-commerce stores to collect country and neighborhood sales taxes from its customers. Amazon.Com originally gathered income tax handiest from 5 states as of 2011, but as of April 2017, Amazon collects income taxes from customers in all forty five states that have a kingdom sales tax and in Washington, D.C.

Income taxes
Amazon paid no federal profits taxes within the U.S. In 2017 and 2018, and in reality received tax refunds well worth thousands and thousands of bucks, regardless of recording numerous billion greenbacks in profits each year. CNN said that Amazon's tax invoice was 0 because they took advantage of provisions in years while they have been losing cash that allowed them to offset future taxes on profits, as well as numerous other tax credit. Amazon become criticized by using political figures for no longer paying federal earnings taxes.

Comments by means of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders
In early 2018, President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Amazon's use of the US Postal Service and its costs for the delivery of packages, stating, "I am proper approximately Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy," Trump tweeted. "Amazon should pay those costs (plus) and no longer have them bourne [sic] by using the American Taxpayer."[165] Amazon's shares fell via 6 percent due to Trump's comments. Shepard Smith of Fox News disputed Trump's claims and pointed to proof that the USPS was imparting below-market fees to all clients with no benefit to Amazon. However, analyst Tom Forte pointed to the truth that Amazon's payments to the USPS aren't made public and that their settlement has a reputation for being "a sweetheart deal".

Throughout the summer season of 2018, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Amazon's wages and running situations in a sequence of YouTube films and media appearances. He additionally pointed to the fact that Amazon had paid no federal earnings tax in the preceding year. Sanders solicited stories from Amazon warehouse workers who felt exploited with the aid of the agency. One such story, by using James Bloodworth, described the surroundings as akin to "a low-safety prison" and stated that the company's way of life used an Orwellian newspeak. These reports referred to a finding by way of New Food Economy that one 1/3 of fulfilment center people in Arizona have been on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Responses by means of Amazon blanketed incentives for employees to tweet high-quality stories and a announcement which called the income figures used by Sanders "inaccurate and misleading". The statement also charged that it turned into irrelevant for him to consult SNAP as "meals stamps". On September five, 2018, Sanders at the side of Ro Khanna delivered the Stop Bad Employers by means of Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act aimed toward Amazon and different alleged beneficiaries of corporate welfare which includes Walmart, McDonald's and Uber. Among the bill's supporters have been Tucker Carlson of Fox News and Matt Taibbi who criticized himself and different reporters for not overlaying Amazon's contribution to wealth inequality earlier.

On October 2, Amazon announced that its minimum salary for all American personnel would be raised to $15 in keeping with hour. Sanders congratulated the agency for making this selection.

Working situations
Former personnel, current personnel, the media, and politicians have criticized Amazon for terrible working conditions on the corporation. In 2011, it became publicized that workers had to carry out tasks in a hundred °F (38 °C) warmth at the Breinigsville, Pennsylvania warehouse. As a end result of those inhumane conditions, personnel became extremely uncomfortable and suffered from dehydration and collapse. Loading-bay doors were now not opened to allow in clean air because of worries over theft. Amazon's preliminary response turned into to pay for an ambulance to sit outside on call to cart away overheated personnel. The corporation in the end hooked up air conditioning at the warehouse.

Some people, "pickers", who journey the building with a trolley and a hand held scanner "picking" patron orders can stroll up to fifteen miles for the duration of their workday and in the event that they fall in the back of on their targets, they can be reprimanded. The hand-held scanners provide real-time statistics to the employee on how quick or slowly they may be operating; the scanners additionally serve to allow Team Leads and Area Managers to song the precise locations of employees and how much "idle time" they gain while not operating.

In a German tv report broadcast in February 2013, newshounds Diana Löbl and Peter Onneken performed a covert investigation at the distribution center of Amazon within the town of Bad Hersfeld in the German country of Hessen. The file highlights the conduct of a number of the security guards, themselves being employed by way of a third party organisation, who reputedly either had a neo-Nazi background or deliberately dressed in neo-Nazi garb and who were intimidating foreign and transient lady employees at its distribution centers. The third birthday celebration security company involved became delisted by using Amazon as a commercial enterprise contact rapidly after that document.

In March 2015, it become stated in The Verge that Amazon might be eliminating non-compete clauses of 18 months in duration from its US employment contracts for hourly-paid workers, after grievance that it was performing unreasonably in preventing such employees from locating other work. Even short-term brief employees have to sign contracts that limit them from working at any organization in which they could "directly or indirectly" assist any precise or carrier that competes with the ones they helped help at Amazon, for 18 months after leaving Amazon, even if they're fired or made redundant.

A 2015 front-page article in The New York Times profiled several former Amazon employees who together defined a "bruising" workplace subculture in which employees with contamination or different personal crises have been driven out or unfairly evaluated. Bezos responded by using writing a Sunday memo to employees, wherein he disputed the Times's account of "shockingly callous management practices" that he said would by no means be tolerated on the organization.

In an attempt to enhance worker morale, on November 2, 2015, Amazon introduced that it'd be extending six weeks of paid depart for brand new moms and fathers. This change consists of birth mother and father and adoptive dad and mom and may be carried out in conjunction with present maternity go away and scientific depart for new mothers.

In mid-2018, investigations by journalists and media stores along with The Guardian reported negative running conditions at Amazon's fulfillment centers. Later in 2018, every other article uncovered poor running conditions for Amazon's shipping drivers.

In reaction to complaint that Amazon does now not pay its employees a livable wage, Jeff Bezos introduced starting November 1, 2018, all US and UK Amazon personnel will earn a $15 an hour minimum salary. Amazon may also lobby to make $15 an hour the federal minimum wage. At the equal time, Amazon additionally eliminated stock awards and bonuses for hourly personnel.

On Black Friday 2018, Amazon warehouse workers in numerous European nations, consisting of Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, went on strike to protest inhumane operating situations and coffee pay.

The Daily Beast stated in March 2019 that emergency offerings responded to 189 calls from 46 Amazon warehouses in 17 states among the years 2013 and 2018, all regarding suicidal personnel. The people attributed their mental breakdowns to enterprise-imposed social isolation, competitive surveillance, and the hurried and dangerous operating situations at these success centers. One former employee advised The Daily Beast "It's this setting apart colony of hell wherein people having breakdowns is a everyday occurrence."

On July 15, 2019, all through the onset of Amazon's "Prime Day" sale event, Amazon employees running within the United States and Germany went on strike in protest of unfair wages and terrible working conditions.

Conflict of hobby with the CIA and DOD
In 2013, Amazon secured a US$600 million agreement with the CIA, which poses a capability warfare of interest concerning the Bezos-owned The Washington Post and his newspaper's coverage of the CIA. Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, stated, "It's a serious potential struggle of hobby for a main newspaper like The Washington Post to have a contractual dating with the authorities and the most secret a part of the government." This became later followed by a US$10 billion settlement with the Department of Defence.

Seattle head tax and houselessness offerings
In May 2018, Amazon threatened the Seattle City Council over an employee head tax proposal that could have funded houselessness services and low-income housing. The tax would have value Amazon about $800 consistent with worker, or 0.7% of their common salary.[204] In retaliation, Amazon paused construction on a new building, threatened to limit similarly investment in the city, and funded a repeal marketing campaign. Although originally exceeded, the measure became soon repealed after an luxurious repeal marketing campaign spearheaded through Amazon.

Nashville Operations Center of Excellence
The incentives given via the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County to Amazon for their new Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville Yards, a domain owned via developer Southwest Value Partners, had been controversial, along with the selection by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to preserve the overall volume of the agreement secret. The incentives encompass "$102 million in combined grants and tax credits for a scaled-down Amazon office constructing" in addition to "a $sixty five million cash grant for capital expenditures" in trade for the advent of 5,000 jobs over seven years.

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government referred to as for extra transparency. Another nearby organization referred to as the People's Alliance for Transit, Housing, and Employment (PATHE) counseled no public money ought to take delivery of to Amazon; instead, it need to be spent on constructing more public housing for the operating terrible and the homeless and making an investment in extra public transportation for Nashvillians. Others suggested incentives to large businesses do no longer improve the local economy.

In November 2018, the proposal to provide Amazon $15 million in incentives was criticized via the Nashville Firefighters Union and the Nashville bankruptcy of the Fraternal Order of Police, who called it "company welfare." In February 2019, another $15.2 million in infrastructure was approved by means of the council, although it changed into voted down through 3 council members, which include Councilwoman Angie Henderson who brushed off it as "cronyism".

Facial reputation generation and regulation enforcement
While Amazon has publicly hostile secret authorities surveillance, as found out via Freedom of Information Act requests it has furnished facial reputation support to law enforcement in the shape of the Rekognition technology and consulting offerings. Initial testing included the metropolis of Orlando, Florida, and Washington County, Oregon. Amazon provided to attach Washington County with different Amazon authorities customers inquisitive about Rekognition and a frame digicam manufacturer. These ventures are antagonistic by using a coalition of civil rights corporations with subject that they ought to result in an growth of surveillance and be vulnerable to abuse. Specifically, it is able to automate the identification and tracking of anyone, particularly in the context of potential police frame digital camera integration. Because of the backlash, the metropolis of Orlando publicly said it will no longer use the era, but may additionally revisit this selection at a later date.

Access to NHS information
The UK authorities offered Amazon a agreement that gives the employer free access to healthcare records amassed by the UK's National Health Service. This will let people have their medical questions answered via Amazon's Alexa. The fabric, which excludes patient facts, should additionally permit the agency to make, advertise and sell its personal products. The agreement lets in Amazon get entry to to statistics on symptoms, causes and definitions of situations, and “all related copyrightable content material and statistics and other materials”. Amazon can then create “new merchandise, applications, cloud-primarily based offerings and/or allotted software”, which the NHS will not advantage from financially. The business enterprise also can share the facts with 0.33 parties. The authorities stated that allowing Alexa gadgets to provide professional fitness advice to customers will lessen strain on medical doctors and pharmacists.

Collection of information and surveillance
17 February 2020 a Panorama documentary highlighted the quantity of information gathered by using the corporation and the pass into surveillance causing worries of politicians and regulators in the US and Europe.

Lobbying
Amazon lobbies the US federal government and kingdom governments on issues along with the enforcement of income taxes on on-line income, transportation safety, privacy and facts safety and intellectual property. According to regulatory filings, Amazon.Com focuses its lobbying at the United States Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Reserve. Amazon.Com spent roughly $3.five million, $5 million and $9.five million on lobbying, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Amazon.Com was a corporate member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) till it dropped membership following protests at its shareholders' meeting on May 24, 2012.

In 2014, Amazon expanded its lobbying practices as it prepared to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration to approve its drone shipping program, hiring the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld lobbying company in June. Amazon and its lobbyists have visited with Federal Aviation Administration officers and aviation committees in Washington, D.C. To explain its plans to supply packages.

In 2019 it spent $16.8m and had a crew of 104 lobbyists, up from $14.4m and 103 lobbyists in 2018.