Amazon: how the online giant has change in 30 years since Jeff Bezos started it

• Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in July 1994. 
• The company originally had a different name before switching to Amazon. 
• Amazon’s website sold only books when it first started. 
• The UK didn’t get Amazon until a few years after it was founded. 

Online retail giant Amazon is about to celebrate its 30th birthday. The internet icon started out life in Washington state in the early 1990s and has gone on to conquer the world. 

Jeff Bezos, who has become one of the richest men in the world in the decades since it launched, founded the company in his garage. His parents were among the first investors and put in over $200,000 to help it get started. 

Before it was the one-stop shop for everything and anything, Amazon started life as a bookshop and might still be the place many of us go to first when buying books three decades later. But how has Amazon changed in 30 years? Let’s take a look: 

When did Amazon start? 

The ubiquitous online retailer is celebrating its 30th birthday - which means that for most of us, it has been around for most if not all of our lives. It can be hard to imagine a world without it, but before 5 July 1994 the only thing people would think of when they heard the word amazon was probably the jungle (or Wonder Woman perhaps). 

Jeff Bezos started the company out of his garage in Bellevue, Washington and incorporated it on the above date 30 years ago. However it wasn’t actually called Amazon at first, it was originally known as Cadabra Inc., but according to legend he changed it after a few months because a lawyer misheard it as cadaver. 

Amazon, which gets its name from the Amazon River in South America, was originally a bookstore and the website for which it is best known for officially launched on 16 July 1995, a year after first starting the company. 

What was the first book sold on Amazon? 

As mentioned above, Amazon.com launched in July 1995 and reportedly the first book sold on the website was Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought. For those who are interested it is a non-fiction book which explores the mechanisms of intelligence through computer modelling (according to Wikipedia.) 

Amazon expands beyond books 

For the first few years, Amazon exclusively sold books and began to label itself the “world’s biggest bookstore”, which got them into a legal battle with brick and mortar book chain Barnes & Noble in the U.S. But the online shop took the first step towards becoming the first stop shop for everything and anything in 1998 when it started to sell music in the form of CDs. 

By the following year it had added even more products such as children’s toys, electronics and tools. Just before the turn of the millennium, in December 1999, it was announced that Amazon had shipped 200 million items to 150 countries. 

When did Amazon open a UK store 

It is hard to imagine, but Amazon.co.uk did not actually exist in the early years of the company. Originally it was just the original American website, it took until 1998 for Amazon to arrive in the UK. 

Amazon Prime launch marks 10 years of the website 

Sitting in my house in the year 2024, I know as long as I don’t wait until a couple of minutes until midnight, if I order any item from Amazon it is likely going to arrive the next day - thanks to Prime. In fact, for members in eligible parts of the UK you can get same day delivery on food items from Amazon now. 

But the fast shipping service did not arrive until Amazon.com had turned 10 years old. The company announced free two-day shipping for members of its new Prime subscription in 2005 and it was rolled out to the UK and parts of Europe - including Germany - in 2007. 

How much did Amazon Prime originally cost? 

When the service - which only included unlimited free-delivery at the time - launched in the UK in November 2007 it cost £49 annually. Over the years the offering has increased in features, such as Prime Music and Prime Video, and the price has continued to rise as well. 

If you were to pay for your Amazon Prime subscription in one go, in the UK, it would cost you £95 annually - or £8.99 per month. Students and anyone aged 18-22, whether they are in education or not, are still able to get a throwback price as a year costs £47.49. 

For those wanting to hear more about how Amazon conquered the world, YouTube channel Jack Chapple has a 15-minute video charting the history of the company. It covers a range of topics including what Bezos did before he started the business - watch it here.