Online retailer Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has become the second publicly traded company to be worth $1 trillion U.S. after iPhone maker Apple.
Amazon has revolutionized how people shop online and is the world's dominant internet retailer. In two decades, the company expanded far beyond its beginnings as a bookseller, combining its world-spanning retail operation with less flashy but very profitable advertising and cloud computing businesses.
The company's blowout success has made its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos number one on Forbes's billionaires list this year.
Amazon's stock rose 1.7% Tuesday, putting its market value at just over $1 trillion U.S., although the stock dropped back slightly after that. Apple topped the $1-trillion mark in early August of this year
Seattle-based Amazon has cemented customer loyalty through its Echo voice devices and the Prime membership program that offers fast, free shipping as well as music and video streaming services.
Amazon has also formed partnerships with many old-line retailers, selling the Kenmore washing machines traditionally found at Sears department stores and opening stations inside Kohl's stores where people can bring returns and look at Amazon devices.
Amazon's "other businesses" include Amazon Web Services, which provides cloud computing services to companies and government, and Amazon's advertising division that makes billions of dollars by selling ads to companies that want their products to show up when shoppers search on the website.
Those very profitable businesses have helped offset the high costs associated with running its online store. Amazon saw its quarterly profit soar past $2 billion U.S. for the first time earlier this year as the online shopping, cloud computing and advertising businesses all kept growing.?
Tech Insider
