When we set out on this journey to cover Amazon in a semester-long blog, we began with a lot of questions, like “Why is Amazon entering all of these new markets?” “How are they staying competitive?” and “Will they ever stop?” These days, it seems as though Amazon has its fingers in every pie out there: e-commerce, entertainment, publishing, smart products and everything in between. So how did Amazon go from an online bookstore to a powerhouse in retailing, technology and content? And where can they possibly go from here? We’ve broken Amazon’s story up until this point into three different eras distinguished by where and how growth took place for Amazon during these time periods.

E-Commerce and Innovation Era (1994-2002)

 Launched as an online bookstore

 Amazon Associates Program

 Patents “one-click shopping”

 Amazon Advantage

 Amazon Marketplace

 Look Inside the Book

 Amazon Super Savings

 Amazon Web Services

Expansion and Alliances Era (2002-2008)

 Partnership with National Basketball Association

 Launch of the Paris Hilton Jewelry Line and the Hollywood Prescription

 Creates a women’s fashion line inspired by the Fox series “The O.C.”

 Amazon Wedding Registry

 Forms alliance with Diane Von Furstenberg

 Debuts Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher

 ”Go Indie” Music Store

 Teams up with TiVo so that users with the service can stream the content on Amazon.com

Hardware and Beyond (2008-2015)

 Amazon introduces the Kindle, later followed by Kindle Cloud Reader and Kindle Direct Publishing and the Kindle Lending Library

 Textbook Trade-In and Rental Program

 Amazon Currency Converter

 Amazon Publishing

 Amazon Studios

 Amazon Local

 Amazon Prime Instant Video, Photo and Music

 Amazon Smile

 Amazon Storybuilder

 Amazon Fire Phone

 Amazon Fire TV

 Local Register

 3D Printed Store

 Amazon Game Studios

 Amazon Echo

 Amazon Dash Button

Off of the Shelves and Onto the Internet

Amazon was born out of Jeff Bezos’ early itch to get online. He incorporated the company in 1994 as “Cadabra.com” because he wanted to create a site where customers could get the products they wanted instantly, like magic. Because he felt the original name sounded too much like “cadaver.com,” he ended up calling his new site “Amazon” because it started with the letter A and was associated with being vast and exotic. Bezos looked at the most promising industries of the day to identify a suitable product to sell online and settled on books because it seemed like a safe bet. In one year’s time, Amazon had already launched Amazon Associates, which allowed blogs and websites to earn a commission on purchases made through Amazon links on their sites. In 1997, Amazon patented the “one-click shopping” tool, despite that fact most Americans still hadn’t shopped online at all. In 1998, the brand launched Amazon Advantage, which let artists, writers and musicians sell their work directly through Amazon. By the time Jeff Bezos was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999, the site had already expanded to sell movies, music, toys, games and consumer electronics. In 2000, Amazon Marketplace, a platform where everyday users could sell their goods on Amazon, and the Look Inside the Book feature were introduced. Although both of these seem commonplace today, they were revolutionary at the time and are among the things that made Amazon the standard in e-commerce at the dawn of the 20th century.

Building a Brand, with the Help of Other Brands

While some saw Amazon as a major threat, others saw it as a huge opportunity to widen their distribution channels. Brands like the National Basketball Association and Diane von Furstenberg partnered with Amazon to bring their products to customers shopping online. During this era, Amazon also launched a jewelry line by Paris Hilton and was the exclusive online outlet for The Hollywood Prescription, a cosmetic brand endorsed by the starlet. Amazon also launched a clothing and accessories line inspired by the Fox Network’s “The O.C.” The e-commerce company also began expanding into content at around the same time. Having already released a video-downloading service, Amazon now allowed TiVo customers to stream TV content on the site. There was also a web series on Amazon called “Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher” where the pundit would discuss movies, music and books with various celebrity guests. Although the show lasted only 12 episodes, it was a sign of what was to come.

Breaking Boundaries

Probably one of the biggest turning points in the history of Amazon would be the introduction of the Kindle. Not only did this device, which allowed customers to access e-books bought through Amazon, pave the way for things like Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle Lending Library and Kindle Cloud Reader, it also let the world know that Amazon was now building technology. Amazon would extend their technology arm even further in 2014 with the release of the Kindle Fire Phone and the Amazon Fire TV, both of which established Amazon as a direct competitor with Apple, Samsung, LG, Sony and other electronics manufacturers. In 2009, Amazon established Amazon Encore, which would be the first item under the Amazon Publishing umbrella, which ultimately pinned Amazon up against the likes of Scholastic and HarperCollins. Amazon Studios released its first TV show in 2014 and won a Golden Globe in its very first season of eligibility. Amazon has now proven to be a competitor of any product or service that can be made better by the Internet. Amazon Prime competes not only with Netflix through Amazon Prime Instant Video, but also with Spotify through Amazon Prime Music and with the sites like Flickr and Dropbox through Amazon Prime Photo. There are also a bunch of other Amazon products that compete in established but still growing markets like Amazon Textbook Rental and Trade-In, Amazon Local, Amazon Currency Converter, Amazon Game Studios, Amazon Wireless, Amazon Home Services, and Local Register. Not to mention that Amazon has now become a leader in the Internet of Things with the acquisition of 2lementary, the introduction of Amazon Echo and the release of the Dash Button.

Amazon’s Secret Sauce

It’s pretty obvious that Amazon has done really well for itself in a number of industries, but it’s not like it’s the first company to try. So the question there is why has Amazon succeeded where so many others have failed. Is it because they start small and work their way up? Is it in the workforce? Maybe, but we’ve identified three major success factors over the course of the four months we spent working on this blog:

Choosing and using good partners

Amazon has always identified those outside the company that can help it get where it needs to go. From the first blogs and websites to act as Amazon Associates to the writers and musicians that first used Amazon Advantage, to the brands that partner with Amazon for the Dash Button, Amazon has always reached out to the right people. It was these relationships that drove Amazon’s early success and the continued acquisition of quality partners that allowed them to sustain their growth.

Finding what works and making it better

In the early 90s, Jeff Bezos saw that the market for books was strong, so he made a better way to buy books. As the home entertainment market grew, he created a new shopping experience for those goods as well. In the years of American prosperity sandwiched between the burst of the dotcom bubble and the recession, Amazon made it even easier for Americans to spend the money they were already blowing at brick and mortar establishments by building a massive online store full of their favorite products. When Americans started demanding groceries at their door, TV shows to binge-watch and unlimited music streaming, Amazon gave them that too.

Following the user generated content

One of Amazon’s first acquisitions was IMDb. This allowed Amazon to promote titles and soundtracks on the site to users who were going there for information on the films listed. Since acquiring Goodreads in 2013, Amazon has been able to do the same with book titles on that site. Now that Amazon has acquired twitch.tv, a streaming site focused around videogame content, it is expected that they will begin to do the same with videogames as well, or even use it to promote games designed by Amazon Game Studios through this platform. Since these sites are made up mostly of user-generated content, they are well-trusted and very popular. Amazon has made sure that wherever users’ eyeballs are, that is where their products are.

Looking Forward

If Amazon is anything, it is certainly unpredictable. It was impossible to have imagined when the company was incorporated in 1994 that it would grow to cover this many industries or have this many diverse products. The question is: what’s next for Amazon? Their investments in Amazon Game Studios and their purchase of Twitch make it appear as though they are gearing up to build a video game powerhouse. Their ventures into financial services, such as with Local Register and Amazon Coins hint that they might develop their own crowd-funding platform. Their active expansion into smart products is an indicator that they are capable of moving into the wearables market. The only thing that is for certain is that whatever road Amazon takes next, they will go full speed ahead.