Details / Description
As of 2026 it was the world's biggest online retailer. Amazon sells books, electronics, pharmaceuticals, car parts, video games, dining products, jewelry, food, music, and sports equipment.[8]
The company has multiple subsidiaries, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides cloud computing; Zoox, a self-driving car division; satellite Internet provider Kuiper Systems; and Amazon Lab126, a computer hardware R&D provider. Other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and grocer Whole Foods Market. Amazon distributes downloadable and streaming content through its Amazon Prime Video, MGM+, Amazon Music, Twitch, Audible, and Wondery[9] units. It publishes books through its publishing arm, Amazon Publishing; produces and distributes film and television content through Amazon MGM Studios, including the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio; and owns Brilliance Audio and Audible, which produce and distribute audiobooks, respectively. Amazon produces consumer electronics, most notably Kindle e-readers, Echo devices, Fire tablets, and Fire TVs.
Amazon has a reputation as an industry disruptor through innovation and aggressive reinvestment of profits.[10][11][12][13] As of 2023, it was the largest online retailer and marketplace, smart speaker provider, cloud computing service provider through AWS,[14] live-streaming service provider through Twitch, and Internet company as measured by revenue and market share.[15] In 2021, it surpassed Walmart as the world's largest retailer outside of China, supported by its subscription plan, Amazon Prime, which had 200 million subscribers worldwide.[16][17] It is the second-largest private employer in the US[18], second-largest company in the US by revenue as of 2024 (after Walmart),[19] and the largest company in the world by revenue as of 2026.[20] As of October 2024, Amazon was the world's 12th-most visited website. 84% of its traffic comes from the US.[21][22]
Amazon has been criticized for its alleged business practices, including surveillance partnerships, poor working conditions, anti-union efforts, environmental harm, anticompetitive behavior, censorship controversies, and exploitative treatment of small businesses and suppliers.
