Full Description

Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon.com), incorporated in 1994, offers services to consumer customers, seller customers and developer customers. The Company serves its consumer customers through its retail Websites. It offers programs that enable seller customers to sell their products on the Company’s Websites and their own branded Websites. It serves developer customers through Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure that developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. In addition, the Company generates revenue through co-branded credit card agreements and other marketing and promotional services, such as online advertising. The Company’s operations are organized into two principal segments: North America and International. In August 2008, Amazon.com purchased Shelfari, a social network for book lovers. In December 2008, Amazon.com announced the completion of its acquisition of AbeBooks. AbeBooks is an online marketplace for books, with over 110 million primarily used, rare and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world. In November 2009, the Company completed the acquisition of Zappos.com, Inc.

The North America segment consists of amounts earned from retail sales of consumer products (including from sellers) and subscriptions through North America-focused Websites, such as www.amazon.com and www.amazon.ca. This segment includes export sales from www.amazon.com and www.amazon.ca. The International segment consists of amounts earned from retail sales of consumer products (including from sellers) and subscriptions through internationally focused Websites, such as www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, and www.amazon.cn. This segment includes export sales from these internationally-based sites (including export sales from these sites to customers in the United States and Canada), but excludes export sales from www.amazon.com and www.amazon.ca.

The products offered on its customer-facing Websites primarily include merchandise and content it has purchased for resale from vendors and products offered by third party sellers. The Company also offers services, such as Amazon Web Services, co-branded credit cards, fulfillment, and miscellaneous marketing and promotional offers, such as online advertising.