Amazon.Com

Amazon.com which was founded by Jeff Bezos, is the largest online retailer in the United States.^[1] After being founded in 1995, the company did not make its first quarterly profit until 2001.^[1] If individuals make purchases from Amazon Smile, the company donates a portion of the sale to a charity of the buyer's choice (as long as it is not a conservative group blacklisted by the Southern Poverty Law Center) such as International Christian Concern.^[2]

In 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware. Amazon issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997, trading under the NASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN, at a price of $18.00 per share ($1.50 after three stock splits in the late 1990s). It has grown to be the retail company with the largest market capitalization in the United States, while destroying thousands of community retail stores in the process.

The company has expanded from reselling goods to designing and manufacturing electronics. It started with the Amazon Kindle e-book reader in 2007 and has grown to include multifunctional Amazon Fire tablets, Fire TV and Fire Phone brand smartphones. Amazon is also a major provider of cloud computing services.

In 2022, Amazon expanded into live-streaming NFL games on Thursday nights, and acquiring rights to stream Champion League soccer matches in the U.K. beginning in 2024.^[3]

In 2010, Amazon invested $175 million in LivingSocial, a local deal/coupon site.^[4] In 2013, Amazon launched the "Amazon Prime" paid membership service which provides free shipping to its members as well as free online access to movies and archived television programs. In 2014, Amazon announced that it would be partnering with Twitter, an agreement that allows individuals to make purchases using a hashtag.^[5] Also in 2014, Amazon acquired the right to administer the .buy top level domain in an auction for $4,588,888^[6][7]

Following the Democrat crime wave affecting major American cities which began in the summer of 2020, Amazon.com moved its headquarters out of downtown Seattle.^[8] Amazon.com's corporatist and pro-totalitarian structure has been criticized for influencing and contributing to leftist violence.

Sales and use taxes[edit]

Many states and local governments collect sales and use taxes. A sales tax is paid by the buyer when goods are services are purchased and collected by the seller, who turns the taxes over to the state at the end of each month. A use tax is paid by the buyer at the end of the year when the seller is located out-of-state and not collected at the time of sale. In Amazon's early years, it refused to collect sales taxes in states where it was not physically present. Because many people fail to pay use taxes, local merchants complained that on-line retailers had a competitive advantage because they were not collecting sales taxes. Amazon now has a physical presence (in the form of warehouses, server farms or offices) in most states, and has built an nationwide database to compute the correct sales tax based on the location of the on-line buyer. This give it a competitive advantage over other on-line retailers. Amazon lobbies to force all on-line retailers to collect state and local sales taxes.^[9]

In response, on June 28, 2017, President Donald Trump tweeted:

People are arguing whether he meant that the reports of Amazon not paying taxes is "fake news" or whether the Amazon company itself is fake news. Amazon and the Washington Post have different ownership. ^{[10] [11]}

Criticism[edit]

Since its founding, the company has attracted criticism and controversy for its actions, including: supplying law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools; forming cloud computing partnerships with the CIA; leading customers away from bookshops; adversely impacting the environment, placing a low priority on warehouse conditions for workers; actively opposing unionization efforts; remotely deleting content purchased by Amazon Kindle users; taking public subsidies; seeking to patent its 1-Click technology; engaging in anti-competitive actions and price discrimination;

Six people were killed when the roof of an Amazon warehouse collapsed during a tornado in Illinois in December 2021. One employee texted his girlfriend saying that Amazon would not allow him to leave before the collapse in which he was killed.^[12]

Liberal politics[edit]

Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post.

It was reported in September 2017 that Amazon had deleted numerous one-star reviews of Hillary Clinton's book What Happened.^[13]

In 2018, Amazon announced it would raise its minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour, though this was a political stunt, as most of its workers already made over $15 an hour, and it was transitioning to replacing human labor with robots.^[14]

Among other left-wing policies, Amazon banned several books that helped people escape homosexuality.^[15]

Attack on Parler[edit]

In a leftwing fascist assault on free speech, the First Amendment, and human rights, Amazon, along with Apple, Inc. and Google, banned conservative video website Parler from their platforms.^[16]

Black Lives Matter[edit]

See also: 2020 Antifa riots

During the 2020 leftwing, anti-capitalist riots the Amazon warehouse in Redlands, California was burned down.^[17] Amazon placed the slogan, "Black Lives Matter" on storefronts.^[18]

Amazon.com was recently listed as one of numerous leftist-controlled companies that have gone "woke" and now support the criminal rioters of Antifa and Black Lives Matter in the wake of the 2020 leftist riots.^[19]

AWS[edit]

AWS, which is short for Amazon Web Services, is a subsidiary that provides on-demand cloud computing services, typically on a pay-as-you-go basis. AWS sponsors content on Politico.com and other websites.

See also[edit]

• Amazon effect
• Audible.com
• Publishing

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Amazon.com