Amazon. com EncyclopediaBritannica. com

Amazon. com is a vast Internet-based enterprise that sells books, music, movies, housewares, electronics, toys, and many other goods, either directly or as the middleman between other retailers and Amazon. com's millions of customers. Its Web services business includes renting data storage and computing resources, so-called cloud computing, over the Internet. Its considerable online presence is such that, in 2012, 1 percent of all Internet traffic in North America traveled in and out of Amazon. com data centres.

The company also makes the market-leading Kindle e-book readers. Its promotion of these devices has led to dramatic growth in e-book publishing and turned Amazon. com into a major disruptive force in the book-publishing market.

Get Big Fast

In 1994 Jeff Bezos, a former Wall Street hedge fund executive, incorporated Amazon. com, choosing the name primarily because it began with the first letter of the alphabet and because of its association with the vast South American river. On the basis of research he had conducted, Bezos concluded that books would be the most logical product initially to sell online. Amazon. com was not the first company to do so; Computer Literacy, a Silicon Valley bookstore, began selling books from its inventory to its technically astute customers in 1991. However, the promise of Amazon. com was to deliver any book to any reader anywhere.

While Amazon. com famously started as a bookseller, Bezos contended from its start that the site was not merely a retailer of consumer products. He argued that Amazon. com was a technology company whose business was simplifying online transactions for consumers.

Which line of text best supports the idea that the growth of Amazon. com has extended beyond bookselling?

On the basis of research he had conducted, Bezos concluded that books would be the most logical product initially to sell online.
While Amazon. com famously started as a bookseller, Bezos contended from its start that the site was not merely a retailer of consumer products.
Its promotion of these devices has led to dramatic growth in e-book publishing and turned Amazon. com into a major disruptive force in the book-publishing market.
Its considerable online presence is such that, in 2012, 1 percent of all Internet traffic in North America traveled in and out of Amazon. com data centres.