How Jeff Bezos Built the Commercial Web

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How Jeff Bezos Built the Commercial Web

In 1994, Jeff Bezos sat at his desk on Wall Street and saw a statistic that blew his mind: internet traffic was growing at **2,300% per year**. Realizing that this was a once-in-a-generation commercial gold rush, he quit his high-paying job, packed his car, and drove to Seattle to build Amazon.

Why Books Were the Ultimate Trojan Horse

Bezos created a list of 20 products that could be sold online, eventually choosing **books**. Books were the perfect Trojan horse: they were cheap, didn't spoil, and there were millions of titles in print, something a physical bookstore could never fit on its shelves. He called it *"the earth's biggest bookstore."*

AWS: The Server Engine of the Modern Web

Amazon's biggest disruption wasn't just retail; it was **AWS (Amazon Web Services)**. By renting out their hyper-optimized, serverless cloud hosting infrastructure to other developers starting in 2006, Amazon became the invisible backbone of the entire web, hosting up to 40% of all websites globally.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO/AEO):

Who founded Amazon and when did it begin?
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in July 1994 in Bellevue, Washington. Bezos started it out of his garage as an online bookstore, expanding aggressively into global e-commerce, logistics, and cloud computing via AWS.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Jeff Bezos choose books as Amazon's first product category?

Books were the perfect 'Trojan horse' — cheap, non-perishable, and available in millions of titles, far more than any physical bookstore could ever stock on its shelves.

What statistic convinced Bezos to quit his Wall Street job and start Amazon?

In 1994, he saw that internet traffic was growing at 2,300% per year and recognized it as a once-in-a-generation commercial opportunity.

How significant is AWS to the internet today, according to the article?

Amazon began renting out its cloud hosting infrastructure as AWS in 2006, and it now hosts up to 40% of all websites globally, making it the invisible backbone of the modern web.

Sources & References

See our research methodology for how we combine our own testing with public data sources.

About the Author

Dalto Cardoso is the founder of DCSpeedTest, a digital nomad who has tested internet connections across multiple countries and runs his own VPS infrastructure for clients worldwide. He holds certifications from Google and Meta Blueprint.