Amazon.com 2003 Annual Report Download - page 12

Competition
The environment for our products and services is intensely competitive. Our current and potential
competitors include: (1) physical-world retailers, catalog retailers, publishers, distributors and manufacturers of
our products, many of which possess significant brand awareness, sales volume, and customer bases, and some of
which currently sell, or may sell, products or services through the Internet, mail order, or direct marketing; (2)
other online e-commerce sites; (3) a number of indirect competitors, including media companies, Web portals,
and Web search engines that are involved in online commerce, either directly or in collaboration with other
retailers; and (4) companies that provide e-commerce services, including website developers and third-party
fulfillment and customer-service providers. We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market
segments include selection, price, availability, convenience, information, discovery, brand recognition,
personalized services, accessibility, customer service, reliability, speed of fulfillment, ease of use, and ability to
adapt to changing conditions, as well as our customers’ overall trust in the entire experience in transactions with
us or facilitated by us on behalf of third-party sellers. For services we offer to business and individual sellers,
additional competitive factors include the quality of our services and tools and the speed of performance for our
services. As the market segments in which we operate continue to grow, other companies may also enter into
business combinations or alliances that strengthen their competitive positions.
Intellectual Property
We regard our trademarks, service marks, copyrights, patents, domain names, trade dress, trade secrets,
proprietary technologies, and similar intellectual property as critical to our success, and we rely on trademark,
copyright and patent law, trade-secret protection, and confidentiality and/or license agreements with our
employees, customers, partners, and others to protect our proprietary rights. We have registered a number of
domain names and been issued a number of trademarks, service marks, patents, and copyrights by U.S. and
foreign governmental authorities. We also have applied for the registration of other trademarks, service marks,
domain names, and copyrights in the U.S. and internationally, and we have filed U.S. and international patent
applications covering certain of our proprietary technology. We have licensed in the past, and expect that we may
license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks, patents, technologies or copyrighted
materials, to third parties.
Seasonality
Our business is affected by seasonality, which historically has resulted in higher sales volume during our
fourth quarter.
Employees
We employed approximately 7,800 full-time and part-time employees at December 31, 2003. However,
employment levels fluctuate due to seasonal factors affecting our business. We also employ independent
contractors and temporary personnel on a seasonal basis. None of our employees is represented by a labor union
and we consider our employee relations to be good. Competition for qualified personnel in our industry is
intense, particularly for software engineers, computer scientists, and other technical staff. We believe that our
future success will depend in part on our continued ability to attract, hire, and retain qualified personnel.
Available Information
Our investor relations website is www.amazon.com/ir. We make available on this website under “Financial
Documents,” free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on
Form 8-K and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or
furnish such materials to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
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