Amazon.com 2011 Annual Report Download - page 10

AMAZON.COM, INC.
PART I
Item 1. Business
This Annual Report on Form 10-K and the documents incorporated herein by reference contain forward-
looking statements based on expectations, estimates, and projections as of the date of this filing. Actual results
may differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. See Item 1A of Part I—“Risk
Factors.”
Amazon.com, Inc. was incorporated in 1994 in the state of Washington and reincorporated in 1996 in the
state of Delaware. Our principal corporate offices are located in Seattle, Washington. We completed our initial
public offering in May 1997 and our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the
symbol “AMZN.”
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc. and its
subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
General
Amazon.com opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and offers Earth’s Biggest
Selection. We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers,
sellers, enterprises, and content creators. In addition, we generate revenue through other marketing and
promotional services, such as online advertising, and co-branded credit card agreements.
We have organized our operations into two principal segments: North America and International. See Item 8
of Part II, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Note 11—Segment Information.” See Item 7 of
Part II, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of
Operations—Supplemental Information” for supplemental information about our net sales.
Consumers
We serve consumers through our retail websites, and focus on selection, price, and convenience. We design
our websites to enable millions of unique products to be sold by us and by third parties across dozens of product
categories. We also manufacture and sell Kindle devices. We strive to offer our customers the lowest prices
possible through low everyday product pricing and shipping offers, including through membership in Amazon
Prime, and to improve our operating efficiencies so that we can continue to lower prices for our customers. We
also provide easy-to-use functionality, fast and reliable fulfillment, and timely customer service.
We fulfill customer orders in a number of ways, including through the U.S. and international fulfillment
centers and warehouses that we operate, through co-sourced and outsourced arrangements in certain countries,
and through digital delivery. We operate customer service centers globally, which are supplemented by
co-sourced arrangements. See Item 2 of Part I, “Properties.”
Sellers
We offer programs that enable sellers to sell their products on our websites and their own branded websites
and to fulfill orders through us. We are not the seller of record in these transactions, but instead earn fixed fees,
revenue share fees, per-unit activity fees, or some combination thereof.
Enterprises
We serve developers and enterprises of all sizes through Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), which provides
access to technology infrastructure that enables virtually any type of business.
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