Amazon customers can now view political reading tastes by state, as well as top-selling red and blue political books

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2012-- (NASDAQ:AMZN)— Amazon.com, Inc. today unveiled the Amazon Election Heat Map 2012 (www.amazon.com/election-heatmap), a map that’s updated daily and allows customers to find the best-selling political books in the United States by state – separated into blue (liberal) and red (conservative) categories. Customers can click on any state on the Amazon Election Heat Map to see the percentage of conservative and liberal books sold in that state, as well as the top 5 best-selling conservative and liberal books per state. A state will turn blue, for example, if it has a higher number of liberal book sales for the month, taking into account both print and Kindle formats. When liberal and conservative are more equally represented in a particular state, that state will be shaded beige.

“Book sales by geography always have interesting things to say about our states, and an election season is a particularly good time to use this data to help customers follow the changing political conversation across the country,” said Chris Schluep, Senior Editor, Amazon.com Books. “But books aren’t votes, so a map of book purchases may reflect curiosity as much as agreement.”

The Amazon Books Editorial team pulled extensive lists of best-selling books in relevant categories and vetted them using a variety of tools for clear partisan leaning, separating them into red and blue categories. Many books, of course, have no clear political bias, and therefore were not included. The top 250 titles in each list will power the Heat Map, based on customers’ book-buying habits.

The Amazon Election Heat Map destination will also host two “Live Meters” that indicate the percentage split of red and blue book sales in the US for books by the two presidential candidates as well as their vice presidential running mates. Customers can also easily view the Top 100 best-selling red and blue political books in the US for both print and Kindle books.

To check out the Amazon Election Heat Map, customers can visit www.amazon.com/election-heatmap. As of today, 56% of books sold are red books. Watch the map to see how that changes leading up to the election.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core processor.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, and www.amazon.es. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

 

Source: Amazon.com, Inc.

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