Amazon.com set to serve its 10 millionth "Amazonian"; customer base has grown 10 times in 21 months
SEATTLE, June 7 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Less than four years after opening on the Internet, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today will become the first e-commerce store to serve its 10 millionth customer.
In October 1997, Amazon.com became the first Internet retailer to serve 1 million customers, and its cumulative customer base has grown tenfold in 21 months and is now equivalent to the population of Greece.
The 10 million number represents an e-commerce watershed reflecting the appeal of online shopping beyond original techno-savvy buyers to mainstream consumers.
"If anyone had predicted in 1995 that we'd have 10 million Amazonians by now, they'd have been locked up as dangerous," said Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. "We certainly didn't expect it, and we're extremely grateful. We're celebrating--but quickly--and taking this opportunity to re-commit ourselves to our customers."
Bezos added, "We're especially pleased that one of the significant components of recent customer growth has been auction participants."
In honor of all Amazon.com customers, Bezos will personally deliver the goods bought today by an honorary 10 millionth Amazonian. The personalized delivery reflects Amazon.com's roots in 1995 when Bezos would take each day's orders to the post office for delivery to customers.
Amazon.com started selling books online in July 1995. In June 1998, when it had about 3 million customers, the company added its music CD store, and five months later, a video store. Amazon.com finished 1998 with 6.2 million customers and since then has launched Amazon.com Auctions and a free electronic greeting card service. Amazon.com Auctions is a business-to-consumer and person-to-person auction site featuring tens of thousands of offerings.
The Amazon.com cumulative customer base of 10 million unique customers includes those who have either purchased merchandise from Amazon.com or participated as registered users of Amazon.com Auctions.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 video, and No. 1 book retailer, opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest SelectionTM with free electronic greeting cards, online auctions, and more than 4.7 million book, music-CD, video, DVD, and computer-game titles. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where people can find and discover anything they may want to buy online. As part of its efforts to provide the best shopping experience for customers, Amazon.com provides secure credit-card payment, personalized recommendations, streamlined ordering through 1-ClickSM technology, and hassle-free auction bidding with Bid-ClickSM.
Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and 500,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the present. Amazon.com also operates LiveBid.com (www.livebid.com), the sole provider of live-event auctions on the Internet.
In addition, Amazon.com has invested in leading Internet retailers that are improving the lives of customers by making shopping easier and more convenient: drugstore.com, a complete online provider of health, beauty, wellness, and prescription-drug products, at www.drugstore.com; Pets.com, the largest pet-supply company on the Internet and a valuable source of free information for pet owners, at www.pets.com; HomeGrocer.com, the first fully integrated Internet grocery-shopping and home-delivery service, with operations in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, at www.homegrocer.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, consumer trends, competition, risks of system interruption, management of potential growth, risks related to auction services, and risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations, and strategic alliances. 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 Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 1999.
Amazon.com, Amazon.com Auctions, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Internet Movie Database, PlanetAll, Earth's Biggest Selection, Bid-Click and 1-Click are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.