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How Jeff Bezos Came Up with the Idea for Amazon

By Jeff Bezos · Founder Stories · 1 min read

In 1994, Bezos came across the fact that web usage was growing at 2,300% a year. That was a wake-up call. He realized you could build a bookstore on the web that could hold more books than any physical store ever could.

Key Points

Web usage was growing 2,300% a year in 1994 — most people hadn't even heard of the web
Books were the first best product to sell online — more items in the book category than any other
The largest physical bookstores only carry 100-150K books out of millions in print

You could make a bookstore on the web that could hold more books than a physical bookstore could ever hold. Truly universal selection.

2,300% Growth Per Year

Bezos: In 1994, I came across the fact that web usage was growing at something like 2,300% a year. That was a wake-up call — there was something going on. Many people hadn't heard of the web at that point. This was the time of 28-kilobit-per-second modems and dial-up access. A very different age.

But it was clear there was going to be something there. I realized you could make a bookstore on the web that could hold more books than a physical bookstore could ever hold. Truly universal selection.

Web usage was growing 2,300% a year. I realized you could build a bookstore with truly universal selection.

Why Books First

Bezos: My background was in computers, but books were the first best product to sell online. As a happy coincidence, I've always been a big reader — but that wasn't the reason we chose books.

Books are unique in one respect — there are more items in the book category than in any other category. Millions of books active and in print around the world. The largest physical superstores only carry about 100,000 to 150,000 of those millions.

Millions of books in print. The largest stores carry 100-150K. On the web, you could have them all.

Solving a Real Problem

Bezos: On the web you could build something that truly solved a real problem — people can't find some of the books they want to find. They're very good books but they may have a very narrow audience.

We basically built Amazon to make it possible for people to find those hard-to-find books.

We built Amazon to make it possible for people to find hard-to-find books.