Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, Amazon began as an online bookstore and has since expanded into a vast online marketplace offering a wide range of products and services. It is considered one of the Big Five American technology companies, alongside Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. Amazon also produces consumer electronics, including Kindle e-readers, Echo devices, Fire tablets, and Fire TVs. As of 2024, Amazon is the world's largest online retailer and marketplace, smart speaker provider, cloud computing service through AWS, live-streaming service through Twitch, and Internet company as measured by revenue and market share. In 2021, it surpassed Walmart as the world's largest retailer outside of China, driven in large part by its paid subscription plan, Amazon Prime, which has 200 million subscribers worldwide. It is the second-largest private employer in the United States and the second-largest company in the world and in the U.S. by revenue as of 2024 (after Walmart). As of October 2024, Amazon is the 12th-most visited website in the world and 84% of its traffic comes from the United States. Amazon is also the global leader in research and development spending, with R&D expenditure of US$73 billion in 2022.