Amazon Marks 10th Anniversary

By Alan Wolf On Jul 25 2005 - 6:00am

E-tail leader Amazon.com turned 10 this month, and marked the occasion with a series of on- and off-line events.

The celebrations included surprise in-person order deliveries by celebrities including Clay Aiken, Jason Alexander, Jeff Bridges, Joan Cusack, Harrison Ford, Anna Kournikova, Moby and Claudia Schiffer; rankings of the Top 25 best-selling DVD/videos, musicians and authors of the past 10 years; and a Wish List sweepstakes that will award two randomly selected customers with all of the items on their Amazon gift registries, up to $5,000.

The festivities culminated July 16 with a live, streamed concert by Norah Jones and Bob Dylan, hosted by comedian Bill Maher.

Founder/CEO Jeff Bezos first opened Amazon's virtual doors on July 16, 1995, from his Seattle-area garage. Since then, the book seller has burgeoned into a multibillion-dollar broad line merchant with an estimated $828 million in CE sales and international sites in Canada, China, France, Japan and the United Kingdom.