Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world, with revenue exceeding $570 billion in 2023. The company draws billions of monthly visits to its storefront and ships enormous volumes of packages every day. But retail is only one part of its empire. Amazon Web Services may be the most obvious non-retail business, yet the company also owns a growing collection of apps, services, and hardware brands that many consumers encounter without realizing they belong to Amazon.

Some of these properties have carried Amazon branding for years. Others operate independently and look nothing like the Amazon storefront. The following list covers 13 apps, services, and tech brands under Amazon's ownership. For each one, the key facts include when Amazon acquired it, what it does, and how it fits into the broader company.

Key Facts

• Amazon's 2023 revenue exceeded $570 billion, with more than 300 million active users and 1.6 billion shipments daily.
• The company owns media properties such as IMDb, Audible, Goodreads, Twitch, and Wondery.
• It also owns retail and fashion platforms including Shopbop, AbeBooks, Zappos, and Woot.
• Amazon's smart-home and hardware acquisitions include Blink, Ring, and Eero.
• Its autonomous vehicle subsidiary, Zoox, was acquired in 2020.

IMDb

IMDb has been part of Amazon for so long that many users assume it is an independent database. Amazon first approached IMDb in late 1997, shortly after Amazon itself went public. In April 1998, Amazon fully acquired the site. A press release at the time revealed that Amazon spent $55 million on IMDb and two other websites: Bookpage and Telebuch, which became Amazon's United Kingdom and German book operations. The price looked modest even then when compared with later deals, but it became an extraordinary bargain as IMDb grew into one of the most visited entertainment sites in the world.

IMDb provides ratings, cast and crew information, release dates, trivia, and reviews. It also powers the X-Ray feature on Amazon Prime Video, which lets viewers identify actors, songs, and production details while watching. For industry professionals, IMDbPro offers casting tools, page management, and box office data. The site's long history and deep database make it a cornerstone of Amazon's media strategy, even though it retains its own identity.

Shopbop

Amazon's early investments during the dot-com bubble included several online retailers that eventually failed. Those experiences may have influenced a more direct acquisition strategy in 2006, when Amazon bought Shopbop outright. Shopbop began in 1999 as the online arm of a physical fashion store. It carried labels such as Marc Jacobs, Juicy Couture, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Citizens of Humanity, giving Amazon fashion credibility it lacked at the time.

Amazon did not disclose the purchase price. Shopbop continued to operate independently, using Amazon for order fulfillment and Prime shipping. The acquisition marked Amazon's first major purchase after the dot-com crash and signaled its ambition to expand beyond books, electronics, and general merchandise into higher-end fashion.

Audible

Amazon entered digital content in the mid-2000s, launching Amazon MP3 in 2007 to compete with Apple's iTunes. In January 2008, Amazon agreed to buy audiobook provider Audible for about $300 million. The deal closed a few months later. At the time, Audible had websites in the United States and United Kingdom, plus operations in France and Germany, and sold more than 80,000 audiobooks from 520 providers.

After the acquisition, Audible launched the Audiobook Creation Exchange, or ACX, in 2011. ACX connected rights holders with producers and helped create far more audiobooks. By 2012, it supplied three times more audiobooks than all other sources combined. Audible's app revenue reached $17.5 million in May 2022. The service remains a dominant force in spoken-word audio, though competition from other audio platforms has increased.

AbeBooks

AbeBooks was another major Amazon acquisition in 2008. Founded in 1995, the Canadian retailer specializes in rare, out-of-print, and hard-to-find used books, along with art and collectibles. When Amazon bought it in 2008, AbeBooks listed 110 million books from roughly 13,500 sellers. The purchase also gave Amazon a 40% stake in LibraryThing, an online book cataloging and tracking platform.

Amazon already had an interest in Shelfari, a rival social cataloging service. That gave it a significant foothold in the book discovery market. Amazon eventually shut down Shelfari, but AbeBooks continued as a standalone entity. LibraryThing also survived, though its roughly 3 million members put it far behind Goodreads, which Amazon later acquired outright.

Zappos

Zappos launched in 1999 as ShoeSite.com before changing its name. The shoe and clothing retailer grew rapidly in the early 2000s and surpassed $1 billion in gross sales by 2008. In 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos for about 10 million Amazon shares, valued at roughly $888 million, plus $40 million in cash and restricted stock. The total came to approximately $928 million, making it one of Amazon's largest purchases at the time.

Amazon kept Zappos management in place, including CEO Tony Hsieh. He described the deal as a change in shareholders and directors rather than a traditional acquisition. Zappos continued to operate independently, and by 2015 its annual revenue was estimated at $2 billion. The brand remains known for customer service and its distinct company culture.

Woot

In 2010, Amazon bought Woot, a daily deals site founded by electronics wholesaler Matt Rutledge in 2004. Woot focused on consumer electronics and built a following with irreverent marketing and limited-time offers. It called itself the original daily deals site and even sold mystery grab bags known as Bag O' Crap. Woot appeared on Time's list of the 50 coolest websites in 2005 and generated about $165 million in revenue in 2008.

Amazon reportedly paid $110 million in cash. The company already had a last-minute deals feature, so observers suspected Amazon was more interested in Woot's data, behavioral insights, and mobile shopping potential. Woot continued operating after the purchase, while Rutledge left and later founded the rival daily deals site Meh.

Goodreads

Amazon already owned stakes in LibraryThing and Shelfari before it bought Goodreads in 2013. Goodreads was the clear leader in social book cataloging, with 11 million registered users and 395 million books in 2012. LibraryThing, by contrast, had 1.6 million members and 77 million books. The acquisition surprised many users, but it was a logical move for Amazon's book business.

Goodreads continued to grow and reached 150 million users by the end of 2023. Even so, some insiders have said Amazon focused more on user-generated data than on maintaining or improving the site and app. Kindle integration remains useful for some readers, but many users still complain about slow updates and missing features. Goodreads remains fully owned by Amazon and is a key part of its reading ecosystem.

Twitch

Twitch grew out of Justin.tv, an early live video site launched in 2007. Its gaming section became so popular that the company spun it off as TwitchTV in 2011. Within a year, Twitch had 3.2 million monthly users. By 2013, it had 600,000 broadcasters and 28 million unique viewers. Rumors of a major acquisition circulated, with YouTube initially seen as the likely buyer. Instead, Amazon bought Twitch in 2014 for $970 million.

The platform has faced financial pressure in the years since. It has reportedly continued to run at a loss and laid off one-third of its workforce in early 2024. Amazon Prime members receive a free Twitch channel subscription each month, which ties the service into Amazon's broader subscription ecosystem. Twitch remains one of the most recognizable live-streaming brands, even as it struggles with profitability.

Blink

Amazon's hardware acquisition spree accelerated in the late 2010s. In 2017, it bought Blink, a startup making battery-powered smart cameras and doorbells, for a reported $90 million. Blink gained attention through a 2014 Kickstarter campaign for a wireless, battery-powered HD security camera. The campaign raised $1 million, and the product launched in 2016 to generally positive reviews.

Blink already worked with Alexa and smart-home systems, which fit Amazon's connected-home ambitions and its Amazon Key delivery program. Reports suggested Amazon was also interested in Blink's proprietary low-power chips, which could improve battery life in devices such as Cloud Cam and Echo. Blink continues to sell smart security products under its own name.

Ring

After buying Blink, Amazon acquired rival smart-home company Ring in 2018. The price was reportedly between $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion, far higher than the Blink deal. Amazon had previously invested in Ring through its Alexa Fund. Ring was a leader in video doorbells and home security, with estimated revenue of $415 million in 2017.

The purchase was Amazon's second-largest acquisition at the time, though still well below the $13.7 billion it paid for Whole Foods Market. Ring and Blink overlapped in some product categories, but Amazon marketed them to different customers. Ring products were aimed at more affluent homeowners, while Blink offered more affordable options. Both brands continue to operate and release new devices.

Eero

Amazon bought mesh router maker Eero in 2019 for an alleged $97 million. Eero helped popularize whole-home mesh Wi-Fi with its three-piece system launched in 2016. The technology addressed dead zones and coverage problems that traditional routers often struggled with. The acquisition raised privacy concerns, with users wondering whether Amazon might monitor internet usage.

Company executives said Eero only collected data about connected devices, not what users did online. Amazon's Dave Limp also suggested Amazon did not need Eero to gather more data because it already had plenty. Eero continued to operate independently, but it soon released an Alexa-capable mesh router. Its products remain highly rated in the mesh Wi-Fi market.

Zoox

Amazon entered the autonomous vehicle race in 2020 by acquiring Zoox for a reported $1 billion. Zoox had raised nearly $1 billion between 2014 and 2019 to develop a fully autonomous ride-hailing service. Amazon had already invested in the self-driving startup Aurora in 2019. The Zoox deal made strategic sense for Amazon's delivery and logistics operations, and it offered potential upside in a future dominated by robotaxis.

Amazon kept Zoox as a standalone operation. CEO Aicha Evans and co-founder Jesse Levinson stayed with the company. Zoox robotaxis reached U.S. streets in early 2023, starting in California and expanding to Las Vegas. The autonomous vehicle boom has since cooled, and Zoox became the subject of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation in 2024. Even so, Zoox remains one of Amazon's most ambitious long-term bets.

Wondery

Podcasts exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, growing into a $1.4 billion advertising business by 2021. Wondery, founded in 2016 by former Fox International Channels CEO Hernán López, became one of the top five podcast publishers. In December 2018 alone, it recorded around seven million unique streams and 40 million downloads. By 2020, it was one of the few major independent podcast networks left after Spotify bought Gimlet Media and Parcast.

Amazon announced it would buy Wondery in December 2020 for reportedly more than $300 million. The deal closed in early 2021, shortly after Amazon added podcasts to Amazon Music. Wondery became the service's flagship podcast network. It has continued to grow and struck exclusivity deals with popular shows such as SmartLess and NPR's How I Built This. Wondery remains a key part of Amazon's audio content strategy, alongside Audible and Amazon Music.

Source:SlashGear News