Bezos selected the name Amazon by looking through the dictionary, and settled on "Amazon" because it was a place that was by far the "biggest" river in the world (according to drainage, not length), and he planned to make his store the biggest in the world. Bezos placed a premium on his head start in building a brand, telling a reporter, "there's nothing about our model that can't be copied over time. But you know, McDonald's got copied. And it still built a huge, multibillion-dollar company. A lot of it comes down to the brand name. Brand names are more important online than they are in the physical world.