Amazon is the world's largest online retailer, selling over forty categories of goods, from books to electronics to groceries to jewelry to auto parts. The company is also an ecommerce and Internet technology platform, a fulfillment and logistics platform, a search technology, an Internet advertising platform, and even an Internet startup incubator. In 2011 its net revenue increased 41% to $48.08 billion. {12}
Amazon is one of the more innovative of online retailers, and has experienced great success and failure, a record reflected in a share price that has oscillated from a high of $106 in 1999 to $6 in 2001, rising to $60 in 2003, only to fall to $27 in 2006. In recent years Amazon stock has traded above $150. {9}