BELLEVUE, Wash.–Twenty-five years ago today Amazon was incorporated. And since July 5, 1994, huge technological changes have occurred that many have forgotten—or may not have ever known or heard of in the first place.
Founded by Jeff Bezos and his former wife, MacKenzie, after Bezos left his job at a New York hedge fund and drove cross country, Amazon initially sold just books and at first was called “Cadabra.” But even then, Bezos was quoted as saying he envisioned Amazon as "an everything store."
Amazon has indeed become an everything store—including now having physical stores—with a dominant position in the U.S. and much of the world. But as author Bill Murphy, Jr. noted in a posting on Inc.com, Amazon isn’t the only thing to have changed—and changed drastically—since the summer of 1994 (its first website would go live in 1995).
Stanford FCU in Palo Alto, Calif. would become the first CU in the world to offer rudimentary online banking in 1993—well ahead of just about all banks, as well. And the credit union community itself has during Amazon’s lifetime experienced the same revolutionary change as the company itself, with the Internet and online banking transforming from something few had any real knowledge of into the primary channel through which many members now interact with their credit unions.
Among the changes to have taken place since Amazon first began operating out of a garage, Murphy reported:
Almost Nobody Had Internet Access
“If you're old enough, you can admit it: You probably didn't even use the Internet in 1994,” wrote Murphy. Only .447% of the world had access. But, that figure was growing exponentially. A year before, it was .252%; by 1995 it would be .777%.
Access Was Slow & Costly
Amazon's first website in 1995.
“If you did have Internet access, you probably had it through school or work. If you had it at home, you were likely paying a company like AOL by the hour: $19.95 for five hours, and then $3 an hour afterward,” Murphy reminded.
And he added this fun fact: the idea of Cyber Monday, the big online shopping day, originated because it was the first day after the Thanksgiving holiday when people went back to work and had good Internet access again.
But That's OK, Because Websites Were Horrible
“I'm not just talking about things like Geocities, which didn't launch for another year,” reported Murphy.
Need examples: Here are the early websites ofApple (from 1997; nothing earlier survives), Microsoft (1994), and Yahoo (1996).
3.5 Inch Disks Were Still a Thing
“It made sense then,” noted Murphy. “The primary way people moved data from one computer to another in July 1994? The ‘sneakernet,’ which was slang for copying files to a 1.44 MB diskette, and physically moving it from one computer to another.
Ads Barely Existed.
Murphy said the first spam emails had been sent only a month before the founding of Amazon. “The good news was that banner ads wouldn't be invented for another few months,” he said.
Domain Names Were Free
An early Apple Computer website.
“I don't just mean that they were available. If you'd had the foresight, you could apparently still register any name for free in 1994,” said Murphy. All of that would change in 1995.
Browsers Were Nothing
“There were web browsers obviously, and Mosaic was a technological milestone,” wrote Murphy. “But almost nothing you use today was around then. The first Netscape browser launched in November 1994.”
You Had to Mail a Check
In 1994, there was no easy way to transfer money online (except, perhaps, for members of Stanford FCU). In fact, when eBay launched more than a year later -- in September 1995 -- buyers who won auctions would have to physically write a check and send it in the mail before they could get their winning item, Murphy stated.
A Top News Site Had Been Built for $120
Murphy shared that an “employee of The Economist, apparently fed up that his company had never built a website, simply did it on his own. It cost him $120. Around the same time, MTV realized that one of its ex-VJs had been given permission to launch an MTV website on his own; the company was in the middle of a battle to try to get it back.”
History Was Happening
An early Microsoft website.
Stepping back from the web, Murphy reminded that in 1994, The Channel tunnel had just opened, O.J. Simpson had just run from the cops, Nelson Mandela had just become president of South Africa, Microsoft had just announced it would stop selling MS-DOS, and Major League Baseball players were about to go on strike (canceling the World Series).
The White House Didn't Have a Website
Government was “slow to the party, which is especially odd since the Internet was created by the government,” Murphy said. The White House's website finally launched in November 1994. (The late Sen. Ted Kennedy's site went live in June 1994, though, Murphy stated.)
Nobody Was Doing This Stuff
“Almost none of the people we think of as current Internet icons were doing anything yet,” said Murphy. “Mark Zuckerberg had just turned 10. Jack Dorsey was in high school. Evan Spiegel, future co-founder of SnapChat, had just turned 4.
“Moreover, Elon Musk wouldn't graduate from the University of Pennsylvania and start his first company for another three years. And it would also be three years more before Steve Jobs returned to head Apple for the second time.”
At one point, the state of the art tech for storing and transporting data.
OK, There Were Some Pioneering Exceptions
“They say pioneers get slaughtered and settlers prosper,” observed Murphy. “In fact, there was already one big book retailer online before Amazon: Powells.com. And Pizza Hut had launched a way to order pizza online.
“It's not clear how many people actually used either site, and the numbers were surely very small by 2019 standards,” said Murphy. “But credit for being first -- or at least early -- goes to them.”