Amazon (company)

Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational technology company from the United States headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, the company has transformed from an online bookstore into one of the most influential technology conglomerates in the world. Amazon operates in various sectors, including e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Together with Google, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, Amazon is often referred to as one of the five major technology companies in the United States.

History

Beginnings and Founding

The idea of founding Amazon originated from Jeff Bezos's observation in 1994 about internet usage growth reaching 2,300% per year. Seeing this opportunity, Bezos decided to leave his career at the hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. and start an online business. He chose Seattle as the company's location because of its reputation as a technology hub and its proximity to a major book distribution center. Initially, Bezos named the company Cadabra, Inc., but the name was changed because it sounded similar to the word "cadaver". The name Amazon was chosen because it was inspired by the Amazon River, which symbolizes large scale, and also because its alphabetical order made the name appear at the top of website directories at the time.

The company was officially established on July 5, 1994 in the garage of Bezos's home in Bellevue, Washington, with initial capital from personal funds of $10,000. The Amazon.com website was officially launched in 1995, and the first book sold online was a science book titled Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies by Douglas Hofstadter. In its first month of operation, Amazon had shipped books to 50 U.S. states and 45 other countries around the world.

Development and Early Expansion

In 1997, Amazon officially became a public company (IPO) with a share price of $18 per share. The company began expanding by selling music and video in 1998, and acquired online booksellers in the United Kingdom and Germany as the first step in its international expansion. By 1999, Amazon had expanded its catalog to include video games, consumer electronics, software, toys, and various household goods. With a vision of becoming "the store that sells everything," Amazon continued to grow and solidified its dominance amid the shock of the early 2000s dot-com bubble.

Products and Services

E-commerce and Marketplace

Amazon is the world's largest online retailer. Its main site, Amazon.com, sells a wide range of products, from books, electronics, and clothing to household goods and food. In addition to selling goods directly, Amazon also provides a marketplace platform for third-party sellers. The Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program allows these sellers to store their inventory in Amazon warehouses, and Amazon handles the packaging, shipping, and customer service processes, including offering free two-day shipping through the Amazon Prime membership program. In 2017, Amazon strengthened its presence in physical retail by acquiring the supermarket chain Whole Foods Market for $13.4 billion.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's largest cloud computing service provider. Launched in 2006, AWS provides various services, including computing power (Elastic Compute Cloud / EC2) and data storage (Simple Storage Service / S3), which are rented to individuals, companies, and governments. AWS has become Amazon's main profit growth engine, controlling more than 30% of the global cloud market share and competing with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. In Southeast Asia, AWS has expanded by building regional data centers in Singapore (2010), Indonesia (2021), Malaysia (2024), and Thailand (2025), with total infrastructure investment projected to exceed $33 billion by 2039.

Digital Content and Hardware

Amazon is also a major player in the digital entertainment industry. Through its subsidiaries, Amazon offers video streaming (Prime Video), music (Amazon Music), and a game live streaming platform (Twitch). The company produces original content through Amazon Studios and has a publishing division, Amazon Publishing. On the hardware side, Amazon produces a number of consumer electronic devices such as Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV set-top boxes, and Echo smart devices equipped with the AI-powered voice assistant Alexa.

Operations and Global Reach

Amazon has a broad global presence with localized retail websites in various countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, India, and Australia, each with domains and product offerings tailored to the market. Although dominant in Western markets, Amazon faces challenges in the Southeast Asia region. There, Amazon's market share is recorded at less than 0.3% of total e-commerce trade value, because it must compete fiercely with local platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop, which are more adaptive to local consumer behavior. In response, Amazon has changed its strategy in the region, focusing on becoming a connector for local sellers (especially from countries such as Vietnam) to export their products to the global market through Amazon's logistics infrastructure.

Innovation and Technology

Innovation is at the core of Amazon's strategy. The company consistently integrates artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into its operations. This can be seen in the development of the virtual assistant Alexa, personalized product recommendations, and an efficient logistics system. To support third-party sellers, Amazon has launched various AI-powered tools, such as Seller Assistant, which helps optimize inventory and advertising strategy, as well as product listing tools that can automatically generate product titles and descriptions.

Amazon also has an ambitious sustainability program, with a commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and become a "water positive" company by 2030. In the Southeast Asia region, this is realized through investment in renewable energy projects and the use of recycled water at their data centers.

Criticism and Controversy

As a giant company, Amazon has not been free from various criticisms. Several of the main issues often highlighted include aggressive tax practices, especially through tax optimization in countries with low rates, which is regarded as tax avoidance. The company has also faced criticism related to the work culture in its warehouses, which is considered competitive and demanding, as well as close surveillance of employees. In addition, Amazon's dominance in the e-commerce and cloud markets has raised concerns about anti-competitive practices and their impact on small businesses and competitors.

References

· Wikipedia bahasa Indonesia. "Amazon (perusahaan)".

· Kompas.com. "Sejarah Amazon, Toko Buku Online yang Berubah Jadi Raksasa Marketplace".

· Vietnam.vn. "Perjalanan Amazon selama 16 tahun berinvestasi di bidang AI dan komputasi awan di Asia Tenggara".

· Gotrade. "Saham Amazon: Profil, Prospek, dan Cara Beli di Indonesia".

· Jiemian.com. "亚马逊发家史大起底：从一个数字开始的行业颠覆之路".

· QQ News. "亚马逊发家史：从车库起步到2.4万亿美元的商业帝国".

· 天下雜誌. "市占率不到0.3%！亞馬遜東南亞十年大業為何遇瓶頸？".

· EconPapers. "THE ROLE OF BIG TECH IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE: PLATFORMS AS FACILITATORS OF CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE".

· Amazon Selling Partners. "Programs".

· Kompas.id. "Perusahaan 1 Triliun Dollar AS".

· Amazon UK. "亚马逊商品支持".

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Google

Google LLC is a multinational technology company from the United States known as a provider of internet services and products, especially the world's dominant search engine. It was founded on September 4, 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when both were still doctoral students at Stanford University. The name "Google" itself was inspired by the mathematical term "googol" (the number 1 followed by 100 zeros), which reflects the company's mission to organize the world's information in enormous quantities and make it universally accessible.

The company officially became part of the conglomerate Alphabet Inc. in 2015 as a result of a corporate restructuring. Over time, Google has evolved from merely a search engine into a technology giant with a very broad product portfolio, covering software, hardware, and various artificial intelligence (AI)–based services used by billions of people around the world.

History and Early Development

Beginnings and Founding

In 1995, Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University when Page was considering continuing his studies at the university and Brin was assigned to show him around campus. Although they often disagreed at first, they later developed a shared interest in information retrieval systems on the internet. Their research project began with a search engine named BackRub, named after its ability to analyze "backlinks" in order to determine the importance of a web page.

The two developed an innovative algorithm that later became the foundation of Google's technology, known as PageRank. This algorithm was able to rank search results based on the number and quality of links pointing to a page, an approach that proved far more relevant than other search methods of the time. In 1997, they officially renamed their search engine Google. The company Google LLC was then officially founded the following year after Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, became interested in their demonstration and wrote a check worth 100,000 U.S. dollars as initial capital.

Growth into a Technology Giant

Google Search quickly became the most widely used search engine in the world, surpassing competitors such as Yahoo! and AltaVista. This success was driven by more accurate search results and a clean, simple interface. By the mid-2000s, Google had become one of the most influential technology companies. In 2004, Google launched the free email service Gmail, which offered very large storage capacity and significantly changed the standard of email services.

Google's expansion became increasingly aggressive with a series of strategic acquisitions. In 2005, they acquired the mobile operating system developer company Android Inc., which would later become the foundation of the world's most popular operating system. Not long after, in 2006, Google acquired YouTube, a video-sharing platform that had become a global phenomenon and one of the most visited sites on the internet. These acquisitions strengthened Google's dominance not only in search, but also in digital advertising, video content, and the mobile device ecosystem.

Innovation and Main Products

Search Engine (Google Search)

Google's flagship product to this day is its search engine. With a global market share reaching more than 90%, Google Search is the main gateway for most internet users to access information. For more than 25 years, the Google search box has been the company's primary symbol.

At the annual Google I/O 2026 developer event, the company announced the largest update to their search box since it was first launched. This new search box is powered by artificial intelligence and designed to process longer, more natural, and more complex questions. Users can now search not only with text, but also with images, files, videos, and even currently open browser tabs. Search results are also no longer limited to a list of links, but can take the form of contextual answers summarized by AI, interactive graphs, or even dynamically created user interfaces according to the question asked.

The Android Operating System

Android is a Linux kernel–based mobile operating system acquired by Google in 2005. Since its launch, Android has become the backbone of the mobile device ecosystem outside Apple's environment. Its presence has allowed Google to bring its services, such as Search, Gmail, and Google Maps, to billions of smartphone users around the world. Android is also known as one of Google's most widely used products in Indonesia.

Other Popular Products

In addition to Search and Android, Google has various products with more than one billion users. YouTube, acquired in 2006, has become the world's largest video site. Gmail revolutionized email with large storage and advanced features. Google Maps is the most popular digital map application, providing navigation and location information in real time. The Google Chrome browser also dominates the market with its speed and extensive extensions. The photo and video storage service Google Photos has also been used by billions of people to back up and manage their digital memories.

Artificial Intelligence: The Gemini Model and the Future

Gemini: Flagship AI Model

In recent years, Google has shifted its main focus to the development of artificial intelligence, with their flagship model named Gemini. Google's long journey in AI began in the Google Brain era, which in 2011 started the Distbelief project and produced the famous "Cat Paper", which showed that a deep neural network could learn to recognize objects such as cats from YouTube videos without labels. Its peak innovation came in 2017 when the Google Brain team published a paper on the Transformer architecture, which became the foundation for the modern AI revolution and gave rise to models such as ChatGPT and Gemini itself.

At Google I/O 2026, Google launched Gemini 3.5 Flash, the latest model in the Gemini series that combines advanced intelligence with high speed. This model is generally available and designed to handle "agentic" tasks or tasks that require a series of complex actions, such as helping developers create applications or prepare financial documents. Google also introduced Gemini Omni, a revolutionary model that can create various types of content from various types of input (text, images, video, audio), with an initial focus on video creation.

AI Agents and Cross-Platform Integration

Google introduced various AI agents designed to help users in everyday life. Gemini Spark is a personal AI agent that can work in the background around the clock to help manage users' digital lives, including reading email, summarizing documents, and taking action on the user's behalf after receiving approval. The Daily Brief feature arrives as an agent that automatically gathers information from calendars, email, and tasks to provide a personal summary in the morning. These agents demonstrate Google's vision of making AI a new operational layer throughout all of their products, from Search and Gmail to YouTube.

Google's Presence in Indonesia

Establishment of a Branch Office and Tax Compliance

Google officially opened its first branch office in Indonesia on March 30, 2012, making Indonesia the fourth country in Southeast Asia to have a Google office after Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. This establishment was driven by large market potential, given that in the same year, nearly 80.91 percent of internet users in Indonesia used Google as their main search engine.

Although it already had an office, there was a tug-of-war between Google and Indonesia's Directorate General of Taxes (DJP) regarding tax obligations. This culminated in the issuance of Minister of Finance Regulation Number 35/PMK.03/2019 on the Determination of a Permanent Establishment (BUT), which pushed Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., operating in Singapore, to establish a BUT in Indonesia. Finally, in 2019, Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. was willing to carry out its tax obligations in Indonesia, including paying Value Added Tax (PPN) and Income Tax (PPh).

Contribution to the Indonesian-Language Wikipedia

Google also collaborated with the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Indonesia in a pilot project that began in 2019. This project aimed to expand access to Indonesian-language information on the Google search engine. In this project, when a user searches for a topic in Indonesian and there is no quality Wikipedia article in that language, Google will display a machine-translated version of the English Wikipedia article. This result will be clearly labeled as a machine translation, and if there is a quality Indonesian-language article, Google's algorithm will prioritize that original article. This collaboration is part of a broader project such as Project Gayatri, which aims to support an increase in the quantity and quality of content on the Indonesian-language Wikipedia. This initiative highlights a joint effort to address the content gap, in which the English Wikipedia has tens of millions of articles compared with fewer than one million articles on the Indonesian-language Wikipedia.

References

Google I/O 2026: all our announcements. (2026). Google Blog.

Global Reach/Announcements/Bahasa Indonesia Search Pilot FAQ. (2019). Wikimedia Meta-Wiki.

Google AI 编年史：从搜索巨头到创新者困境的25年. (2025). 36氪.

Indonesia Gen Z: Data, Demographics, and Digital Behavior. (2026). Jakpat.

Seperempat Abad Google dan Aspek Perpajakannya sebagai BUT di Indonesia. (2023). Direktorat Jenderal Pajak.

Wikipedia bahasa Indonesia. (2025). Wikipedia.

Seperempat Abad Google dan Aspek Perpajakannya sebagai BUT di Indonesia. (2023). Direktorat Jenderal Pajak.

Google I/O 2026: Tất cả công bố đáng chú ý. (2026). VTV.

Catch up on 12 major I/O 2026 moments. (2026). Google Blog.

Proyek Gayatri Overview. (n.d.). Wikimedia Outreach Dashboard.

Google 滿 20 歲了：它如何改變網路，撼動世界？. (2018). INSIDE.

Tepat Hari Ini, 20 Tahun Silam Google Dibentuk hingga Akhirnya Jadi 'Raja Dunia'. (2018). Serambinews.

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