---
title: "Which came first, Amazon or Facebook?"
description: "Amazon vs Facebook: Amazon came first, by 10 years — 1994 against 2004. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/amazon-vs-facebook/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Amazon or Facebook?

**Which came first, Amazon or Facebook?: Amazon**

1994 — 10 years before Facebook

Amazon came first, by 10 years. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state.

## Side by side

|  | Amazon | Facebook |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1994 | 2004 |
| Date | 1994-07-05 | 2004-02-04 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state. | TheFacebook launched for Harvard students only. |

## Amazon

Amazon was incorporated on 5 July 1994, originally as Cadabra, and the website opened in July 1995 selling only books. The 1994 incorporation date is used here because it is the company's own founding date; if you mean the shop, 1995 is the answer. Either way it predates Google by three or four years and eBay by about a year.

## Facebook

Facebook launched on 4 February 2004 restricted to Harvard email addresses, opened to other universities through 2004 and 2005, and to anyone over 13 with an email address in September 2006. It is six years younger than Google and a year older than YouTube. Its predecessor Facemash, which compared students' photographs, was shut down by the university within days in 2003.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Amazon or Facebook?

Amazon, by 10 years — 1994 against 2004.

### When did Amazon start?

1994. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state.

### When did Facebook start?

2004. TheFacebook launched for Harvard students only.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]