---
title: "Which came first, Amazon or Harry Potter?"
description: "Amazon vs Harry Potter: Amazon came first, by 3 years — 1994 against 1997. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/amazon-vs-harry-potter/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Amazon or Harry Potter?

**Which came first, Amazon or Harry Potter?: Amazon**

1994 — 3 years before Harry Potter

Amazon came first, by 3 years. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state.

## Side by side

|  | Amazon | Harry Potter |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1994 | 1997 |
| Date | 1994-07-05 | 1997-06-26 |
| Category | technology | media |
| What happened | Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state. | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in the UK. |

## 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.

## Harry Potter

Bloomsbury published the first book in June 1997 with a print run of 500 copies, most of which went to libraries, after twelve other publishers had rejected the manuscript. The company's chairman gave the first chapter to his eight-year-old daughter, who demanded the rest. It came out the same year as Netflix was founded and a year before Google.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Amazon or Harry Potter?

Amazon, by 3 years — 1994 against 1997.

### When did Amazon start?

1994. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state.

### When did Harry Potter start?

1997. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in the UK.

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## Sources

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