---
title: "Which came first, Amazon or Netflix?"
description: "Amazon vs Netflix: 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-netflix/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Amazon or Netflix?

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

1994 — 3 years before Netflix

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

## Side by side

|  | Amazon | Netflix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1994 | 1997 |
| Date | 1994-07-05 | 1997-08-29 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state. | Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded a DVD rental-by-post company. |

## 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.

## Netflix

Netflix was founded in August 1997, a year before Google, and posted DVDs for a decade before streaming launched in January 2007. The famous origin story — Hastings founding it after a $40 late fee on Apollo 13 — has been called a useful myth by co-founder Marc Randolph. Blockbuster declined to buy the company for $50 million in 2000.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Amazon or Netflix?

Amazon, by 3 years — 1994 against 1997.

### When did Amazon start?

1994. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state.

### When did Netflix start?

1997. Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded a DVD rental-by-post company.

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## Sources

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