TOP 5 COMMERCIAL WEBSITES

Ebay is an American internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website where individuals and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. Founded in 1995, eBay is among the noteworthy success stories of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations in over thirty countries. Ebay expanded from its original fixed-duration auction format to include “Buy It Now” standard shopping.

The online auction website was founded as AuctionWeb by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar in San Jose, California, on 3 September 1995 as part of a larger personal site. One of the first items to sell on eBay was a laser pointer listed as broken, for US$14.83.

Amazon.com, Inc is a US-based multinational electronic retail company. Based in Seattle, Washington, it is America's largest online retailer, with nearly three times the internet sales revenue of the runner-up Staples, Inc in January 2010.

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc in 1994 and launched it online in 1995. The company was originally named Cadabra, Inc, but was renamed when it was discovered that people sometimes heard “cadaver” instead. The name Amazon.com was chosen because the Amazon River is the largest river in the world, thus the name suggests great size; and also in part because it starts with “A” and would, therefore, appear near the top of alphabetical listings. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore but soon diversified; selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronic equipment, apparel, toys, and even furniture and food. Amazon has created separate websites for Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Rakuten is the largest online shopping mall operator in Japan with over 50 million registered users. The company was founded in February 1997 as MDM, Inc and started operating in May of the same year. In June 1999 MDM, Inc changed its name to Rakuten, Inc. By June 2004 it was the second-ranking site in Japan in terms of single audience, with only Yahoo! receiving more monthly visits or hits.

Rakuten's revenues for 2005 exceeded US$1.1 billion, with operating profits of approximately US$320 million. Rakuten is among the 10 largest internet companies in the world (along with Amazon.com, InterActive Corp (IAC), Expedia, etc.).

Walmart.com is the online division of Walmart, the American public corporation that operates a chain of large discount department stores and a chain of warehouse stores. In 2010 it was the world's largest public corporation by revenue. The company was originally founded as Wal-Mart by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on 31 October 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Based in Bentonville, Arkansas, Walmart is the largest majority private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the USA. In 2009 it generated 51 % of its US$258 billion sales in the USA from grocery business.

Target.com is the internet division of Target Corp, known as Target. Target is an American retailing company that was founded by George Dayton in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1902 as the Dayton Dry Goods Company. The first Target store opened in nearby Roseville in 1962. The company did well and eventually became the largest division of Dayton Hudson Corp, culminating in the company changing its name to Target Corp in 2000. In May 2010, Target had stores in every state except Vermont, operating under the names of Target or SuperTarget. The company is the second largest discount retailer in the United States following Walmart.