Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2000 10:13 AM Subject: AMAZON.COM LAUNCHES AMAZON.CO.JP WITH A COMPREHENSIVE CATALOG OF JAPANESE AND FOREIGN BOOKS FOR JAPAN AND JAPANESE SPEAKERS WORLDWIDE The following release crossed the wire at 8 PM PT October 31, 2000 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> (BW) (WA-AMAZON.COM) (AMZN) AMAZON.COM LAUNCHES AMAZON.CO.JP WITH A COMPREHENSIVE CATALOG OF JAPANESE AND FOREIGN BOOKS FOR JAPAN AND JAPANESE SPEAKERS WORLDWIDE Attention Business Writers SEATTLE—(BUSINESS WIRE)—November 1, 2000—Leading online retailer Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) today launched Amazon.co.jp, a Japanese-language site, to serve Japan and Japanese-language speakers around the world. Amazon.co.jp enters Japan’s market with a comprehensive books catalog, offering more than 1.7 million Japanese and English-language titles and extensive editorial content. Japan is Amazon.com’s largest export market, with 193,000 customers and annualized sales of US$34 million. Amazon.com has consistently been ranked the No. 1 e-commerce site in Japan. Japan was also the home of Amazon.com’s millionth customer, who received a personal delivery of books from Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in Tokyo in 1997. “We’re grateful to the tens of thousands of Japanese who have shopped at Amazon.com for the past five years,” said Bezos. “With the launch of Amazon.co.jp, we can now make our customer-centric shopping experience - great service, selection and convenience - available to everyone looking for popular or hard-to-find Japanese language books.” Amazon.co.jp is Amazon’s first Asian-language site and its fourth international one. In developing its Unicode-enabled platform for the Japanese language site, Amazon.com worked with U.S.-based Basis Technology, a top provider of software internationalization services, with special expertise in Asian language information processing. Amazon’s other international sites include the French-language Amazon.fr, launched August 31 of this year, the German-language Amazon.de, and Amazon.co.uk. “We have drawn from our vast experience building international sites and our five years of global sales to more than 200 countries with Amazon.com to create a site customized for Japan and Japanese speakers everywhere and to promote Japanese literature and culture around the world,” said Diego Piacentini, Amazon.com senior vice president, international. Amazon’s operations in Japan include offices in Tokyo, a distribution center in Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture, and a customer service center in Sapporo, Hokkaido. ABOUT AMAZON.COM Amazon.com (Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries) is the Internet’s No. 1 retailer. Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection, along with online auctions and free electronic greeting cards. Amazon.com seeks to be the world’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Amazon.com lists more than 28 million unique items in categories such as electronics, kitchen products, books, music, DVDs, videos, camera and photo items, toys, software, computer and video games, tools and hardware, and lawn and patio items. Through Amazon.com zShops, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.com’s more than 25 million customers, and with Amazon.com Payments, sellers can accept credit card transactions, avoiding the hassles of offline payments. Amazon.com operates four international Web sites: www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de and www.amazon.co.jp. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web’s comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 250,000 movies and entertainment titles and 1 million cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1891 to 2003. Amazon Anywhere is the leader in mobile e-commerce, providing access from anywhere in the world to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and through handheld wireless Internet devices that use HDML or the Wireless Application Protocol. This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com’s limited operating history, anticipated losses, significant amount of indebtedness, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, consumer trends, competition, risk of distribution center expansion, risks related to fourth quarter performance, risks of system interruption, management of potential growth, inventory risks, risks related to auction and zShops services, risks related to fraud and Amazon.com Payments, and risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations, strategic alliances and the Amazon Commerce Network. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999, and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2000, June 30, 2000, and September 30, 2000.