Amazon now has domains in 15 countries, covering more than half of the world’s population

The company’s steady migration across the world masks a more rapid growth of some of its services. AWS, the company’s cloud computing arm, and Amazon Prime Video, its streaming platform, are available worldwide, and just last week, Amazon launched a new feature to make it easier for users not served directly by its retail arm to fill their baskets anyway.

Jeff Bezos has been so effective at branching Amazon out into new markets that the company has a recognised effect on the stock market when it announces it is entering a new sector. The day after Amazon announced it was forming a venture to provide healthcare for its employees, many US healthcare firms saw billions wiped off their market caps. A year earlier, the same thing happened with retail stocks when Amazon bought Whole Foods.

Amazon is now the fourth most valuable company in the world, valued at more than $700bn

• The headline and standfirst were amended on 27 April 2018 to clarify that Amazon is the largest retailer by market capitalisation.