In the first quarter of 1998, the number of Amazon customer accounts was slightly more than 2 million, an increase of half in just three months and a staggering 564% increase over a year earlier, it took Amazon.com 27 months to serve its first million customers and just 6 to serve its second million. This made Amazon.com the third largest book retailer in the United States. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original EssayThe company began to expand its scope of influence through the acquisition of three companies, two of which were acquired for Amazon.com's further expansion into Europe. One of the largest online book retailers in the UK – The Bookpages, gave Amazon.com access to the UK market, Telebook, the largest online book retailer in Germany, formed the entry into its home market. Both companies gave Amazon not only access to new sources of profit in two of Europe's most important countries, but also gave existing Amazon more resources from around the world. The third new purchase, Internet Movie Database, was instrumental in its further shift into online video sales. The IMD's extraordinary resources and information have served as an invaluable asset in building Amazon.com's future dominance. Another sensation occurred in 1998 when the company announced that it would also expand into the music industry. Several months before the official launch of its music site, Amazon.com asked bookstore customers and music professionals to help them design the new website. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay At the end of the second quarter of 1998, with a very confident number of customer accounts leaving the three million mark far behind, and with Amazon.com's sales figures continuing to grow and adding more products and securities, the future looked bright for this young venture into Internet commerce. With music as part of the business mix on one hand and video sales on the other, Jeff seemed to have achieved his goal of invading the online sales market. As Bezos said in his interview with Fortune magazine in December 1996: “By the beginning of the 21st century, there could be two or three large online bookstores. We have to be one of them”.