Amazon becomes world's second trillion dollar company as stock soars

Amazon has become the second US-listed firm to gain a market value of more than $1 trillion (£779bn).

It comes after Apple became the first to reach the same milestone earlier last month.

The market value of Amazon jumped to just over a trillion dollars when its stock rose 1.7 per cent on Tuesday.

It dropped back slightly as the day went on.

Amazon has revolutionised how people shop online and is the world's dominant internet retailer.

In two decades the company expanded beyond its bookseller beginnings, combining its retail operation with advertising and cloud computing businesses.

The company's success put its founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos top of the Forbes billionaires list this year.

The Seattle-based firm cemented customer loyalty through smart devices like Alexa and the Prime membership programme.

Amazon has also formed partnerships with many old-line retailers.

It sold Kenmore washing machines traditionally found at Sears and opened stations inside Kohl's stores where people can bring returns and look at Amazon devices.

Wall Street has become enthusiastic about Amazon's other businesses.

Amazon Web Services provides cloud computing services to companies and government, and its advertising division makes billions by selling adverts to companies that want their products to show up when shoppers search on the site.

Those profitable businesses have helped offset the high costs associated with running its online store.

Amazon saw its quarterly profit soar past 2 billion dollars for the first time earlier this year as the online shopping, cloud computing and advertising businesses kept growing.