TechtechnologyreutersAmazon

Amazon Down Briefly In U.S. And Canada

Amazon Goes Down
Reuters
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By Dhanya Skariachan

NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Amazon.com, the website of the world's largest online retailer, went down for about 15 minutes on Monday in a rare outage for many users across the United States and Canada.

It was unclear what triggered the rare disruption. The company, whose Amazon Web Services is designed to ramp up server capacity for customers to prevent outages, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Earlier on Monday, users from New York and Toronto to San Francisco got only error messages when trying to access the popular shopping website. The news came less than a week after the website of the New York Times went down for about two hours.

Amazon has $86 billion in annual gross merchandise volume, including its business through third-party sellers, according to consultants at RetailNet Group. Going by that estimate, Amazon processes some $163,622 in transactions per minute on average.

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Before You Go

Inside One Of Amazon's Mind-Boggling Warehouses
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Workers pull merchandise as it arrives at the Amazon.com 1.2 million square foot fulfillment center Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, in Phoenix. Americans clicked away on their computers and smartphones for deals on Cyber Monday, which is expected to be the biggest online shopping day in history. Shoppers are expected to spend $1.5 billion, up 20 percent from last year, according to research firm comScore. That would not only make it the biggest online shopping day of the year, but the biggest since comScore started tracking shoppers' online buying habits in 2001. (credit:AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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An employee walks a wide isle at Amazon.com's 1.2 million square foot fulfillment center Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, in Phoenix. (credit:AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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A worker organizes containers on "Cyber Monday" at the Amazon.com 1.2 million square foot fulfillment center Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, in Phoenix. (credit:AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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Yolanda Holden places a completed order onto a conveyor belt prior to packaging at the Amazon.com 1.2 million square foot fulfillment center Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, in Phoenix. (credit:AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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On "Cyber Monday" Nicholas Lerma gets packages ready for shipping at the Amazon.com 1.2 million square foot fulfillment center Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, in Phoenix. (credit:AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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Packages ready to ship move along a conveyor belt at the Amazon.com 1.2 million square foot fulfillment center Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, in Phoenix. (credit:AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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Staff at the Amazon Swansea fulfilment centre process orders as they prepare their busiest time of the year on November 24, 2011 in Swansea, Wales. (credit:Matt Cardy, Getty Images)
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Staff at the Amazon Swansea fulfilment centre process orders as they prepare their busiest time of the year on November 24, 2011 in Swansea, Wales. (credit:Matt Cardy, Getty Images)
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Staff at the Amazon Swansea fulfilment centre process orders as they prepare their busiest time of the year on November 24, 2011 in Swansea, Wales. (credit:Matt Cardy, Getty Images)
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Staff at the Amazon Swansea fulfilment centre process orders as they prepare their busiest time of the year on November 24, 2011 in Swansea, Wales. (credit:Matt Cardy, Getty Images)
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Staff at the Amazon Swansea fulfilment centre process orders as they prepare their busiest time of the year on November 24, 2011 in Swansea, Wales. (credit:Matt Cardy, Getty Images)
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Staff at the Amazon Swansea fulfilment centre process orders as they prepare their busiest time of the year on November 24, 2011 in Swansea, Wales. (credit:Matt Cardy, Getty Images)
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