Amazon.com's employee base grew from approximately 600 to over 2,100 during 1998.
Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
The evidence is the person's or their organisation's own records.
Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.
What would count as true or false
TRUE: Amazon's Form 10-K filings report about 600 employees at the end of 1997 (roughly 550 to 650) and more than 2,100 at the end of 1998. MOSTLY TRUE: the growth happened as described with a small slip, for example a 1998 year-end figure of 2,000 to 2,100, or a 1997 figure slightly outside the range. MOSTLY FALSE: one endpoint differs materially, by more than about 15%. FALSE: both endpoints differ materially from the claimed figures.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (4)
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E1 0000891020-98-000448.txt (Amazon.com Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1997) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), filed by Amazon.com, Inc. · 30 March 1998
“The Company's employee base has similarly expanded, growing from 158 employees as of December 31, 1996 to 614 employees as of December 31, 1997.”
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E2 Form 10-K, Amazon.com, Inc., for the year ended December 31, 1998 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (filed by Amazon.com, Inc.)
“As of December 31, 1998, the Company employed approximately 2,100”
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E3 Form 10-K, Amazon.com, Inc., for the year ended December 31, 1997 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (filed by Amazon.com, Inc.) · 30 March 1998
“158 employees as of December 31, 1996 to 614 employees as of December 31, 1997.”
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E4 Jeff Bezos's 1998 Amazon Shareholder Letter shareholderinbox.com (third-party site reproducing and annotating the letter) · 18 May 2026
“Employee headcount | approximately 600 (beginning of 1998)[15] | over 2,100[16]”
Reasoning
Amazon's 1997 Form 10-K reports 614 employees as of December 31, 1997 (E1, E3), which is within the 550–650 range for "approximately 600." Its 1998 Form 10-K reports that the company employed "approximately 2,100" as of December 31, 1998 (E2), not "more than 2,100." Under the criteria, a 1998 year-end figure of about 2,000 to 2,100 counts as a small slip, so the claim is mostly true. The third-party table in E4 repeats the letter's own figures and adds nothing independent.
Cite this claim
Jeff Bezos, “Amazon.com's employee base grew from approximately 600 to over 2,100 during 1998.” (said 1999). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_5eaca2fcb089, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_5eaca2fcb089
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
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Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.