“I need a book,” I said loudly, sitting at my computer.

“Try Amazon,” my wife’s voice echoed from the other room.

“This is amazing,” I said to the air. “They’ve got a lot more than books here. It’s like magic.”

“Abracadabra” is a word magicians use to make appear what wasn’t there before. The word itself is thought to have the power to wrought change and alter reality.

Amazon was first incorporated as “Cadabra.” It is a curiously appropriate appellation for the world’s first great Internet shopping experience. Like many new tech businesses, Cadabra began in a small place — in this case, a garage. The founder, Jeff Bezos, was convinced product sales over the Internet was the wave of the future. The company began simply as a small online bookstore . . . but not for long.

Whisking through the air, the magician’s wand of the entrepreneur was out and working. Product sales exploded and expanded into new and varied lines and lands. The garage collapsed and was swallowed by a virtual black hole of shopping extravaganza. Consumers were drawn in droves to fall and float through the drop-down windows and among the pictured pop-up halls of proffered and prolific merchandising.

Mr. Bezos, ever the visionary, saw the flood gates of retail hysteria opening and quickly renamed the company “Amazon” after the mighty river with the largest flow of water on our globe. From A to Z, on the digital Amazon, every product of the planet could bob and bounce in enticing and exciting array. A new age had dawned.

And, it could be copied. Jeff Bezos saw that. He was among the first. Certainly, he was riding the crest of the first wave. He had the advantage. And, he had the new name, the brand: Amazon. Abracadabra. It was magic at work.

All good things will be imitated.

Ali Baba was a poor woodcutter. His brother had the money. But, Ali Baba had a good ear and a keen sense of timing. One day in the woods, he listened quietly from his place of hiding as forty thieves described and detailed a wondrous cave of treasures. Then, one thief whispered the magic words that would open the door to riches: “open sesame.” The rest is perhaps the most famous and well known of the tales of the Arabian Nights.

Jack Ma was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Like Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma developed a fascination for the internet and its potential, and like Jeff, Jack was a visionary.

On a business trip to San Francisco, Mr. Ma was sitting in a coffee shop thinking of a name for a new company. He asked the waitress, “Do you know about Alibaba?” “Of course,” she answered, “Alibaba and the 40 thieves.” On the street, he stopped and asked 30 people. They all knew. In Jack Ma’s own words, “They all knew about Alibaba. Alibaba – open sesame.” The new company was founded in an apartment. The registered name was, of course, Alibaba.

Today, Alibaba is, by many accounts, the biggest group of e-commerce businesses in the world. Sales are reported to exceed those of its major competitors combined, including the flagship online retailer Amazon.

Operating primarily in the People’s Republic of China, the Alibaba web portals feature and feat nearly a billion products to a curious and clamoring public. Over 60% of the parcels delivered in China have Alibaba somewhere and somehow on the return address.

By all accounts, Jack Ma has discovered the secret to unlock the cave of treasures.

“open sesame,” Jack whispers.

Mr. Ma, as others before him, has learned something of the magic of words.

“Abra cadabra,” Jeff Bezos quietly intones, before falling back to sleep with “Amazon” on his mind and in his head.

All good things should be copied.

Let Ali Baba lead the way.

Everyone knows the name.

Alibaba — open sesame.

Grandpa Jim