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Net income rose to $513m, Amazon’s highest quarterly profit. North American retail sales and international retail sales both grew more than 30 per cent during the quarter.
The fastest growing part of the company was Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing division, which reported $2.6bn in sales, up 64 per cent from the same period a year ago. However operating margins narrowed slightly for Amazon Web Services compared to the earlier quarter.
“This is pretty much a knockout quarter for Amazon, especially when you balance it with the results from eBay and Google,” said Scot Wingo, executive chairman of ChannelAdvisor, which provides software to retailers that sell on Amazon. “Amazon is taking market share from eBay,” Mr Wingo added. “At this growth rate, they are probably taking market share from pretty much everybody.”
During the first quarter Amazon also continued investing heavily in new areas, including logistics operations, last-mile delivery, and original video content.
The profits came as a surprise because Amazon has historically eschewed profits and founder Jeff Bezos has often said that he places more value on other financial metrics as better measures of growth.