Amazon released its first quarter numbers on Thursday, smashing analyst expectations on both the top and bottom-line. The e-commerce behemoth continues to benefit from the surge in online shopping as demand remains robust for deliveries, the cloud business and advertising.
The Seattle-based company saw revenues come in at $108.5 billion, up 44%. Net income tripled to $8.1 billion taking cumulative pandemic profits to $26 billion, more than all three previous years combined!
Some notable growth came from its profit centre Amazon Web Services, with a 32% year-on-year increase to $13.5 billion. The ad business which forms part of the "Other" category grew by 77% to $6.9 billion.
Amazon expects revenues for the current quarter to come in between $110 billion and $116 billion. This will be helped by the fact that this year's Prime Day, the two-day discount extravaganza, will occur in June and not July.
Prime video has over 175 million subscribers who watch award-winning shows like Fleabag, Undone, Small Axe and Invincible. I am happy to be one of those individuals. Amazon is still our preferred e-commerce and cloud play. We believe that a ton of value is to be unlocked here.