Amazon has reported a 24% jump in profit for the quarter ending March 31 compared to the same quarter last year. This is on the back of an 18% increase in revenue to US$4.89 billion. These results are significant when compared to the performance of retail businesses in the same period. Publishers Weekly analyses the results in some detail:
Gains would have been higher if the impact of currency translations is excluded. Unfortunately for publishers, however, the gains were driven by the retailer’s electronics and other general merchandise segment in both North America and abroad, which had gains of 42% and 34%, respectively.
Amazon started in business selling content and is now achieving significant growth selling infrastructure for accessing content. Hmm…