Amazon Books 3X Quarterly Profits Booking $10.4 Billion

Amazon, the eCommerce giant, reported a whopping $10.4 billion in quarterly profits, a significant increase from the previous year.

The global economic downturn has impacted almost every international business. Amid slow business growth, Amazon has emerged as a profit-booking leader. According to recent reports, Amazon reports a 10 billion dollar profit, three times higher than last year’s first quarter. As the company continues to grow its investments in enabling faster delivery speeds and AI features, consumer engagement on its platform is growing rapidly.

Amazon’s first-quarter financial results, released on Tuesday, reported $143 billion in revenue, $10.4 billion in profit, and 98 cents earnings per diluted share. Compared with last year’s first quarter, Amazon reported $127 billion in revenue, $3.2 billion in profit, and 31 cents earning per diluted share. The company’s booked net profit is similar to its prior quarter’s result when it reported $10.6 billion in net income.

Before Amazon's earnings release, Himanshu Jain, Senior Vice President and head of Commerce IQ, said, “The theme is that growth is back.” Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy has credited the company’s rapidly growing profits to faster delivery speeds for retail customers, growing advertising business with the addition of ads to Prime Video, and an increased interest in cloud computing and artificial intelligence services across the board.

“It’s very early days in all of our businesses and we remain excited by how much more we can make customers’ lives better and easier moving forward,” Jassy said. 

Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer, Brian Olsavsky, said the company also benefitted from one extra day of sales in the first quarter, owing to Leap Day on February 29th. He also mentioned that the revenue from sales by third-party sellers has increased YOY by 16%. Amazon’s net sales from advertising services increased by 24% YOY to $11.4 billion from $9.5 billion. However, it had dropped from $14.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023. Even in this quarter, most sales came from sponsored advertisements, according to Olsavsky and Jassy. Amazon’s proven business growth strategies are resulting in impressive revenue scale, sustaining its leadership position worldwide.