Amazon News: Company Sees 'Unprecedented' Rise in Profit
Amazon Inc. reported on Thursday a profit of almost $2 billion, the largest in the company's history.
This profit rise came from a variety of the company's services. Millions of the new customers are of the online retailer's popular paid subscription service, Amazon Prime.
Prime gives users access to stream movies, television shows, and the like, in addition to its fast-shipping service. The service had risen in popularity, with more than four million subscriptions in a week. Given this, the subscription fees grew to $3.2 billion.
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Whole Foods Market Inc., which has also been acquired by Amazon on Jun. 15 last year, also reportedly contributed to the company's grocery sales.
Amazon's net income has more than doubled to $1.86 billion or $3.75 per share in the fourth quarter, which ended on Dec. 31. This profit was further increased with the recent changes to the U.S. tax law.
The holiday season was also seen as a factor in the profit rise of the online retailer. Amazon's most significant revenue was in the span of Thanksgiving and the New Year. Their sales were boosted up 38 percent to $60.5 billion.
According to the sources of Reuters, chief financial officer (CFO) Brian Olsavsky noted that advertising was also seen as a "key contributor" to the growth of the company's profit. It helped the company's revenue rise 62 percent to $1.74 billion.
But, the unexpected contributor to the company's profit was Amazon's voice aid "Alexa." Alexa, which features voice interaction, music playback, and other intelligent personal assistance, was highly requisitioned by millions of Amazon customers. The voice aid also brought several ordered goods from Amazon customers.
Amazon's stock has outdone Standard & Poor's 500, one of the largest American stock market indexes having common stock listed on the NASDAQ. The company is looking forward to the outcome of its services for this year.
