Cloud services lift Amazon’s net income to $857mn 

New York: Amazon has announced its quarterly results and reported net income of $857 million for the second quarter in a row. The net income during the quarter was also more than nine times the amount for the same period last year thanks to the lucrative cloud computing business, in which it has been very successful of late. Amazon would have made more profits had it built few warehouses to ship orders to customers more quickly or find some other investment to fuel its growth.

Revenue jumped 31 per cent to $30.4 billion from $23.19 billion a year ago. The results were well above the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters of $1.11 a share in earnings and $29.55 billion in revenue. For the second quarter, which ended June 30, Amazon reported net income of $857 million, or $1.78 a share, up from $92 million, or 19 cents a share, a year ago.

Amazon chief Jeffrey Bezos becomes world’s 3rd richest

The two percent rise in Amazon’s shares in trading on Thursday, Bezos’ wealth rose to $65.3 billion. Bezos holds 18 percent of Amazon’s shares. Forbes estimated his fortune to be $65.3bn (£49.5bn). According to Forbes estimates, Bezos is just behind Microsoft founder Bill Gates, worth $78bn (£59bn), and Zara founder Amancio Ortega, who’s richer by the $73.1bn (£55bn).

Forbes estimated Bezos’ fortune to be $65.3bn (£49.5bn). According to Forbes estimates, Bezos is just behind Microsoft founder Bill Gates, worth $78bn (£59bn), and Zara founder Amancio Ortega, who’s richer by the $73.1bn (£55bn).

Amazon’s shares rose more than 2 per cent in after-hours trading after the release of its results. The company reported operating income of $718 million from its Amazon Web Services business, up from $305 million a year ago. That is slightly more than the profit it showed from its North American retail business.

According to New York Times, unlike Google and Facebook, which have highly profitable advertising businesses, Amazon’s retail business runs on thin margins that quickly vanish when the company begins spending heavily, pushing it into the red.

The North American retail business, though, brought in $17.67 billion in revenue compared with $2.89 billion for Amazon Web Services, an indication of the significantly higher profit margins in cloud computing.

Interestingly, Amazon founder & CEO Jeff Bezos mentioned India repeatedly in the second quarter results announcement.

Interestingly, Amazon founder & CEO Jeff Bezos mentioned India repeatedly in the second quarter results announcement on Thursday. And in the subsequent earnings call with CFO Brian Olsavsky , India was mentioned 16 times, far more than any other country. This indicates how important India is to the e-commerce and cloud computing giant.

Jeff Bezos in the results release said: “It’s been a busy few months for Amazon around the world and particularly in India, where we launched a new AWS (Amazon Web Services) Region, introduced Prime with unlimited free shipping, and announced that Prime Video is coming soon, offering Prime members in India exclusive access to Amazon Original Series and Movies -including original content featuring top Indian creators and talent. Team in India is inventing at a torrid pace and we’re very grateful to our Indian customers for their welcoming response.”