Amazon significantly increased sales and profits in the Christmas quarter thanks to its retail business and cloud division. Revenues grew by 14 percent year-on-year to 170 billion US dollars (154.4 billion euros), as Amazon announced after the US stock market closed on Thursday. The bottom line is that profits jumped from around $300 million a year ago to $10.6 billion.
In the AWS cloud division, sales rose by 13 percent to $24.2 billion. This means that growth accelerated somewhat after being at twelve percent in the previous quarter. At the same time, AWS increased its operating profit from 5.2 to around 7.2 billion US dollars. Amazon shares temporarily rose by a good five percent in after-hours trading. (dpa)