Amazon’s profits soar as online shopping surges amid pandemic

San Francisco: Riding on the continued surge in online shopping, Amazon has posted another record quarter, with sales soaring 44 per cent (on-year) to $108.5 billion.

Net income increased to $8.1 billion in the March quarter, compared with net income of $2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2020, showing how millions of people now shop on the platform as pandemic continues to ravage the retail sector.

Amazon shares climbed more than 3 per cent in extended trading on Thursday.

Amazon said that in the second quarter (April-June), it expects to post revenue between $110 billion and $116 billion.

“Two of our kids are now 10 and 15 years old — and after years of being nurtured, they’re growing up fast and coming into their own,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO.

“As Prime Video turns 10, over 175 million Prime members have streamed shows and movies in the past year, and streaming hours are up more than 70% year over year,” the outgoing CEO said in a statement.

There are now more than 200 million paid Prime members worldwide.

“In just 15 years, AWS has become a $54 billion annual sales run rate business competing against the world’s largest technology companies, and its growth is accelerating — up 32 per cent year over year,” Bezos added.

Amazon’s sales increased more internationally than in North America. International revenue surged 60 per cent year over year while North America revenue jumped 40 per cent.

In India, Amazon announced that it has added nearly 300,000 new direct and indirect jobs since its last announcement in January 2020, putting the company on track to meet its pledge to create an additional one million new jobs in India by 2025.