Amazon back into $1 trillion club as festive sales rocket

AMAZON has stormed back into the $1 trillion club after raking in sales of £30m per hour over Christmas.

In results that smashed Wall Street’s expectations, the world’s biggest online retailer said fourth- quarter sales leapt from £ 55bn to £ 66.5bn and profits increased from £2.3bn to £2.5bn.

Analysts had pencilled in sales of £65.4bn, suggesting the company’s launch of speedier deliveries is proving hugely popular with customers.

It sent Amazon’s shares surging by more than 8pc yesterday, catapulting it back into the exclusive group of companies with 13-digit market capitalisations. Only Apple, Microsoft, Google and Saudi Aramco boast $1 trillion (£760bn) valuations.

Amazon previously became a member of this exclusive club in September 2018 but it soon fell back below the threshold.

Thanks to the stock price, Jeff Bezos, 56, Amazon’s founder, was worth an estimated £88bn yesterday, putting him neck and neck with Microsoft founder Bill

Gates for the title of world’s richest person. At the same time his 49-year-old ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos was worth about £28.4bn.

However, Amazon’s results showed that once again its lesser-known AWS cloud computing business proved to be its most lucrative venture by far.

Overall the company reported revenues of £213.4bn in 2019 and AWS contributed about 12pc of this. But the division, which stores information for companies around the world, accounted for more than 60pc – or £7bn – of Amazon’s £11bn operating profit.

By comparison, Amazon’s US retail business made a £5.3bn profit and its international arm made a £1.3bn loss.

The company’s other interests include the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods and video streaming service Twitch, as well as an advertising business that generated £3.7bn in sales, up by 41pc.

And analysts think 2020 will be an even better year for Amazon.