Amazon sales buoyed by cloud service

AMAZON’S quarterly profit topped $2bn (£1.5bn) for the first time, as the online retailer continued to benefit from strong growth in its cloud computing and Prime subscription services.

The results provided some respite for Wall Street, which had been rocked by Facebook’s earnings miss on Wednesday.

Amazon’s stock inched up 3.2pc in after-hours trading, with its market cap of $877bn bringing the business closer to becoming the first $1 trillion company. Only Apple currently has a larger

‘The cloud computing division is increasingly becoming a key part of Amazon’s business’

market cap, valued at just over $950bn.

The retailer’s net sales rose 39pc to $52.9bn in the three months to the end of June, driving its net income up to $2.5bn for the second quarter.

The business typically focuses on reinvesting income back into the company, rather than generating a profit.

However, during an earnings call, Amazon’s chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky suggested the company was working hard at “efficiencies” to improve its operating margins.

Net sales from Amazon’s cloud computing business Amazon Web Services came in at $6.1bn, having increased 49pc year-on-year.

The cloud computing division is increasingly becoming a key part of Amazon’s business, along with its Prime subscription service. The subscription service unit saw growth of 57pc.