Amazon.com Inc’s quarterly profit soared past US$2 billion for the first time as its online shopping, cloud computing and advertising businesses kept growing.
The company, which has expanded far beyond its online bookseller beginnings, is also moving into healthcare and building up its physical presence as it cements customer loyalty through its smart devices and Prime membership of shipping and streaming perks.
Revenue soared 39 percent in the second quarter, but missed analysts’ expectations.
Photo: Bloomberg
The financial results still pleased investors, who sent its shares up more than 3 percent to US$1,866.55 in after-hours trading. Its stock is already up nearly 72 percent in the last year, and Amazon is getting closer to surpassing iPhone maker Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company.
Revenue for the quarter came to US$52.89 billion, below the US$53.37 billion analysts expected. The company’s physical stores brought in US$4.3 billion, most of which came from its Whole Foods Market Inc grocery chain.
Amazon, which bought Whole Foods last year, recently rolled out extra discounts for its Prime members at its US stores.
Outside of retail, Amazon’s Web Services unit — which provides cloud computing services to companies and government — has been a strong source of income and has helped offset the high costs associated with running its online store.
More recently, its advertising unit has become a multibillion dollar business, selling ads to companies that want their products to show up first when shoppers search on the site.
Amazon last month announced that it is buying the online pharmacy PillPack, pushing it deeper into the healthcare industry.
When asked about the deal on Thursday, Amazon executives gave no details on its plans for PillPack.
The deal is expected to close later this year.
For the three months ending June 30, Seattle-based Amazon reported net income of US$2.53 billion, or US$5.07 per share, blowing past the US$2.48 per share Wall Street analysts expected, according to FactSet.
Amazon said it expects to report revenue between US$54 billion and US$57.5 billion for the third quarter, below the US$58.1 billion Wall Street analysts expected.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last