SAN FRANCISCO – Amazon yesterday said its second-quarter profit jumped 48% from a year ago to US$7.8 billion (RM33 billion), but shares in the tech and e-commerce giant fell on a disappointing revenue number.
Total revenues increased 27% to US$113.1 billion, below most Wall Street forecasts, sparking a slide of some 7% in after-hours trading.
Amazon chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky in an earnings call said a reason for missing revenue expectations appears to be Covid-19 vaccines giving people the confidence to get back into action in the real world.
“Not only shopping offline, but also living life and getting out.
“It takes away from shopping time. It’s a good phenomenon and it’s great.”
Andy Jassy, who took over as chief executive earlier this month from Jeff Bezos, said Amazon remains focused on delivering goods and services to consumers during the pandemic.
“Over the past 18 months, our consumer business has been called on to deliver an unprecedented number of items, including PPE (personal protective equipment), food and other products that helped communities around the world cope with the difficult circumstances of the pandemic.”
He added that Amazon’s cloud computing division AWS “has helped so many businesses and governments maintain business continuity... as more companies bring forward plans to transform their businesses and move to the cloud”.
The Amazon results cap a series of earnings from major tech firms highlighting surging profits and revenues as digital lifestyles and work-from-home trends continue even with the end of most virus lockdowns.
Tech rivals Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet all reported higher revenues and profits even as they face heightened scrutiny from antitrust regulators for their growing dominance of key economic sectors.
Amazon has faced criticism over its workplace policies, but argued that it pays above-average wages and invests billions into employee safety.
A growing number of consumers turned to Amazon during the pandemic for the delivery of goods and services, including groceries, and its cloud computing division also grew to help businesses and consumers stay connected.
Amazon has been expanding its streaming television and artificial intelligence operations as well.
Bezos stepped away earlier this month from day-to-day operations at the company some 27 years after he founded it, choosing to devote more time to other projects, including his Blue Origin firm that launched him briefly into space earlier this month.
Originally an online bookseller, Amazon has grown into one of the world’s most valuable companies with operations in dozens of countries, and a market value of some US$1.8 trillion and 1.3 million employees.
Its revenues for the quarter were some US$2 billion below the average analyst forecast, and come despite a two-day event known as Prime Day aimed at spurring sales and drawing more consumers into its Prime subscription plan. – AFP, July 30, 2021
