One of the fastest growing companies in the world, Amazon, released its earnings report for the third quarter on Thursday. The company reported a 29% year-over-year revenue growth with $56.6 billion in sales for the quarter. This was the third consecutive quarter for Amazon’s ad sales to see triple-digit growth, up 123% to $2.495 billion for the quarter.
In the release, CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Amazon Business has now reached a $10 billion annual sales run rate and is serving millions of private and public-sector organizations in eight countries. And we’re not slowing down – Amazon Business is adding customers rapidly, including large educational institutions, local governments, and more than half of the Fortune 100.”
Other important announcements made in the release were:
- Amazon reported that the number of Alexa-enabled smart home devices has quintupled year to date, with more than 20,000 devices from more than 3,500 brands using its voice-assistant technology.
- Amazon Go, the company’s cashless grocery store division, recently opened five new locations in Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco. In September, Amazon also launched “Storefronts” in the U.S. Germany and the UK, providing small and medium businesses with a designated area on its website.
- Amazon’s Amazon Web Services saw a 46% year-over-year growth, at $6.6 billion in revenue this quarter. The company says it has several new customer commitments for AWS, with Hubspot and Samsung Heavy Industries both having signed on to the cloud service this year.
- Operating cash flow increased 57% to $26.6 billion for the last 12 months, compared to $17.0 billion for the year ended September 30, 2017.
- Free cash flow increased to $15.4 billion for the previous year, compared with $8.0 billion for the previous year ended September 30, 2017. Free cash flow less lease principal repayments increased to $8.1 billion for the period, compared to $3.5 billion for the previous year ended September 30, 2017. Free cash flow less finance lease principal repayments and assets acquired under capital leases increased to an inflow of $5.4 billion for the period, compared to an outflow of $1.1 billion for the previous year ended September 30, 2017.
- Operating income increased to $3.7 billion in this quarter, compared with operating income of $347 million in third quarter of 2017. Net income increased to $2.9 billion, as compared to net income of $256 million in third quarter 2017.
Amazon, who is now the third largest digital ads seller, shows that the online ad space is very robust. While budgets continue to shift to channels with the most potential, Amazon is not far behind. The company will continue to attract new prospects and reach new customers.
