Amazon profits surge in first quarter

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The recession may have taken shoppers off the high street but it seems online retailers like Amazon have reaped the rewards.

In its financial results for the first quarter of 2010, Amazon showed a 46 per cent rise in sales compared to the same quarter last year, leading to a massive 68 per cent jump in net income equating to $299 million (£194.5 million).

A large boost to profits came from Amazon’s own ebook reader, the Kindle, as it remained its top selling product with over 500,000 titles now available to download.

The biggest increase in sales was across the US and Canada, with a 47 per cent rise. However, international sales only slightly slipped behind with a rise of 46 per cent or $7.13 billion.

Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of the company, was pleased with the performance, boasting about the number of divisions excelling at Amazon – including Web Services, Kindle and Prime.

However, he concluded: “We remain heads-down focused on customers.”

Another online company is celebrating good results this week, albeit with a darker side. Yesterday saw eBay confirm a good 11 per cent rise in income, reaching $397.6 million, and a nine per cent increase in turn over of $2.2 billion.

However, investors had predicted bigger and better, so the online auction site took a hit on the stock market with shares dropping by 8.7 per cent.

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