- The online retail giant, which is currently aggressively cutting expenses, including the layoff of 27,000 employees, announced a revenue of $127.4B for the quarter, showing a growth of 9%. Although industry analysts had predicted lower earnings, the company reported a profit of $3.17B or 31 cents per share, surpassing expectations. Amazon's cloud computing unit, AWS, which had pioneered the market 15 years ago and continues to dominate other tech firms, had a growth of 16% during the first quarter, which is slower than the 37% growth the company reported the previous year.
- Amazon's advertising division experienced a 23% increase in revenue to $9.51 billion, has benefited greatly from the company's investments in machine learning technology. The company cautioned earlier this month that customers are now more mindful of their spending habits and are seeking opportunities to reduce expenses. Furthermore, many customers have resumed shopping in physical stores after relying on online shopping during the pandemic. Consequently, the company's online retail business has not experienced any growth.
Why it matters
In general, Amazon has shown significant improvement in its results compared to the previous year. This positive trend was also seen in the earnings reports of other major tech companies such as Meta and Microsoft. Despite experiencing a significant drop in value in 2022, Amazon's shares have risen by 31% so far this year. To adapt to the changing post-pandemic environment, Amazon has already made some adjustments such as cancelling warehouse expansion plans. Furthermore, the company has implemented cost-saving measures in recent quarters, resulting in the layoff of 27,000 employees in various corporate positions, including devices, advertising, AWS, and live-streaming. This marks the largest job cut in Amazon's 29-year history.
