Amazon Reaches Its First $200 Billion Sales This Year

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Feb. 2 (SEE) -  Amazon announced that its holiday quarter sales hit $72.4 billion, up 20% from the same period a year earlier and at the high end of its previous forecast, pushing the annual revenue to an impressive $232.9 billion.

Amazon also forecast weaker than expected sales for the first quarter of 2019. It said sales would be between $56 billion and $60 billion for the quarter, representing annual growth of just 10% to 18%

According to CNN report, sales growth is slowing as Amazon; 20% sales growth for the quarter was well below the 38% growth it saw in the same period a year earlier.

As its sales growth has slowed, the company has quickly positioned itself as a profit machine. Amazon reported $3 billion in profit for the final three months of 2018, marking the fifth consecutive quarter that its profits topped $1 billion.

Amazon Web Services, which remains the leader in the fast-growing cloud computing market, saw sales jump 45% from the prior year to $7.4 billion, even as it faces stiff competition from Microsoft. Its cloud business topped $25 billion in sales for the year for the first time.

It's all the more remarkable considering Amazon continues to invest heavily in original content, physical stores and fulfillment centers. During the quarter, Amazon also raised the minimum wage for more than 250,000 Amazon employees and 100,000 seasonal workers to $15 per hour.

The company has had a strong start to the year on the market. Its stock was up more than 10% in January. Amazon stock fell nearly 5% in after hours trading following the earnings report.