Amazon reports 25% growth in net sales

Amazon announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2017.

Net sales increased 25% to $38.0 billion in the second quarter, compared with $30.4 billion in second quarter 2016.

“Our teams remain heads-down and focused on customers,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “In the last few months, we launched Echo Show (our newest Echo device with a video screen), introduced calling and messaging via Alexa on all Echo devices, debuted Inside Edgeon Prime Video (the first of 18 Indian Original Series), introduced Amazon Channels in both the U.K. and Germany, launched four new Fire tablets, expanded Amazon Fresh to Germany, launched Prime Now in Singapore, launched our 25^th airplane with Prime Air, hired more than 30,000 new employees, opened three new Amazon Books stores, launched more than 400 significant AWS features and services, migrated more than 7,000 databases using AWS Database Migration Service, and held our third annual Prime Day — signing up more Prime members than ever before. It’s energizing to invent on behalf of customers, and we continue to see many high-quality opportunities to invest.”

Highlights

The third annual Prime Day was the biggest global shopping event ever for Amazon with more new Prime members joining Prime than any single day in Amazon history. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs participated in the global event and sold more than 40 million units.

Prime Day was the biggest sales event ever for Amazon devices worldwide, including record sales for Echo, Fire tablets, and Kindle devices. The Echo Dot was the best-selling Amazon device this Prime Day and was the best-selling product from any manufacturer in any category across Amazon globally. The All-New Element 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV — Amazon Fire TV Edition was the best-selling TV deal in Amazon history, selling through record units in less than four hours.

Amazon Studios released The Big Sick in theaters nationwide, starring Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, and Ray Romano. The Big Sick has gained widespread critical acclaim, earning a score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and a metascore of 87 on Metacritic.

Amazon Channels launched in the U.K., Germany, and Austria, bringing Prime members the choice to subscribe to a wide range of live and on-demand TV channel subscriptions, including Discovery and Eurosport Player in the U.K., as well as MGM and GEO Television in Germanyand Austria.

Amazon introduced Echo Show, a new Echo device that gives customers everything they love about Alexa, now with a video screen. Just ask and view music lyrics with Amazon Music, box scores from last night’s game, video clips, camera feeds, Prime Photos, and more. In addition,Echo Show can instantly connect with family and friends through video calling and messaging.

Amazon introduced new Alexa smart home capabilities for customers, including the ability to use Alexa to control entertainment devices like televisions, connected speakers, and remotes; view feeds from smart cameras on their Echo Show; control Roomba vacuum cleaners; or turn their IKEA smart lights on and off.