Amazon's revenue climbs 20 percent to $ 72.4 billion

Amazon.com generated revenues of $ 72.4 billion, ending a year in which it reported total revenues of $ 232.9 billion. Both are double-digit improvements over the previous year. But its forecasts for the current quarter have disappointed investors, dropping the stock of the firm.

"Alexa was very busy during the holiday season," said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in his single statement on profits. "Echo Dot was the best-selling product among all the Amazon products in the world and customers bought millions of other Echo family devices compared to last year. We are delighted with this response and grateful for its response. You can count on us to continue working tirelessly to bring even more invention to customers. "

Amazon's profits have also increased dramatically from one year to the next. Net income for the quarter was $ 3 billion, up from $ 1.9 billion in the same quarter of the prior year. For the year, Amazon posted a net profit of $ 10.1 billion, up from $ 3 billion the year before.

As for hard numbers, that's about it. In addition to the offline promotion of Alexa at Bezos, the firm has provided a number of other strange and spongy milestones. Some examples include:

• "Tens of millions" of customers around the world have started the free trials Premium or paid subscriptions during the holiday season.
• By 2018, more customers than before have registered worldwide.
• This was the largest holiday shopping season for Amazon devices as customers purchased millions of additional devices over the 2017 holiday shopping season.
• The new Echo Dot is Amazon's best-selling product in the world, regardless of manufacturer or manufacturer, in all product categories this holiday season.
• Ring enjoyed its best quarter ever, with "millions" of devices sold worldwide.
• The number of devices with Alexa integrated has more than doubled in 2018, rising to more than 150.

In the future, Amazon hopes to generate $ 56 billion to $ 60 billion in revenue in the quarter and 10 to 18 percent growth year-over-year. However, these forecasts have been below expectations – Amazon attributes "the adverse impact of … exchange rate" – the fall in the price of its share.