Running online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is expensive.
Amazon’s latest quarterly results show that worldwide shipping costs rose to $12.8 billion U.S. in the fourth quarter. For the year overall, Amazon’s total spending on shipping reached $37.95 billion U.S.
Fortunately for Amazon, Wall Street analysts have come to expect the big spending bill, which fuels the company’s one-day shipping ambitions. While the costs have routinely raised concerns surrounding Amazon’s profit potential, the company’s top-line results benefited greatly from a surge in holiday shipments during November and December.
Amazon’s quarterly revenue topped $100 billion U.S. for the first time in company history. All told, Amazon generated $280.5 billion U.S. in revenue in 2019, up from $232.9 billion U.S. a year earlier. The 2019 revenue equates to generating $32 million U.S. every hour of the year.
Beyond its retail dominance, Amazon continues to benefit from strong market share in cloud computing through its Amazon Web Services unit. The fourth-quarter results conclude a dominant decade for Amazon, during which it generated more than $1 trillion in revenue between 2010 and the end of 2019.
Tech Insider
