Why the World Is Shocked That Amazon Made a Profit

February 6, 2024 by

Image credit: Adrienne Third

Investors and e-commerce experts were shocked last week when Amazon announced it had made a huge profit in the fourth quarter of 2014.

“Let me double check this,” said a reporter on Bloomberg News when the earnings were released, shocked to discover that Amazon had not only made a profit, but a pretty big profit after quarters of operating at a loss.

Amazon reported income of $591 million from operations on sales of $23.1 billion in the last three months of 2014.

To put that in context, Amazon reported a loss of $544 million from operations the previous quarter, when analysts were expecting a slightly smaller loss. Shares plummeted and many pundits turned bearish on the company because it keeps losing money.

The turnaround in Amazon sends a very strong signal to the market: Amazon can make money when it wants to. By controlling its investments in expansion, the company can make a profit on its operations whenever it wants to.

But Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos doesn’t care about profits; he cares about building Amazon into an even bigger giant, whether it’s by using drones to deliver packages or winning awards with new original television shows.

That huge profit was Bezos telling investors, “yeah, guys, I know you want to make money. I can give you money if that’s what you want. But that doesn’t matter. I have a bigger vision, and I’m going to follow that vision—but here’s a bone to chew on while I take over the planet.”

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