Business

Amazon hopes pandemic habits stick after profits triple

April 30, 2021 12:23 pm

[Source: BBC]

Amazon continued to cash in on our new shop-work-relax-from-home habits in the first three months of this year, reporting a huge rise in sales and a tripling of profits.

Almost every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic has served to boost the tech giant’s revenues, from video streaming to grocery delivery.

It said it expects the boom to continue over the next few months.

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The pandemic could herald “a golden age” for Amazon, one analyst said.

Amazon’s are the latest blow-out results from Big Tech this week. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Google’s parent firm Alphabet have all reported big sales increases a year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Amazon group has continued to spread its reach into automated grocery stores, online healthcare services, even experimenting with a bricks-and-mortar hair and beauty salon in London.

But its core offerings: online shopping with home delivery, media streaming and cloud-based web-services all flourished during a year of upheaval for other businesses.

Revenue rose from $75bn (£54bn) this time last year to $108.5bn for the three months to the end of March.

Profit was $8.1bn, up from $2.5bn a year ago.