Seattle, Wash. – Amazon.com
marked its first $10 billion-plus quarter for the three months ended Dec. 31.
Net sales neared $13
billion, an increase of 36 percent year over year, while net income rose 8
percent to $416 million in the fourth quarter.
For the full year, net
sales increased 40 percent to $34.2 billion, and net income climbed 28 percent
to nearly $1.2 billion.
In North America, net
sales soared 45 percent to $7.2 billion during the fourth quarter and 46
percent to $18.7 billion for the full year.
Amazon sold $4.6 billion
worth of CE and other general merchandise during the fourth quarter, an
increase of 71 percent year-over-year, while category sales rose 74 percent for
all of 2010, to nearly $11 billion.
In a statement, founder
and CEO Jeff Bezos noted two major milestones during the three-month period: the
company’s first $10 billion quarter, and the surpassing of paperback book sales
by Kindle e-book orders.
Amazon said it sold
millions of third-generation Kindle e-readers during the fourth quarter, and
that its new Price Check for iPhone app, which allows shoppers to compare
in-store prices to those online, was used more than two million times in
December.
