Amazon’s advertising sales services revenue rose 18% to $17.3 billion during its fourth quarter of 2024. The category includes sales to sellers, vendors, publishers, authors and others through programs such as sponsored ads, display and video advertising.
Meanwhile, net sales for its subscriptions services segment, which includes annual and monthly fees associated with Amazon Prime memberships, as well as digital video, audiobook, digital music, e-book and other non-Amazon Web Services subscription services, grew 10% to $11.5 billion during the fourth quarter.
Here are the top-line results:
Net income: $20 billion, compared to $$10.6 billion a year ago. For the full year, net income was $59.2 billion in 2024, compared to $30.4 billion in 2023.
Earnings per share: $1.86 per diluted share, compared to $1.52 expected by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. For the full year, EPS came in at $5.53 per diluted share, compared to $2.90 per diluted share in 2023.
Net sales: $187.8 billion, up 10% year over year, compared to $187.28 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. For the full year, net sales grew 11% to $638 billion, compared to $574.8 billion a year ago.
Operating income: $21.2 billion, compared to $$13.2 billion billion a year ago. For the full year, operating income was $68.6 billion in 2024, compared with $36.9 billion in 2023.
“The holiday shopping season was the most successful yet for Amazon and we appreciate the support of our customers, selling partners, and employees who helped make it so,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement.
Entertainment related highlights for the quarter included the Prime Video film “Red One,” which drew 50 million worldwide viewers in its first four days, making it Amazon MGM Studio’s most-watched film debut ever on the streamer. It also finished its third season of “Thursday Night Football,” with a season average of 13.2 million viewers an 11% increase over 2023—and a peak of 24.7 million during the wild card playoff game between the Steelers and Ravens.
In January, Prime Video celebrated the one-year anniversary of the launch of its ad-supported tier, which is the default for all subscribers. The service has an average monthly ad-supported reach of more than 115 million customers in the U.S., and more than 200 million globally.
Amazon plans to expand its Prime Video ad tier to new markets in 2025 — including Brazil, India, Japan, the Netherlands and New Zealand. The ad-supported tier is already available in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain and the U.K.
Those who want an ad-free streaming experience will be charged an additional $2.99 per month. Currently, Amazon Prime, which includes Prime Video, costs $14.99 per month or $139 a year. A membership that only includes Prime Video and none of the company’s shipping benefits costs $8.99 a month.
The company will hold its upfront presentation to advertisers on May 12, at 6:30 p.m. ET at The Beacon Theater in New York.
Looking ahead at the first quarter of 2025, Amazon is anticipating an unfavorable impact of $2.1 billion to its net sales due to foreign exchange rates.
The company expects net sales between $151 billion and $155.5 billion, or growth between 5% and 9% compared with first quarter 2024. Operating income is expected to be between $14.0 billion and $18.0 billion, compared with $15.3 billion in first quarter 2024.
Amazon shares are down 3% in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement.
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