Global internet giant Amazon ‘s sales were up 31% to $30.4bn in Q2.
Amazon also saw its operating income rise to $1.3 billion compared to $464 million in Q2 of 2015. Net income was nearly 100 times greater at $857 million, up from $92 million in 2015.
Announcing its Q2 results, Amazon seemed particularly keen to promote its venture into India.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos was quoted as saying: “It’s been a busy few months for Amazon around the world, and particularly in India — where we launched a new AWS Region, introduced Prime with unlimited free shipping, and announced that Prime Video is coming soon, offering Prime members in India exclusive access to Amazon Original Series and Movies — including original content featuring top Indian creators and talent.
“The team in India is inventing at a torrid pace, and we’re very grateful to our Indian customers for their welcoming response.”
Last week, Apex Insight reported how Amazon has launched Prime in more than 100 cities across India. This was a new initiative that Amazon mentioned in the online retailer’s list of achievements. In addition, Amazon announced, “Amazon.in was the most visited e-commerce site and the most downloaded mobile shopping app in India in the second quarter, according to third-party reports.”
The UK has also featured prominently in a number of Amazon’s most important roll outs, especially in the last few days. London is the first city outside the US to host the AmazonFresh fast grocery delivery service. Birmingham will reportedly soon have an Amazon Flex crowdsourced delivery model (but this is not official, and so it doesn’t feature on Amazon’s quarterly round-up). The news that has had really excited the UK media is the partnership between Amazon and the UK government to “advance the safe use of drones for small parcel delivery, providing Amazon with permission to trial new methods, including beyond line-of-sight operation” (and this development does feature on the quarterly report sheet).