亚马逊营收大涨，净利润暴跌

    2012年第二季度，虽然亚马逊（Amazon）多项业务的销售额取得喜人增长，但净利润却大幅下降。

    亚马逊发布公告指出，公司第二季度销售额从去年同期的99亿美元增长到了128.3亿美元。这一数字仍略低于华尔街预期。此前，华尔街预计亚马逊营收将达到129亿美元。净利润仅为700万美元，合计每股盈利1美分，相比去年同期的 1.91亿美元大跌96%。亚马逊股票在盘后交易时段上涨1%。净利润大跌并不出人意料。虽然亚马逊在2011年取得了创纪录的营收，但由于激进的扩张策略，亚马逊的净利润在过去几个财季一直呈显著下降趋势。首席执行官杰夫•贝佐斯此前曾公开表示，为了实现长远目标，亚马逊一直在多项业务上进行大量投资。

    Kindle是亚马逊重金投入的项目之一。去年第三季度，亚马逊高调发布了Kindle Fire平板电脑，分析人士普遍认为亚马逊是在赔本赚吆喝。亚马逊还耗费巨资兴建了一大批配送中心。截止到目前，已有八家新的存储仓库投入使用，亚马逊还计划在年底前投入另外十家存储仓库。

    投资机构基准资本公司（Benchmark Capital）的分析师丹尼尔•库诺斯在研究报告中指出，亚马逊“或将面临进一步的利润率压力，原因在于亚马逊Prime服务大获成功。”贝佐斯在营收报告中特别提到了亚马逊Prime服务，这项忠诚用户回馈服务年费仅为79美元，已从网购产品两天送达发展到电子书借阅和电影电视剧流媒体服务。目前，亚马逊已为用户提供了1.8万部电影和电视剧，17万本可供借阅的电子书。贝佐斯说：“我们推出Prime服务后一直不变的是什么？价格。它仍然是79美元。”

    亚马逊首席财务官汤姆•斯库塔克称，公司运营开支包括提高亚马逊网络服务和整体零售服务能力两方面，后者可能包括投入巨资以扩张当日送货服务。《金融时报》（The Financial Times）曾对此做过报道。【斯库塔克承认，“我们没从经济角度看待全美各地大范围（当日送货）的成本。”】

    展望第三季度，该公司显得有些谨慎，给出的营收预期在129亿到143亿美元之间，而华尔街的预期为141亿美元。

    “亚马逊给出的第三季度指导利润有些令人失望，这表明该公司仍然在烧钱以推动增长，”投资公司Topeka Capital Markets的资深分析师维克多•安东尼向《财富》（Fortune）表示。“不过，我们的看法没有变。我们认为利润拐点将在2013年出现，而且我们仍然认为亚马逊经营模式的转变将基于电子商务领域的市场份额增加，Kindle设备带动高利润电子媒体内容销售，以及亚马逊网络服务持续发展成重要的云服务业务。

    译者：项航

    Despite a healthy bump in sales across multiple businesses, Amazon's profits took a hit in the second quarter.

    The company reported a 29% sales increase to $12.83 billion, up from $9.9 billion the same time last year. That was off from Wall Street's estimates, which had predicted revenues of $12.9 billion. Profits dropped 96% to $7 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with $191 million a year ago. Amazon shares were up 1% in after hours trading.The drop in profits wasn't much of a surprise. Although Amazon (AMZN) saw record sales in 2011, its profits over the last few quarters have been significantly weighed down by the company's ambitious spending. CEO Jeff Bezos has publicly said in the past that the company is spending heavily now on expansion in multiple businesses to achieve long-term gains.

    One business Amazon has been investing heavily in the Kindle. Last fall saw the high-profile release of the Kindle Fire tablet, a device many analysts believe Amazon initially sold at a loss. The company has also incurred expenses related to building more distribution centers. So far this year, the company has opened eight new warehouses, with plans of opening another 10 this year.

    Amazon also "may be facing further margin pressure due to the success of its Amazon Prime offering," wrote Benchmark Capital analyst Daniel Kurnos in a research note. In an earnings release, Bezos made special note of Amazon Prime, the $79-a-year loyalty reward program that has grown beyond offering two-day on products to include e-book borrowing and streaming access to some TV shows and movies. Currently, the company offers 18,000 movies and TV episodes, and 170,000 lendable books. "What hasn't changed since we launched Prime? The price," said Bezos. "It's still $79."

    Amazon Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said the company's operating expenses included adding capacity to Amazon Web Services and overall retail, the latter of which may include heavy investments in the expansion of same-day delivery of products, as originally reported by The Financial Times. ("We don't see a way to see do that [same day nationally] on a broad scale economically," Szkutak admitted.)

    The company was somewhat cautious looking ahead to the third quarter, outlining revenues between $12.9 billion and $14.3 billion versus estimates from the Street of $14.1 billion.

    "The guidance for the third quarter was a bit disappointing on the margin line, indicating that Amazon continues to spend at a fast pace to drive growth," Victor Anthony, a senior analyst with Topeka Capital markets, told Fortune. "Our thesis remains the same, however. We see an inflection point in margins in 2013 and we continue to see a transformation model led by share gains in e-commerce, Kindle devices driving sales of high margin digital media content, and Amazon Web Services continuing into a meaningful cloud services business."