US online retail giant Amazon last night announced a 24% increase in quarterly net profits. It also said sales of its electronic book reader, the Kindle, had exceeded expectations.
Amazon said net profit rose to $177m, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter, from $143m a year earlier. The profits were better than analysts had expected.
Revenue increased 18% to $4.89 billion in the quarter and the company said it expected revenue to grow by between 6% and 17% in the current quarter.
Amazon released a new version of the Kindle, the Kindle 2, during the first quarter and Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of the company, said Kindle sales had 'exceeded our most optimistic expectations'. As previously, Amazon did not provide sales figures for the electronic book readers.
Amazon said North America sales rose 21% to $2.58 billion in the quarter while sales from sites in Britain, Germany, Japan, France and China rose 15% to $2.31 billion.
By sector, it said media sales, which includes books and other items, grew 7%, while electronics and other general merchandise sales grew 38%.
