AWS Revenues Rise 64% To $2.56B As AWS Claims Responsibility For More Than Half Of Amazon’s Operating Income

Amazon announced impressive financials for the quarter ending March 31, 2016, fueled largely by growth in its cloud business, Amazon Web Services. Amazon revenue rose 28.2% to $29.13 billion while AWS revenue rose 64% to $2.56 billion, in comparison with the first quarter of 2015 in both cases. Operating income from AWS amounted to $604M whereas Amazon, as a whole, reported $1.1 billion in operating income. In other words, operating income from AWS represents roughly 55% of the company’s operating income as a whole, even though its revenue accounts for only 9% of the company’s total revenues for the quarter. The release of Amazon’s Q1 2016 financials underscores the importance of AWS to Amazon at large while Amazon, as a whole, now marks four consecutive quarters in the black as it achieves profitability as a result of the growing maturation and diversification of its online retail business. This week’s financials represent a huge coup for AWS and impressively underscore its ability to grow and remain profitable despite intensifying competition from Microsoft Azure and the Google Cloud Platform.