Amazon Said to Be Biggest Beneficiary of Pandemic

Amazon Q1 revenue grew 44% to $108.5 billion from the year-ago quarter, exceeding the high end of the guidance range. Profit was $8.1 billion, vs. $2.5 billion. CEO Jeff Bezos said Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Web Services are “growing up fast and coming into their own.” More than 175 million Prime members streamed videos in the quarter, up 70%. AWS has become a $54 billion annual run rate business, Bezos said. On a Thursday earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said many businesses turned to the AWS cloud during the pandemic rather than investing in their own technology infrastructure, a trend the company expects to continue. Amazon Prime Day is moving to Q2, Olsavsky said. Prime members reached 200 million in Q1. Amazon has benefited from the pandemic “more than any other company in the world,” Wedbush's Michael Pachter wrote investors Friday. Over 60% of Americans are paid Prime members, said the analyst.