Amazon posted a record net profit thanks to its cloud service division Amazon Web Services.
AWS provides the infrastructure for popular websites such as Netflix, Airbnb and Nasa as well as smaller companies.
The retail giant’s Prime service, which offers free shipping on products and exclusive film and TV content, also grew in popularity as Amazon announced better than expected revenue for the second quarter.
Total revenue was $30.4bn, up 31 per cent from the same period in 2015 and almost a billion dollars more than analysts predicted.
The company’s net sales rose 31.1 per cent to $30.40bn with net profit reaching $857m.
The driver was AWS, which grew 58.2 per cent to $2.89bn.
“It’s been a busy few months for Amazon around the world, and particularly in India,” said CEO Jeff Bezos in a statement.
“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.”
Amazon has been given the green light to test deliveries using drones in the UK.
The Civil Aviation Authority has agreed to allow the online retail giant to experiment with a ‘Prime Air plan’ which would seek to deliver products to customers using the unmanned airborne vehicles within 30 minutes.
Meanwhile Google’s parent company Alphabet smashed forecasts with its quarterly revenue announcement.
And the day before, Facebook smashed expectations in announcing its quarterly profits and revenue.