Complete Story
02/02/2018
Amazon’s ad business grew 60 percent this quarter
In its fourth-quarter earnings today, Amazon reported that “other” revenue, which mostly means advertising, plus its co-branded credit card agreements, increased to $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter. That’s 60 percent growth year over year.
In the third quarter, “other” revenue grew 58 percent year over year to $1.12 billion.
“Advertising was a key contributor [to strong growth],” director of investor relations Dave Fildes said on the earnings call. “We continue to make the offering more valuable. We’re focused on finding ways to work with those companies – vendors or sellers — coming to us and offer them a great experience on the website and ability to reach customers.”
The company hinted more was to come in terms of building out the platform. CFO Brian Olsavsky said that Amazon has found itself as a “key lean-in from brands and agencies into the e-commerce marketing space,” which has helped bolster that growth.
In comparison, Google parent Alphabet, which also reported earnings on Feb. 1, reported overall revenue increased 24 percent year over year, with its ad business posting $27.3 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter.
At Facebook, advertising revenue grew 48 percent from a year ago. Total revenue grew 47 percent to $13 billion.
