Amazon posted a blowout Q2, with net sales up 11%, profit doubled from 2022, analysts cheering and an upgraded fulfillment plan refocused on same-day delivery. But Amazon still needs to find ways to improve a grocery business that is getting failing marks from industry observers. AWS growth continues to slow, and management said GenAI won’t contribute meaningfully in the near term.
Amazon reported a mix bag of results for its fourth quarter and year, with ad revenue up but ecommerce sales down, and even the vaunted Amazon Web Services, the company’s profit driver for years, fell short of expectations in what executives repeatedly called an “uncertain economy.”
An hours-long outage from Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused all manner of global havoc on Tuesday, shutting down government and private websites, robotic vacuums and popular streaming services as well as idling Amazon facilities as networks and apps went dark and operations ground to a halt.
In the midst of posting another blockbuster quarter, Amazon dropped the bombshell news that founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping out of the top role in Q3 to become executive chairman. He will be replaced as CEO by AWS head Andy Jassy. Bezos started the $1.6 trillion company as a bookseller on the nascent internet in 1994.
Amazon is rolling out Amazon Personalize to customers of its Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform. The API-based tool for app developers lets them power personalization features such as product recommendations, search results and direct marketing.