Amazon's revenue beats as North America sales rise

E-commerce company Amazon.com Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue as sales rose from North America, its biggest market, and its fast-growing cloud-computing services unit.

Amazon's sales from North America rose 24 per cent to $13.4 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, the company said on Thursday.

The company's shares rose about 2 per cent in extended trading on Thursday.

Amazon broke out the numbers for its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, for the first time, saying revenue in the unit rose almost 50 per cent to $1.57 billion.

The unit accounted for about 7 per cent of the company's total revenue.

Amazon said it expected net sales to grow 7-18 per cent in the current quarter to $20.6 billion-$22.8 billion.

The company forecast an operating loss of $500 million to an operating income of $50 million for the quarter.

Analysts on average were expecting second-quarter revenue of $22.11 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Amazon reported a loss of $57 million, or 12 cents per share, for the first quarter compared with a profit of $108 million, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 15 per cent to $22.7 billion.

Analysts on average had expected a loss of 12 cents per share and revenue of $22.39 billion.

Amazon's shares were trading at $398 after the bell.