Growth in Amazon’s ad business is slowing
Growth within Amazon’s advertising business slowed considerably in the first quarter of 2019, as it noted 34% revenue growth to $2bn following previous quarters which achieved growth of around 60%.
Amazon
Amazon reports its ad business performance under the “other” category, though that is predominantly composed of ad sales.
On a call with analysts, chief financial officer Brian Oslavsky hinted that advertising growth was higher than the 36% actual rate.
Its revenue was down across the business, achieving total revenue growth of 16.9%, the slowest growth it’s seen since the first quarter of 2015. In North America, it saw a 17% increase (versus 46% last year) and International growth dropped to 9% from 34% last year.
Online sales were up 10% year-over-year, to $29.5bn while physical store sales were up 1%, to $4.3bn.
Despite the slowdown in growth, the business is more profitable, with net income at a record $3.6bn for the quarter.
Amazon highlighted the growth of its cloud business Amazon Web Services which grew 41% on last year, delivering $7.7bn.
On the same day as its earning Amazon also revealed it had poached Andrew Saunders from Tastemade to head up its entertainment marketing division.