Amazon profits rocket on Kindle sales

Amazon's profits have been boosted by its Kindle reader

The recession appears to be a thing of the past for e-commerce giant Amazon.com, as the firm reported profits in the last quarter up by nearly two-thirds year on year, boosted by the popularity of its Kindle e-book reader.

Amazon logged a net profit of $199m (£119.6m) in the period, up 62 per cent on the same period a year earlier, while sales jumped 28 per cent to $5.45bn (£3.3bn), easily beating Wall Street expectations.

International sales, including those in the UK, China and Japan, stood at $2.61bn (£1.58bn), up 33 per cent from the same time last year.

"Kindle has become the number-one bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars, not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com," said Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.

"It is also the most wished for and the most gifted. We are grateful for, and energised by, this customer response."

Amazon shares jumped by over 10 per cent in after-hours trading yesterday, after the firm predicted strong holiday season sales.