Amazon's revenues beat experts' expectations

US corporation Amazon's sales revenues in the first quarter of this year amounted to $108.5 billion, according to the company's financial statements released on Thursday. The figure was a record for this period in Amazon's existence.

For the three-month period ending March 31, the company's revenues rose 44% compared to the first quarter of 2020. The corporation's operating income more than doubled to $8.9 billion from $4 billion in the same period last year.

As noted by Forbes magazine, Amazon's revenue performance exceeded experts' expectations by $4 billion. The company forecasts second-quarter sales revenue to be between $110 billion and $116 billion, surpassing the second quarter of last year by 24-30%.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos highlighted the development of the company's streaming video service. "As Amazon Prime Video turns 10 years old, 175 million users of the service watched shows or movies there last year, and viewing time increased by 70%", the company's press office quoted him as saying.

Amazon is the world's largest corporation selling goods and services online. It was founded by Bezos in 1994. The company's market capitalization is currently estimated to be around $1.81 trillion. Bezos is currently the richest man in the world, according to Bloomberg. His fortune is estimated at around $201.7bn.