????2012年第二季度，雖然亞馬遜（Amazon）多項業務的銷售額取得喜人增長，但凈利潤卻大幅下降。

????亞馬遜發布公告指出，公司第二季度銷售額從去年同期的99億美元增長到了128.3億美元。這一數字仍略低于華爾街預期。此前，華爾街預計亞馬遜營收將達到129億美元。凈利潤僅為700萬美元，合計每股盈利1美分，相比去年同期的 1.91億美元大跌96%。亞馬遜股票在盤后交易時段上漲1%。凈利潤大跌并不出人意料。雖然亞馬遜在2011年取得了創紀錄的營收，但由于激進的擴張策略，亞馬遜的凈利潤在過去幾個財季一直呈顯著下降趨勢。首席執行官杰夫?貝佐斯此前曾公開表示，為了實現長遠目標，亞馬遜一直在多項業務上進行大量投資。

????Kindle是亞馬遜重金投入的項目之一。去年第三季度，亞馬遜高調發布了Kindle Fire平板電腦，分析人士普遍認為亞馬遜是在賠本賺吆喝。亞馬遜還耗費巨資興建了一大批配送中心。截止到目前，已有八家新的存儲倉庫投入使用，亞馬遜還計劃在年底前投入另外十家存儲倉庫。

????投資機構基準資本公司（Benchmark Capital）的分析師丹尼爾?庫諾斯在研究報告中指出，亞馬遜“或將面臨進一步的利潤率壓力，原因在于亞馬遜Prime服務大獲成功。”貝佐斯在營收報告中特別提到了亞馬遜Prime服務，這項忠誠用戶回饋服務年費僅為79美元，已從網購產品兩天送達發展到電子書借閱和電影電視劇流媒體服務。目前，亞馬遜已為用戶提供了1.8萬部電影和電視劇，17萬本可供借閱的電子書。貝佐斯說：“我們推出Prime服務后一直不變的是什么？價格。它仍然是79美元。”

????亞馬遜首席財務官湯姆?斯庫塔克稱，公司運營開支包括提高亞馬遜網絡服務和整體零售服務能力兩方面，后者可能包括投入巨資以擴張當日送貨服務。《金融時報》（The Financial Times）曾對此做過報道。【斯庫塔克承認，“我們沒從經濟角度看待全美各地大范圍（當日送貨）的成本。”】

????展望第三季度，該公司顯得有些謹慎，給出的營收預期在129億到143億美元之間，而華爾街的預期為141億美元。

????“亞馬遜給出的第三季度指導利潤有些令人失望，這表明該公司仍然在燒錢以推動增長，”投資公司Topeka Capital Markets的資深分析師維克多?安東尼向《財富》（Fortune）表示。“不過，我們的看法沒有變。我們認為利潤拐點將在2013年出現，而且我們仍然認為亞馬遜經營模式的轉變將基于電子商務領域的市場份額增加，Kindle設備帶動高利潤電子媒體內容銷售，以及亞馬遜網絡服務持續發展成重要的云服務業務。

????譯者：項航

????Despite a healthy bump in sales across multiple businesses, Amazon's profits took a hit in the second quarter.

????The company reported a 29% sales increase to $12.83 billion, up from $9.9 billion the same time last year. That was off from Wall Street's estimates, which had predicted revenues of $12.9 billion. Profits dropped 96% to $7 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with $191 million a year ago. Amazon shares were up 1% in after hours trading.The drop in profits wasn't much of a surprise. Although Amazon (AMZN) saw record sales in 2011, its profits over the last few quarters have been significantly weighed down by the company's ambitious spending. CEO Jeff Bezos has publicly said in the past that the company is spending heavily now on expansion in multiple businesses to achieve long-term gains.

????One business Amazon has been investing heavily in the Kindle. Last fall saw the high-profile release of the Kindle Fire tablet, a device many analysts believe Amazon initially sold at a loss. The company has also incurred expenses related to building more distribution centers. So far this year, the company has opened eight new warehouses, with plans of opening another 10 this year.

????Amazon also "may be facing further margin pressure due to the success of its Amazon Prime offering," wrote Benchmark Capital analyst Daniel Kurnos in a research note. In an earnings release, Bezos made special note of Amazon Prime, the $79-a-year loyalty reward program that has grown beyond offering two-day on products to include e-book borrowing and streaming access to some TV shows and movies. Currently, the company offers 18,000 movies and TV episodes, and 170,000 lendable books. "What hasn't changed since we launched Prime? The price," said Bezos. "It's still $79."

????Amazon Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said the company's operating expenses included adding capacity to Amazon Web Services and overall retail, the latter of which may include heavy investments in the expansion of same-day delivery of products, as originally reported by The Financial Times. ("We don't see a way to see do that [same day nationally] on a broad scale economically," Szkutak admitted.)

????The company was somewhat cautious looking ahead to the third quarter, outlining revenues between $12.9 billion and $14.3 billion versus estimates from the Street of $14.1 billion.

????"The guidance for the third quarter was a bit disappointing on the margin line, indicating that Amazon continues to spend at a fast pace to drive growth," Victor Anthony, a senior analyst with Topeka Capital markets, told Fortune. "Our thesis remains the same, however. We see an inflection point in margins in 2013 and we continue to see a transformation model led by share gains in e-commerce, Kindle devices driving sales of high margin digital media content, and Amazon Web Services continuing into a meaningful cloud services business."