亞馬遜不懼利潤下滑,堅持大手筆投資

Amazon saw profits fall to a seven-quarter low and forecast a drop in profits next quarter, as the company enters a phase of heavy investment in areas such as building warehouses, producing films, and setting up data centres.

亞馬遜(Amazon)利潤下滑至7個季度以來的低點，並預計下季度將會繼續下滑，因爲該公司進入了大手筆投資的階段，投資領域包括建築倉庫、製作電影和建立數據中心等。

Profits dropped to $197m during the second quarter, yielding earnings per share of 40c — less than half what analysts expected and a quarter of the earnings per share during the same period last year.

今年第二季度，亞馬遜盈利下降至1.97億美元，每股收益爲40美分——前者不及分析師預期的一半，後者僅爲去年同期的四分之一。

The news sent Amazon’s share price down almost 3 per cent in after-market trading on Thursday, after surge this week that valued the company at more than $500bn at its peak and briefly lifted Jeff Bezos to the top of the world’s billionaire rankings compiled by Forbes.

該消息導致亞馬遜股價在週四盤後交易時段下挫近3%；此前，本週亞馬遜股價曾大漲，公司最高估值超過5000億美元，短暫地把傑夫?貝索斯(Jeff Bezos)推到《福布斯》全球億萬富翁排行榜榜首。

Chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said that “all of the change year-over-year is in the investment area”, and emphasised that Amazon would continue investing heavily during the current quarter.

亞馬遜首席財務官布萊恩?奧爾薩夫斯基(Brian Olsavsky)表示，“全部業績變動發生投資領域”，並強調，亞馬遜在本季度將繼續大舉投資。

He pointed to investments in distribution centres, video production, the Alexa voice assistant, and server purchases for Amazon Web Services as big areas of spending.

他指出，公司在配送中心、影視製作、Alexa語音助手和爲亞馬遜網絡服務(AWS)購買服務器幾方面的投資，是支出很大的領域。

Amazon has eschewed the usual public company path of delivering profits and dividends to shareholders, and instead has operated for decades on a low-profit, high-investment model.

亞馬遜不像一般公衆公司那樣把利潤和紅利返還給股東，反而幾十年來保持着一種低盈利、高投資的模式。

Although investors have mostly accepted that model — sending Amazon shares up 40 per cent this year on the back of strong sales growth — the upcoming investment phase could test their patience.

儘管投資者已基本認可了該模式——在銷售額強勁增長的背景下，推動亞馬遜股價在今年上漲40%——但即將來臨的投資階段可能會考驗他們的耐心。

Mr Olsavsky sought to lower expectations for the current quarter, which he described as “typically a lower-income quarter” and “generally a high-investment period” ahead of the holiday shopping season at the end of the year.

奧爾薩夫斯基尋求降低外界對當前季度的預期，他把當前季度描述爲“盈利通常會降低的一個季度”和年底的假期購物季之前的“通常投資額較高的一個時期”。

The company said revenues in the third quarter would increase 20-28 per cent, roughly the same rate as the second quarter, which saw sales rise 25 per cent to reach $38bn.

亞馬遜表示，公司第三季度收入將增加20%至28%，大約爲第二季度增幅的兩倍。第二季度亞馬遜銷售額增長25%，增至380億美元。

Profits in the current quarter will drop to between $400m and $300m, compared with $575m during the same period a year prior.

當前季度的盈利將下降至3億至4億美元，上一年同期則爲5.75億美元。

One of the fastest areas of growth for Amazon was in third-party logistics, as it provides handling services for an increasing array of merchants who sell goods via Amazon. Revenue from these third-party logistics services rose 38 per cent during the quarter to hit $7bn, representing more than a sixth of Amazon’s sales.

亞馬遜增速最快的領域之一是第三方物流，該公司爲在通過其平臺銷售商品的商家提供配送服務。第二季度，來自第三方物流服務的收入增加了38%，達70億美元，高於亞馬遜總體銷售額的六分之一。

At the same time sales at Amazon Web Services, which provide cloud computing services for IT departments, saw growth slow to 42 per cent in the most recent quarter. Margins also sank in the division, hitting 22.3 per cent, although the unit remains the most profitable part of Amazon’s business.

同時，第二季度，爲IT部門提供雲計算服務的AWS的銷售額的增幅放緩至42%。該部門的利潤率也有所下降，降至22.3%，不過，該部門仍是亞馬遜公司利潤最高的一個部門。