I just want to point out that it's not 1% of ten million dollars, it's not 1% of a Billion dollars, it's 1% of FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS! Amazon is investing in gr

I just want to point out that it's not 1% of ten million dollars, it's not 1% of a Billion dollars, it's 1% of FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS! Amazon is investing in growth right now. That's why their profits are so low. Normally, one might think that a company of Amazon's age and size ought to be through the growth stage by now, and in fact it is TRUE: Amazon has finished dominating the book industry, and really has no more room to grow. Except that they found new markets and moved beyond books. Now they are a universal retailer of anything that can be sold on the internet. But that market (although not fully saturated yet) still isn't big enough for them, so they've also moved into making tablets for the masses. And into running server farms for the entire world. As long as they keep knocking over new markets at this rate, they don't need to show much profit. [DISCLOSURE: I do not own Amazon stock, primarily because I think it is overpriced. So I suppose I don't completely disagree with the parent post.]