AWS sales almost double in second quarter

Amazon Web Services has reported a near-doubling of profits in its latest results, in just the second time parent company Amazon has broken out the financial performance of its cloud computing arm. 

AWS reported sales of US$1.82 billion (A$2.47 billion) for the company's second quarter, up from US$1 billion in the same period last year.

Its operating profit grew fivefold to US$391 million from US$77 million in Q2 2014.

AWS is the fastest growing segment of Amazon's overall business. It now accounts for 8 percent of the company's overall sales, up from 5 percent at the end of its financial year in April.

The cloud unit said its Frankfurt region in Europe - which only opened nine months ago - was its fastest growing international region to date. It did not provide metrics.

It's only the second time in Amazon's history the company has disclosed sales for AWS. The cloud computing unit launched in 2006.

In April Amazon revealed AWS had brought in just over US$5 billion in sales in the 12 months to March 2015.

"Amazon Web Services is a $5 billion business and still growing fast — in fact it’s accelerating,” said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said at the time.

“AWS is a good example of how we approach ideas and risk-taking at Amazon.”

During the most recent quarter, AWS announced a new Indian region to open next year, introduced a free education program for school kids to learn about cloud computing, and launched its API gateway.

It also released a 'device farm' for developers to test their apps on mobile devices, and announced plans for new solar and wind energy generation projects.

The entire Amazon business posted profit of US$92 million for the second quarter, compared with its loss of US$126 million in the same period last year.

Revenue rose 20 percent to US$23.2 billion.