Few of Amazon’s products are as influential and revolutionairy as Amazon Web Services, and few of them are as shrouded in secret either. In the nine years since its launch, statistics regarding AWS have been kept from the public, but now that the business has grown so large, Amazon has decided to report its revenue and profitability as an entirely separate business, meaning we’re finally going to get a good look at AWS.
Amazon’s cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services, has revolutionized the way software is created and how technology startups are formed. Now, some nine years after its launch, AWS has grown large enough that Amazon will start to report its revenue and profitability as a separate business segment. This could happen as late as Amazon’s first-quarter earnings report—scheduled to be released Thursday, April 23, after the market closes—or in an earlier filing. Roughly how big is AWS? Amazon has, so far, reported its revenue as part of its “North America—Other” category. This segment generated $5.4 billion in revenue last year, up about 45% from 2013. In a recent research report, Sanford Bernstein analyst Carlos Kirjner estimated that AWS generated $4.5 billion in 2014 sales, which he projects will grow to $7.3 billion this year. Cowen and Company, another Wall Street firm, estimates 2015 AWS revenue of $5.9 billion. For 2016, JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth pegs AWS revenue of $8.9 billion.