Amazon holiday-quarter revenue rises 22.4 percent

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's quarterly revenue rose 22.4 percent, driven by strong sales in the holiday period and a jump in subscriptions for its Prime service.

The world's biggest online retailer said its net sales rose to $43.74 billion in the fourth quarter from $35.75 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected $44.68 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Amazon's net income rose to $749 million, or $1.54 per share, from $482 million, or $1 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue from Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud services business, jumped 47 percent to $3.54 billion, missing the average analyst estimate of $3.60 billion, according to market research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

 

Amazon said last month that the 2016 holiday was its best-ever shopping season, when it shipped 50 percent more items than the prior year for third-party vendors.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)