Amazon reported “a record-breaking 2018 holiday season” with the company saying in a statement that “tens of millions of people worldwide” signed up for its Prime service, which offers free two-day shipping on millions of items as well as video and music streaming. The statement went on to say that “Amazon customers made this holiday season record-breaking with more items ordered worldwide than ever before,”. In the US alone, Amazon said that 1bn-plus items were shipped for free using Prime. Amazon also highlighted that shoppers bought “millions more” of Amazon’s own devices vs 2017, including the new Echo Dot speaker and the Fire TV Stick. According to Amazon, more than 50% of items sold in its stores came from small and medium-sized businesses.
Meanwhile, Amazon also ended Microsoft’s reign as the most valuable listed company by closing yesterday (8 January) with a market cap of $810bn vs Microsoft’s $789bn market cap.
