• RELATED STORIES

• OFT clears OUP-Nelson Thornes acquisition

  The Office of Fair Trading ...

• Blackwell’s plans expansion this year

  Blackwell’s plans to ...

• Independents flock to NBT’s e-book shop

  More than 130 independent b...

• Kindle Fire extends to 170 countries

  Amazon has announced it wil...

• Pearson makes "significant changes" to structure

  Pearson has revealed &ldquo...

Kindle remains Amazon's bestseller in first quarter 2012

01.01.70 | Benedicte Page

Amazon.com has announced a 19% hike in worldwide media sales, which include books, DVDs, music and digital content, in the first quarter of 2012. Kindle remained its bestselling product, the company said.

Amazon.com revealed that net sales had jumped 34% to $13.18bn (£8.14bn) in the three months to 31st March 2012, including a 19% hike in worldwide media sales to $4.71bn (£2.9bn). Analysts have attributed the rise to content bought through Amazon' new Kindle Fire device, launched to rival Apple’s iPad but yet to come to the UK, which allows customers to download video games, DVDs and music as well as books. 

Profit however sank 35% to $130m (£80.3m) as Amazon continued to invest in its development, such as building distribution centres to support online sales.

The company revealed the Kindle Fire was its bestselling product of the first quarter, while 9 out of 10 most-purchased units in the US were digital products such as Kindle, Kindle books, movies, music and apps.  

Amazon also said 16 of its top 100 bestselling titles overall were published via Kindle Direct Publishing.  

In the UK, six Kindle e-books featured in Amazon’s top 10 bestsellers line-up for the first quarter this year, with Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson (Black Swan) and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic) leading the pack. Only the Innocent by Rachel Abbott, published via Kindle Direct Publishing, also featured in Amazon.co.uk's top 10.

International sales representing the UK, Germany, Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian and Spanish sites, were up 31% to $5.76bn (£3.56m), from first quarter 2011.

The company said it expects net sales to be between $11.9 billion and $13.3 billion in quarter two, growing between 20% and 34% year-on-year.

• amazon
• first quarter 2012
• Home
• Lisa Campbell