Amazon's Q4 Earnings Disappoint as Competition Heats Up

The tech giant’s revenue missed expectations, and its stock price took a hit. But it was a minor blip in an otherwise strong quarter for the company. Amazon reported $27.3 billion in net income for the fourth quarter of 2022, up from $6.5 billion in the same period last year. However, revenue came in at $105.1 billion, below analyst expectations of $113.8 billion. Despite the missed earnings, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy said the company was pleased with its progress and highlighted several positives from the quarter. The company saw significant growth in its cloud computing business, as well as a boost in sales from its advertising platform. However, the company also faced increased competition in the e-commerce space, particularly from Shopify and eBay. Amazon’s same-store sales growth slowed to 1% year-over-year, down from 12% in the third quarter. Reddit, on the other hand, had a much more turbulent earnings week. The social media platform reported $100 million in net income for the fourth quarter of 2022, but its revenue came in at just $420 million, short of analyst expectations of $540 million. The company’s CEO Steve Huffman said Reddit was focusing on growing its user base and improving its advertising business, but acknowledged that the company faced intense competition from other social media platforms.