Sales at Amazon rose 15% in the first quarter ended March 31 compared to the first period of 2014, hitting $22.72 billion. Higher expenses, however, led to a net loss of $57 million compared to net income of $108 million in last year’s first quarter. For the first time, Amazon broke out sales for Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing unit; the segment had revenue of $1.5 billion in the quarter, up from $1.0 billion last year.
In its traditional operating segments, the effects of foreign exchange had a negative impact of the company. Internaational sales fell 2% on a reported basis but rose 14% excluding the impact of foreign exchange. Within its operating segments, international media sales fell 12%(up 2% excluding foreign exchange) and electronics and other general merchandise (egm) category had a 4% sales increase or 21% excluding foreign exchange.
In North America, media sales rose 5%, to $2.97 billion in the quarter, and egm sales increased 31%.
