Considering the company hardly had any annual profit until 2016, this represents major growth.

考量到該公司於 2016 年度幾乎沒有任何利潤，所以這代表了 2018 年屬重大的增長。

Whether that's gap earnings, operating income, free cash flow, this company hit an inflection point at the beginning of 2018.

無論是差額收入、營運收入和自由現今流量等，2018 年初都到達了反曲點。

It's one of the reasons that the stock materially outperformed the market.

這是股票表現明顯優於市場的原因之一。

Traditionally, Amazon has funneled most of its money straight back into the company itself, leading to meager earnings compared to other tech giants like Apple or Google.

一般來說，Amazon 把大部分的資金直接流回公司，與 Apple 或 Google 等科技巨頭相比，營收根本是微不足道。

But in spite of this strategy, Amazon has been making enough lately that there's still money left after all of its expenses on inventory, fulfillment centers and people.

不過就算採取了這項策略，其實在扣減庫存、物流中心和人手方面的開支後，Amazon 在近年來賺得也不少。

Amazon still doesn't have the types of profits that other big tech companies do, say a Google or an Apple or a Microsoft.

不過，Amazon 的利潤仍然無法與其他大型公司比，像是 Google、Apple 或微軟。

But significantly more than they ever have in the past and it really allows them to do much more experimentation with the core business.

但顯然還是比以前的要多，而且利潤增加可以使他們對核心業務進行更多的試驗。

So what's changed?

那有什麼改變呢？

Though Amazon has long dominated the U.S. e-commerce market, online sales are not actually the biggest moneymaker for the company.

雖然 Amazon 已長期主導美國的電子商務市場，但網路銷售業可不是該公司最賺錢的業務。

Its e-commerce division isn't even profitable internationally.

即使電子商務已推上國際市場，仍然沒有任何盈利。

Instead, Amazon Web Services, or AWS, has generated the majority of the company's operating income since 2016.

反倒是 Amazon 雲端運算服務 (AWS)，自 2016 年以來創下了該公司最大部分的營運收入。

AWS is Amazon's cloud computing division, comprised of a huge network of servers providing processing and storage solutions for companies, government agencies and individuals.

AWS 是 Amazon 的雲端運算平台，由龐大的伺服器網路所組成，提供公司、政府機關和個人處理和儲存的解決方案。

What that did for Amazon is it turned Amazon into a technology company as well as being an e-commerce and retailer.

這服務對 Amazon 的影響是把它轉型成為集科技、電子商務和零售商於一身的公司。

Its clients, which include Netflix, Airbnb and Yelp, are charged for their volume of usage, the features they subscribe to, and the services they use.

它們的客戶包括 Netflix、Airbnb 和 Yelp 等，都會按使用流量、訂閱功能以及使用的服務收費。

AWS really started to grow about four or five years ago and became a significant force in computing.

AWS 約莫於四五年前才真正開始增長，更為運算的發展帶來重要的影響。

Amazon Web Services continues to get bigger as a percentage of overall revenue and it's a highly profitable business by Amazon's standards.

亞馬遜網絡服務在總收入中所佔的比例持續增長，按照亞馬遜的標準，這是一個高利潤的生意。

But by most corporate standards, it's doing something like 30 percent operating margins.

但按照大多數公司的標準，營業利潤率大約為 30%。

In 2018, AWS brought in 7.3 billion dollars in operating income and 25.7 billion dollars in revenue which, for reference, is more than both McDonald's and Macy's.

於 2018 年，AWS 為公司帶來 73 億美元的營收入和 257 億美元的收益，為方便大家參考，可說是比麥當勞和梅西百貨來得高。

In this last quarter, AWS was 58 percent of total operating profit for Amazon.

在最後一個季度，AWS 佔了 Amazon 總營運利潤的 58%。

So it's still clearly the profit driver for the overall company.

因此，整個公司的利潤驅動力顯然是 AWS。

In fact in 2017, AWS was actually more than 100 percent of Amazon's operating profit.

而實際上於 2017 年，AWS 的業績比 Amazon 營運利潤高出超過 100%。

So without AWS, Amazon would not have been making any money.

所以沒有 AWS 的話，Amazon 不會賺錢。

But though it's a huge reason behind Amazon's recent profitability, other areas of the company are seeing major growth as well.

雖然這是 Amazon 最近最賺錢的一個重要原因，但公司的其他領域亦見巨大的增長。

The fastest growing division of Amazon is its other category, comprised mainly of its advertising business.

Amazon 增長速度最快的還有其他部門，主要包含廣告業務。

It grew 95 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 and brought in $10.1 billion in revenue for the year overall.

於 2018 年的第四季度增長了 95%，該業績的全年總入為 101 億美元。

As Amazon has become the center of commerce for a lot of businesses, it's becoming a huge advertising play as well.

隨著 Amazon 逐漸成為許多企業的商務中心，也漸漸成為廣告業的巨頭。

They don't break out the profits of this, but looking at comps like Facebook and Google, it's almost certainly also in that 30 percent operating margin range.

不過他們並沒有從中獲利，但看看像 Facebook 和 Google，其實可以肯定的是 Amazon 的營利率也落在 30% 的範圍內。

If advertising continues to grow at this rate, some analysts even predict it will be more profitable than AWS by 2021.

倘若廣告業務持續以這般速度增長，有分析師甚至還預測 2021 年廣告的利潤會比 AWS 高。

The last segment experiencing major growth is the third-party marketplace.

最後一個正在經歷增長的部分是第三方市場。

While Amazon traditionally buys products in bulk from wholesalers and sells them at a slight markup, in the third-party marketplace outside companies pay Amazon to sell their goods using its platform.

Amazon 一直以來都是從批發商大量購入產品，再以比購入價稍高的價錢賣出，而第三方市場的外部企業因為使用該平台須向 Amazon 付款。

Amazon takes about a 15 to 20 percent cut of the sales, while also collecting fees for things like storage and shipping.

Amazon 削減了約 15%-20% 的銷售額，且向客戶收取倉儲和運輸費用。

While Amazon generates significantly less revenue from third-party merchants than from products it sells, margins are much higher, making it more profitable than the traditional model.

儘管從第三方批發商所賺取的收入比其產品的銷售量要少，但其實利潤來得還要高，比傳統的經營模式的利潤更高。

If you assume even a small 5 percent margin, you're talking about potentially two billion dollars in profit just from third-party contributing to overall Amazon.

假設就算只是小小的 5% 利潤，但其實所談論的卻是第三方就佔了 Amazon 20億美元的利潤。

Today, more than half of all goods sold come from third-party sellers, and more and more businesses are signing up.

如今，所有售出的商品中有超過一半來自第三方賣家，還有愈來愈多商家即將加入。

Sales of third-party seller services rose 34 percent in 2018 to 42.7 billion dollars.

第三方賣方服務的銷售額於 2018 年增長了 34%，高達 427 億美元。

You really have to be on Amazon, unless you are going to go it alone.

除非你是要獨立出來做，否則你真的要在 Amazon 上銷售。

Amazon is the only place where you can instantly get scale without having to do all of the marketing yourself.

Amazon 是唯一一個你無需自己到現場即可達成可觀銷售的平台。

Amazon smart speakers also have analysts excited.

Amazon 的智慧型喇叭也令分析師感到興奮。

The last thing I find really interesting is Alexa.

我還發現一件真的很有趣的事是 Alexa。

So you now have an installed base of over 100 million of these voice-activated devices.

現在已有超過 1 億個現有用戶群使用這些聲控產品。

Over time, you'll find yourself increasingly turning to Alexa, and say "Alexa, order more coffee."

隨著時間你會發現，自己漸漸轉向使用 Alexa，還會說「Alexa，幫我訂購咖啡。」

And it's one of those things that will accelerate the move of Amazon into two places, the pantry and into the refrigerator.

這些都有助 Amazon 更快打進兩個地方：食品儲藏室和冰箱。

The boom in all these categories, from Alexa to cloud computing, advertising and third-party seller divisions, raises the question of how the company should be valued.

各種不同類型的業務迅速發展，像是從 Alexa 至雲端運算、廣告業務以及第三方賣家等，都帶出公司的估值問題。

At the size of the company now, well over 200 billion dollars in annual revenue, it's just really hard to grow at 20 plus percent.

以公司現在的規模來說，年收益已超過 2000 億美元，要以高達 20% 以上的速度增長真的是很難。

So that means these investors who have expected high growth repeatedly every quarter are now looking at a company with slowing growth but lots of profitability.

因此這代表這些原本預期每個季度會有高增長的投資者正看著一個增長緩慢但高回報率的公司。

There's clearly some consternation in the investor community as to how to value Amazon today.

投資群對於現今如何評估 Amazon 顯然是感到驚愕。