Amazon’s cloud-computing growth continues to impress.
Amazon Web Services generated $2.1 billion in revenue during the third quarter, the company reported this afternoon. It has now generated almost $7 billion in sales over the past four quarters.
AWS third-quarter revenue grew 78% year-over-year, a slight deceleration from 82% growth in the second quarter. Growth was significantly slower in previous quarters because of a price cut in early 2014.
The division generated more than $500 million in operating income during the quarter, and $1.4 billion over the past four quarters. It represented more than 50% of Amazon’s consolidated-segment operating income, despite only generating 8% of the company’s sales.
Put another way: AWS generated almost as much operating income during the third quarter ($521 million) as Amazon’s entire North America e-commerce business ($528 million).
Amazon shares are up 10% in after-hours trading on overall strong performance.