Amazon becomes first company ever to make £100bn in a single quarter 

Amazon has become the first company in history to make more than £100billion in a single quarter.

In the crucial holiday trading period the tech behemoth raked in more than £1billion a day as sales rose 9 per cent to £101billion.

And the company said profits almost doubled to £10.5billion despite contending with higher shipping costs, supply chain disruption and wages.

The company fared better than many others during the pandemic as shoppers flocked online during lockdowns – though analysts have been wary that this could be wearing off.

Amazon’s shares rallied by around 18 per cent in after-hours trading. But they had slumped before its results were released last night, as US stocks recorded their worst day in almost a year. 

Snap Chat owner Snap also jumped 57 per cent in after hours trading as it posted its first-ever quarterly profit following the market close.

Amazon said it would hike its Prime subscriptions to pay for rising costs – including higher wages. Amazon always needs to hire more staff over the key Christmas trading period. 

But the explosion in internet shopping during the pandemic means it has been adding to its workforce since the Covid crisis began. 

Earlier this week Amazon revealed it created 25,000 permanent jobs across the UK last year and is hiring 1,500 new apprentices in 2022.

The results for the company’s peak trading period were seen as a major test for chief executive Andy Jassy, who took over from founder Jeff Bezos last year. 

Bezos, who jockeys with Elon Musk to be the world’s richest man, founded the internet retailer in 1994. After weeks of choppy trading, the Nasdaq lost 3.7 per cent after Facebook-owner Meta suffered its worst-ever fall in a trading day. 

Meta’s shares fell by 26 per cent, wiping close to £143billion off its market value, after putting out a disappointing earnings report on Wednesday. 

The plunge also hammered founder and boss Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune – which dropped by around £23billion to £68billion in one of the biggest one-day falls in wealth ever recorded.

Meta reported that the number of daily active Facebook users fell to 1.92bn in the final three months of 2021 – down from 1.93bn in the previous quarter.

It was the first ever fall in user numbers.

In a dismal forecast the company said sales would miss Wall Street expectations and that advertisers on its platforms were having to cut their budgets because of surging inflation and supply chain disruption.

Paypal and Netflix have recently suffered after flagging that the boost to business during the pandemic was wearing off.