Web Services' Contribution to Amazon's Revenue and Profits
Cloud computing, in the form of Amazon's Web Services (AWS), is a major contributor to Amazon's revenue and especially its profitability. The chart below, based on Q2 2016 data from the company, shows that AWS accounted for 9% of revenue and 56% of operating income. In addition, AWS revenue grew by 58% over the same quarter in 2015, while the rest of the comapny grew at 29%:
The 100% stacked bar chart shows the proportion of Amazon’s sales (1st bar) and profits (2nd bar) that come from web services as compared to the retail business. I used the red color to emphasize web services and linking lines between the bars to show highlight the differences between sales and profits. I showed percentages in the chart and totals at the top of each bar and a legend. Each of these decisions helped emphasize the point that web services made a larger contribution to profit than to sales. I also added a data columns so that I could show growth in sales. In Amazon’s quarterly results, US and International sales were split. I combined the two in this graph as my focus was on comparing web services to Amazon’s traditional business. Here is the chart in SlideShare to download and edit:
