Despite
the sharp decline in net income, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos hailed this as a
watershed moment for the company in a statement (below), “We’re now seeing the
transition we’ve been expecting. After 5 years, ebooks is a multi-billion
dollar category for us and growing fast – up approximately 70% last year. In
contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate
in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5%. We’re excited and very grateful
to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever expanding ecosystem
and selection.”
