Amazon reaches $100B in annual sales

Amazon announced yesterday that it has reached $100 billion in annual sales.

According to a report from The Seattle Times, CEO Jeff Bezos told the audience at Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting, “We are the fastest company to ever reach that milestone.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS) — the ecommerce company’s cloud computing division — is also set to reach a major milestone this year, on its way to $10 billion in sales. Amazon says AWS is now bigger than Amazon.com was 10 years ago and is growing at a faster rate.

After facing harsh criticism over the treatment of its employees in a New York Times story last August, Amazon used its letter to shareholders to comment on the company’s culture:

[blockquote cite = “Amazon’s annual letter to shareholders”]A word about corporate cultures: for better or for worse, they are enduring, stable, hard to change. They can be an advantage of disadvantage… We never claim that our approach is the right one — just that it’s ours — and over the last two decades, we’ve collected a large group of like-minded people. Folks who find our approach energizing and meaningful.[/blockquote]

In addition to the Amazon Web Services growth, Amazon said its Prime memberships are growing as well — up 51 percent last year. The Seattle Times reports Bezos told shareholders, “Our goal with Amazon Prime, make no mistake, is to make sure that if you are not a Prime member, you are being irresponsible.”