• PCMag, Friday, January 28, 2011 3:03 PM

Thanks in large part to the health of its e-books business, Amazon just reported higher profits and a 36% increase in net sales for the fourth quarter of 2010. For the first time ever, Amazon also said that it is now selling more e-books via its Kindle platform than physical paperback books. "The problem, according to Wall Street, was that Amazon's growth was expected, and the stock slid by about 9 percent," PCMag points out. Still, the ecommerce giant reported net income of of $416 million for the fourth quarter, versus net sales of $12.95 billion. Net income rose 8% year-over-year, while revenue jumped by a remarkable 36%.

According to Amazon's chief financial officer Tom Szkutak, the company's fourth-quarter revenues were the strongest in the company's history since 2000. In particular, North America segment sales, representing the company's U.S. and Canadian sites, were $7.21 billion -- up 45%. Since the beginning of the year, Amazon has sold 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperbacks sold -- even books where there are no Kindle editions.

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