Revenue in Amazon’s North America media segment, which includes books and e-books, rose 15% in the second quarter to $1.32 billion. Sales in the electronic and general merchandise segment rose 76% to $2.09 billion. The segment includes Kindle and the newly acquired shoe online Web site Zappos. Much of Amazon’s press release emphasized the success of Kindle and e-books, repeating the same statistics it issued on Monday. In the conference call, executives said its physical book business rose by double digits in the quarter and for the first half of 2010. E-book growth has come from Kindle and apps, executives said. North America media sales growth was slowed by weakness in video game and video game consoles as well as softer textbook results.
Total sales rose 41% in the quarter, to $6.6 billion, and pre-tex income rose to $297 million from $179 million.
For the first six months of the year, North America media sales rose 19% to $2.9 billion and egm sales increased 74% to $4.1 million.
To support its business, Amazon is adding 13 new fulfillment centers this year.
