How Much Does Amazon Make in a Year?

When it comes to dollars, Amazon deals in billions.

In fact, just a few weeks ago, France fined the company €4 million for what it termed “abusive conditions” imposed on retailers wanting to sell on its platform, according to The Telegraph.

To most people, that amount of money sounds like a lot. (For those more familiar with U.S. dollars, we’re talking $4,416,522.21.) 

But is it actually a lot of money in the eyes of Amazon? Just how much revenue does the site make, and what — theoretically — could the tech giant do with that kind of cash?

How much money does Amazon earn in one year?

Last year, CNN reported that Amazon earned $232.9 billion dollars in revenue. Of that, $10.1 billion was net profit. 

It can sometimes be hard to visualize what those numbers actually look like. To put it into perspective, we broke out how much the business makes per second based on gross revenue.

If Amazon earns $232.9 billion a year, that translates to:

• $19.4 billion per month
• $4.5 billion per week
• $638.1 million per day
• $26.6 million per hour
• $443,112.63 per minute
• $7,385.21 per second

As for paying off its fine to France, it would take Amazon just under 10 minutes. 

Here’s the math:

$4,416,522.21 (fine from France in USD) / $443,112.63 (Amazon’s revenue per minute)
= 9.97 minutes

For many, 10 minutes passes by quickly. That’s how long it might take to make a cup of coffee in the morning, take a quick shower, or for a “slow” PC to boot up. 

But Amazon is titan of an organization which amasses enormous amounts of money every minute — which pile up considerably in a year. 

What kind of buying power does Amazon have?

With the data in hand regarding how much Amazon makes in a year, a day, a second, etc., we started to wonder what Amazon could theoretically buy with it. The answer? Just about anything.

How long would it take Amazon to buy a family home? Exactly how many “priceless” paintings of da Vinci’s “The Mona Lisa” could Amazon buy with its year revenue? If Amazon wanted to buy the state of Washington, what would it cost and how long would it take? This is the result of that thought experiment:

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How long would it take Amazon to bring in enough revenue to pay for…

1. Microsoft Xbox One S 1TB Fortnite bundle ($249) — 0.03 seconds
2. Apple MacBook Pro 15.4″laptop ($2,499) — 0.34 seconds
3. Mid-sized sedan ($25,838) — 3.5 seconds
4. Jeff Bezos’ base salary ($81,840) — 11.08 seconds
5. Family home, median home price ($226,800) — 30.71 seconds
6. Lamborghini Aventador S ($417,650) — 56.55 seconds
7. Average small business loan ($663,000) — 1.5 minutes
8. Average public school annual budget ($7,006,582) — 15.81 minutes
9. White House, the actual building ($397 million) — 14.93 hours
10. Barnes and Noble, company valuation ($480 million) — 18.05 hours
11. Mona Lisa, insured value ($830 million) — 1.3 days
12. Highest lottery payout, October 20, 2018 ($1.586 billion) — 2.49 days
13. Puerto Rico hurricane relief ($19.1 billion) — 4.26 weeks
14. Target, company valuation ($54.85 billion) — 12.25 weeks
15. Chinese Military 2019 budget ($131 billion) — 6.75 months
16. Facebook, company valuation ($138.83 billion) — 7.13 months
17. Walmart, company valuation ($330.89 billion) — 1.42 years
18. US Military 2019 budget ($693 billion) — 2.98 years
19. Washington State, estimated land valuation ($716 billion) — 3.07 years
20. US national debt ($22 trillion) — 94.46 years

Amazon’s buying power is massive!

Obviously, Amazon has the capability to purchase a lot. Granted, this is all based on its revenue and not its profit. But in the name of fun and curiosity, it is interesting to see certain insights like:

• Amazon earns enough in a day to purchase its old competitor Barnes and Noble.
• If Amazon wanted to, it could fund candidates on both sides of the U.S. presidential elections, and it would take less than one work week for them to do it. 
• And after just a few years, Amazon could even buy itself!

Amazon is, of course, likely putting much of its green toward technology, salaries for its hundreds of thousands of employees, and generally running a massive multinational corporation. But, it’s fun to dream!

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Pricing Sources:

1. Microsoft Xbox One S 1TB Fortnite bundle
2. Apple MacBook Pro 15.4″laptop
3. New mid-sized sedan
4. Jeff Bezos’ base salary
5. Median price of a family home
6. Lamborghini Aventador S
7. Average small business loan
8. Average public school annual budget
9. White House
10. Barnes and Noble
11. Mona Lisa
12. Highest lottery payout
13. Puerto Rico hurricane relief
14. Target
15. Chinese Military 2019 budget
16. Facebook
17. Walmart
18. US Military 2019 budget
19. Washington State
20. US national debt