亞馬遜 (AMZN) 2017 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q4 2017 Financial Results Teleconference. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded.

感謝您的支持。大家好，歡迎參加亞馬遜 2017 年第四季財務業績電話會議。（操作員指示）今天的通話正在錄音。

For opening remarks, I'll be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Dave Fildes. Please go ahead.

在開場發言時，我將把電話轉給投資者關係總監戴夫·菲爾德斯 (Dave Fildes)。請繼續。

Hello, and welcome to our Q4 2017 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO. As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2016. Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, February 1, 2018, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

您好，歡迎參加我們 2017 年第四季財務業績電話會議。今天，我們的財務長 Brian Olsavsky 將與我們一起回答您的問題。當您收聽今天的電話會議時，我們鼓勵您閱讀我們的新聞稿，其中包括我們的財務表現以及本季度的指標和評論。請注意，除非另有說明，本次電話會議中的所有比較都將針對我們 2016 年同期的結果。我們對您的問題的評論和回應僅反映截至 2018 年 2 月 1 日的管理層觀點，並將包含前瞻性陳述。實際結果可能存在重大差異。有關可能影響我們財務表現的因素的更多資​​訊包含在今天的新聞稿和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中，包括我們最近的 10-K 表年度報告和後續文件。

During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.

在本次電話會議中，我們可能會討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。在我們的新聞稿、本次網路廣播附帶的幻燈片以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中（每一份都發佈在我們的投資者關係網站上），您將找到有關這些非公認會計準則指標的更多披露，包括這些指標與可比公認會計準則指標的對帳。

Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we've seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC.

我們的指導包含了我們迄今為止所看到的訂單趨勢以及我們今天認為合適的假設。我們的結果本質上是不可預測的，並且可能受到許多因素的重大影響，包括外匯匯率波動、全球經濟狀況和客戶支出的變化、世界事件、互聯網、線上商務和雲端服務的增長率以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中詳述的各種因素。

Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements. It's not possible to accurately predict demand for our goods and services, and therefore, our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.

我們的指導還假設，除其他事項外，我們不會完成任何額外的業務收購、投資、重組或法律和解。我們無法準確預測對我們的商品和服務的需求，因此，我們的實際結果可能與我們的指導有重大差異。

I'd also like to update you on the impact of the recent U.S. tax reform legislation. In our fourth quarter results, we recorded a provisional tax benefit for the impact of the new tax legislation of approximately $789 million, which is primarily driven by the remeasurement of federal net deferred tax liabilities, resulting from the permanent reduction in the U.S. statutory corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. As we complete our analysis of this new legislation, we may make adjustments to the provisional amounts. Those adjustments may materially impact our provision for income taxes in the period in which the adjustments are made.

我還想向大家介紹最近美國稅改法案的影響。在我們的第四季度業績中，我們記錄了約 7.89 億美元的新稅法影響的臨時稅收優惠，這主要是由於美國法定公司稅率從 35% 永久降低至 21% 而導致的聯邦淨遞延稅負債的重新計量。當我們完成對這項新立法的分析時，我們可能會對臨時金額做出調整。這些調整可能會對我們在調整期間的所得稅準備金產生重大影響。

With that, we will move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.

接下來，我們將進入問答環節。接線員，請提醒我們的聽眾如何提出問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員指示）我們的第一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Mark Mahaney。

I'd like to focus on the North American retail operating margins. That 4.5% was the highest, I think, we've seen in a couple of years, maybe the highest since you've actually broken that segment out. So could you just go through the drivers behind that? I know you called out Alexa as being better than expected. Was that one of the factors? Was it the full quarter of the Whole Foods impact? Was it advertising revenue? Just what drove that result and how sustainable is it?

我想重點關注北美零售營業利潤率。我認為，4.5% 是我們幾年來見過的最高值，也許是自您實際細分該部分以來的最高值。那可以簡單介紹一下背後的驅動因素嗎？我知道您說 Alexa 比預期的要好。這是其中一個因素嗎？這是全食超市整個季度的影響嗎？是廣告收入嗎？究竟是什麼導致了這個結果？其可持續性如何？

Sure, Mark. Let me address your question by answering the entire company. I'll note where the North America elements are strongest. So for the quarter, we came in at the highest end of our revenue range, $60.5 billion, 26 -- 36% FX-neutral growth and 25% FX-neutral growth, excluding the Whole Foods acquisition. So the fact that we came in at the high end of the range, volume was high, especially in North America, and a lot of times in Q4 and other quarters actually, we see better efficiencies when the warehouses are busy. So it was very clean operational quarter, I would say. The ops team did a great job handling record volumes in Q4 and also incorporating all the new capacity we had opened in 2017. If you remember, we have added over 30% to our fulfillment square footage in 2017, coming off a similar increase in 2016. So amid all these opening of new buildings, many of them late in the year, the ops team did a fantastic job. Advertising was also a key contributor as we're continuing to make more value -- the offerings more valuable, both to customers and advertisers alike, and that was particularly strong in North America. Although not in the North America segment, I would also point out, AWS had a strong quarter, accelerating growth versus Q3 and also expanding operating margins by 100 basis points. So particularly in North America, I would say it was the -- the strong volume -- top line volume, combined with increased advertising revenues and also a very clean operational performance. Obviously, there's a lot of things that can happen in Q4 from weather to demand patterns changing. We've seen additional costs creep in, in the name of customer experience in prior years. And this was, in hindsight, probably one of the cleaner Q4s recently.

當然，馬克。讓我透過回答整個公司來解答您的問題。我會注意北美元素最強的地方。因此，本季我們的營收達到了最高水平，為 605 億美元，扣除匯率因素後成長 26-36%，扣除收購全食超市後成長 25%。因此，事實上，我們的銷售量處於高端，尤其是在北美，在第四季度和其他季度的許多時候，當倉庫繁忙時，我們會看到更好的效率。所以我想說，這是一個非常乾淨的營運季度。營運團隊在處理第四季度創紀錄的運力以及整合我們在 2017 年開放的所有新運力方面做得非常出色。如果你還記得的話，2017 年我們的履行面積增加了 30% 以上，2016 年也實現了類似的成長。因此，在所有這些新建築的開放過程中（其中許多是在年底開放的），營運團隊做得非常出色。廣告也是一個關鍵的貢獻者，因為我們正在繼續創造更多價值——為客戶和廣告商提供更有價值的產品，這在北美尤其強勁。儘管不在北美地區，但我還要指出的是，AWS 本季表現強勁，與第三季相比成長加速，營業利潤率也擴大了 100 個基點。因此，特別是在北美，我想說這是強勁的銷售量——營業額，加上廣告收入的增加以及非常清晰的營運表現。顯然，第四季可能會發生很多事情，從天氣到需求模式的變化。我們看到，前幾年以客戶體驗為名的額外成本不斷增加。現在回想起來，這可能是近期表現較為出色的第四季之一。

Our next question comes from the line of Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的道格拉斯·安穆斯。

Brian, I was hoping you could talk about how you're thinking about your primary investment areas in 2018 and perhaps if you could put it in context of '17. Are there things that are notably different this year relative to last year and also how you would think about the margin trajectory relative to what we saw last year?

布萊恩，我希望你能談談你對 2018 年主要投資領域的看法，以及你是否可以將其與 2017 年的情況聯繫起來。今年與去年相比有哪些明顯不同？您認為今年的利潤率走勢與去年有何不同？

Sure. I -- we'll be giving you guidance quarter by quarter, but I can talk to the general trends in the large investment areas. Let me start with AWS infrastructure and growth in technical and sales teams. That will continue. We're in a $20 billion run rate in top line revenues for AWS, up from 18% -- excuse me, $18 billion last quarter. So we're very happy with the -- both the progression in new services and features that we've been able to bring to customers and also their response. We'll continue geographic expansion and continuing to, again, build on our tech teams and our sales teams. So that would -- that expense is going to continue and likely increase. Prime benefits will continue to increase as well. Prime Now -- excuse me, Prime Video, Prime Now, AmazonFresh, all of our major Prime benefits we continue to expand globally. Devices, as Jeff said in the press release, we are very happy with the results of Alexa. It's a very positive surprise for us, both on a -- adding a little bit more to that, we had record device sales, we had very high levels of customer engagement, including increased levels of voice shopping, growth in functionality, growth in our partner -- partners we work with. Skills there, we've increased rapidly. We're over 30,000 skills for Alexa. We've got 4,000-plus smart home devices from 1,200 unique brands. So the -- the relationships we're having with external companies is actually helping to accelerate the adoption of Alexa with customers. So really strong usage of -- excuse me, Alexa with our devices. Obviously, Echo, Echo Show and the Echo family all directly tied to Alexa, but also Fire TV and tablets. And we're seeing more and more engagement. Alexa usage on Fire TV is up 9x year-over-year. Music listening time on Alexa was 3x higher this holiday season. So that's what we mean when we said far exceeding our expectations. Those are the things I would point to. And that is an area, again, where we'll continue to invest heavily and as we say, double down on that. Fulfillment, again, is -- fulfillment capacity, especially to fuel the strong top line growth and growth in Amazon fulfilled units, which, again, is growing much quicker than our unit growth rate, we expect that and hope that to continue as well into 2018. Video content, we spoke about on the last call, we do like the results we're seeing with engagement on customers, their buying habits, their engagement with the video content, their use of it on devices. And we will continue to increase our budget in that area. But I'll be release -- yes, I'll incorporate that into the guidance each quarter as we move through the year.

當然。我——我們將按季度向您提供指導，但我可以談談大型投資領域的整體趨勢。讓我先從 AWS 基礎設施以及技術和銷售團隊的成長開始。這種情況將會持續下去。AWS 的營業收入運行率為 200 億美元，高於上個季度的 18%——不好意思，是 180 億美元。因此，我們對我們能夠為客戶帶來的新服務和功能的進步以及他們的反應感到非常高興。我們將繼續擴大地域範圍，並繼續加強我們的技術團隊和銷售團隊。因此，這筆開支將會持續下去，甚至可能增加。Prime 福利也將持續增加。Prime Now——對不起，Prime Video、Prime Now、AmazonFresh，我們所有主要的 Prime 優惠都將繼續在全球擴展。設備，正如 Jeff 在新聞稿中所說，我們對 Alexa 的結果非常滿意。這對我們來說是一個非常積極的驚喜，不僅如此，我們的設備銷售創下了紀錄，客戶參與度也非常高，包括語音購物水平的提高、功能的增長、合作夥伴的增長——我們的合作夥伴也在增長。我們的技能已經迅速提升。我們為 Alexa 提供了超過 30,000 種技能。我們擁有來自 1,200 個獨特品牌的 4,000 多種智慧家庭設備。因此，我們與外部公司建立的關係實際上有助於加速客戶對 Alexa 的採用。因此，我們的設備確實非常廣泛地使用了 Alexa — — 對不起。顯然，Echo、Echo Show 和 Echo 系列都與 Alexa 直接相關，還有 Fire TV 和平板電腦。我們看到了越來越多的參與。Fire TV 上的 Alexa 使用量年增了 9 倍。今年假期，Alexa 上的音樂收聽時間增加了 3 倍。這就是我們所說的遠遠超出我們的預期的意思。這些就是我要指出的事情。我們會繼續在這個領域投入大量資金，正如我們所說，我們會加倍投入。再次強調，履行能力，特別是推動強勁的營收成長和亞馬遜履行單位的成長，其成長速度遠遠快於我們的單位成長率，我們預計並希望這種情況能夠持續到 2018 年。我們在上次電話會議上談到了視訊內容，我們確實喜歡看到客戶參與度、他們的購買習慣、他們對視訊內容的參與度以及他們在設備上對視訊內容的使用情況的結果。我們將繼續增加該領域的預算。但我會發布——是的，我會在全年的每個季度將其納入指導中。

Our next question comes from the line of Ross Sandler with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的羅斯·桑德勒。

Hey guys, just 2 questions. AWS reaccelerated again this quarter. Can you just give us some color on what were the key drivers there? Was it lapping some of the price activity from a year ago? Was it higher utilization, moving up the stack? Any color there would be helpful. And then a question on shipping costs. So it looks like it grew about 31% up on shipping costs in the quarter, and that's been kind of moving in tandem with the Amazon fulfilled unit growth. Is that the right way to think about it? It looks like it might be getting a little bit of leverage in the model right now as -- is that -- what's driving that, the shipping cost leverage?

嘿夥計們，只有兩個問題。本季度，AWS 再次加速發展。您能否向我們詳細介紹其中的關鍵驅動因素？它是否涵蓋了一年前的一些價格活動？是不是利用率更高，堆疊向上移動？任何顏色都會有幫助。然後是關於運費的問題。因此看起來本季的運輸成本成長了約 31%，並且這與亞馬遜配送單位的成長同步。這是正確的思考方式嗎？看起來它現在可能在模型中獲得了一些槓桿作用，因為——是什麼在推動它，運輸成本槓桿？

Sure. Let me start with that last one. Yes, shipping costs are going to be very tied to AFN unit growth and also the impact of greater Prime adoption and faster shipping methods. So yes, we consider that a very strong quarter, down sequentially in the growth that we've seen recently. That will fluctuate quarter to quarter. Again, it was a very strong operational quarter in Q4, and we've expanded the number of items that shipped free. We're now over 100 million items in the U.S. So yes, shipping cost is always going to be a strong part of our offering, and we're -- it's going to be increasing due to our business model. And we, at the same time, look to minimize the cost by getting more and more efficient in that area. AWS, yes, if you remember last year, we did have price increases in December of last year towards the end. So it had a partial impact on the quarter. But generally, just strong usage growth. Usage growth continues to be strong, growing at a higher rate than our revenue growth rate and customers continue to add workloads and expand. And as I said, we're adding new services and features all the time, over 1,400 in 2017 alone. So it's a number of factors, I would say. It's not as simple as lapping a cost there -- excuse me, a price decrease last year, but very happy with the performance in -- of the AWS business. Now over a $20 billion run rate.

當然。讓我從最後一個開始。是的，運輸成本將與 AFN 單位成長以及 Prime 採用率提高和運輸方式加快的影響密切相關。所以是的，我們認為這是一個非常強勁的季度，與我們最近看到的成長相比，環比有所下降。每個季度都會有波動。再次，第四季度的營運表現非常強勁，我們增加了免費運送的商品數量。我們目前在美國有超過 1 億件商品。所以，是的，運輸成本始終是我們產品的重要組成部分，而且由於我們的商業模式，運輸成本還會增加。同時，我們希望透過提高該領域的效率來最大限度地降低成本。AWS，是的，如果你還記得去年，我們確實在去年 12 月底提價了。因此它對本季產生了部分影響。但整體而言，使用量成長強勁。使用量成長持續強勁，成長率高於我們的收入成長率，客戶繼續增加工作量並進行擴展。正如我所說，我們一直在添加新的服務和功能，僅 2017 年就超過 1,400 項。所以我想說，這有很多因素。這並不像計算成本那麼簡單——對不起，去年價格下降了，但我對 AWS 業務的表現非常滿意。現在的運行率已超過 200 億美元。

Our next question comes from the line of Mark May with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的馬克梅 (Mark May)。

Brian, if you look back historically, your Q1 operating income guidance is typically about $300 million, $400 million lower than your Q4. Obviously, it's significantly greater than that this quarter. Maybe if you could shed a little light on why that is so and what are some of the key drivers there. And AWS and cloud pricing appears to have been more subtle in recent quarters. Maybe if you could talk a little bit about the pricing environment and why that has been the case at least compared to trends from back in '14, '15 and previously.

布萊恩，如果你回顧歷史，你會發現第一季的營業收入預期通常約為 3 億美元，比第四季低 4 億美元。顯然，本季的成長幅度明顯高於此。也許您可以稍微解釋為什麼會這樣，以及其中一些關鍵的驅動因素是什麼。最近幾個季度，AWS 和雲端運算的定價似乎更加微妙。也許您可以稍微談談定價環境，以及為什麼至少與 2014 年、2015 年及之前的趨勢相比會出現這種情況。

Sure. Let me start with guidance. So yes, the operating income guidance is $300 million to $1 billion. Operating income last year was $1 billion. Q1 is generally when we see the volume drop off from Q4, obviously, but a lot of the costs remain from the year-over-year buildup in costs, particularly in the fulfillment network. So it's generally a headwind every Q1. It's -- given the 30%-plus growth in square footage last year that we've built, that's one major headwind from Q4 to Q1. But we also continue to invest, particularly in Alexa and our device area. As I mentioned in a number of comments earlier, we're very happy with the results, the customer adoption, the device sales that we're seeing and the general customer acceptance there. So we will continue to invest there. Those are probably the 2 largest factors in Q1, I would say.

當然。讓我先從指導開始。是的，預計營業收入為 3 億至 10 億美元。去年的營業收入為10億美元。顯然，第一季的交易量較第四季有所下降，但許多成本仍是年增的，特別是在履行網路中。因此，通常每個第一季都會遇到阻力。考慮到我們去年的建築面積增加了 30% 以上，這是第四季到第一季的一個主要阻力。但我們也會繼續投資，特別是在 Alexa 和我們的設備領域。正如我之前在許多評論中提到的那樣，我們對結果、客戶採用率、我們看到的設備銷售情況以及普遍的客戶接受度感到非常滿意。因此我們將繼續在那裡投資。我想說，這可能是第一季最大的兩個因素。

Yes. This is Dave. Just on the second piece on just pricing. I think in the pricing environment, I mean, nothing really to call out there. I guess, just a reminder on our pricing philosophy for AWS. Periodic price reductions are a normal part of our business. We reduced prices more than 60 times with AWS since launching. So really, our kind of goal and philosophy here is to drive efficiencies in our ops and pass those savings on to customers. And some of that's through, again, with the more than 60 price reductions, but also finding through new service and feature launches better options for a customer that present -- customers to present more efficient features for them to be able to run their businesses.

是的。這是戴夫。這只是關於定價的第二部分。我認為在定價環境中，沒有什麼值得關注的。我想，這只是對 AWS 定價理念的提醒。定期降價是我們業務的正常組成部分。自推出以來，我們已將 AWS 的價格降低了 60 多次。所以實際上，我們的目標和理念是提高營運效率並將節省的資金轉嫁給客戶。其中一部分是透過再次降低 60 多項價格來實現的，同時也透過推出新服務和新功能為客戶提供更好的選擇——為客戶提供更有效率的功能，使他們能夠開展業務。

Our next question comes from Dan Salmon with BMO Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 資本市場的 Dan Salmon。

First, Brian, any comments on the impact of ASC 606 accounting changes on your first quarter guidance here? And then just second on the advertising business, in particular, the ads that we see in the search results on the site, the headline search ad, sponsored product ads, do you aim for a certain particular ad load across the entire platform? Do you look at sort of tailoring it based on user's activity, maybe a combination of both? Would just be interested in your thoughts on that.

首先，布萊恩，您對 ASC 606 會計變更對您第一季指引的影響有何評論？其次，關於廣告業務，特別是我們在網站搜尋結果中看到的廣告、標題搜尋廣告、贊助產品廣告，您是否瞄準了整個平台上的特定廣告負載？您是否考慮根據用戶活動進行定制，或者兩者結合？只是對你對此的想法感興趣。

Yes. This is Dave. I'll take the first part of that question just around the new revenue recognition standard. We did adopt the new standard on January 1 of this year, 2018. And you'll see that reflected in our financials for the first quarter coming up. There -- it touches on a number of different parts of our business in terms of how we recognize revenue. In terms of in the aggregate and the impact to our expectations for the revenue guidance for the first quarter, it's not material. There's a number of different areas, at least, that we've called out in our filings with the 10-Q in the past and the 10-K that will be on file shortly that talk about the different areas that are impacted with this. But again, not material in the aggregate.

是的。這是戴夫。我將圍繞新的收入確認標準來回答這個問題的第一部分。我們確實在今年（2018年）1月1日採用了新標準。您將在我們即將公佈的第一季財務報告中看到這一點。就我們如何確認收入而言，它涉及到我們業務的許多不同部分。從整體來看，這對我們對第一季營收預期的影響並不大。至少，在過去的 10-Q 文件中以及即將提交的 10-K 文件中，我們已經提到了許多不同的領域，討論了受此影響的不同領域。但從總體上看，這並不重要。

And on advertising, I would say our strategy is to make the customer experience additive by the ad process. We want customers to be able to see new brands and have easier time discovering products that they're looking for. For brands, we think the value proposition is that we can find ways for them, especially emerging brands, to reach new customers. So we're working with advertisers of all types and sizes to help them reach our customer base and the goal of driving brand awareness, discovery and better purchase decisions by the customer.

關於廣告，我想說我們的策略是透過廣告流程來增強客戶體驗。我們希望客戶能夠看到新品牌並更輕鬆地找到他們正在尋找的產品。對於品牌而言，我們認為價值主張在於我們可以為它們（尤其是新興品牌）找到接觸新客戶的方法。因此，我們正在與各種類型和規模的廣告商合作，幫助他們接觸我們的客戶群，並實現提高品牌知名度、發現力和幫助客戶做出更好的購買決策的目標。

Our next question comes from Justin Post with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

我們的下一個問題來自美銀美林的賈斯汀波斯特。

I think I have 2 questions. First, Whole Foods, you've got over a quarter under your belt. How's it going versus your expectations? And what can Amazon really bring now that you've been there for a while, how you're thinking about that? And then secondly, international decelerated a little bit this quarter, just wondering if there was any country to call out or anything going on there. And we know that you spent about $3 billion international investment, I guess, last year. Where do you think the high-water mark is on that? So just maybe a little bit more color on your international business.

我想我有兩個問題。首先，Whole Foods，你已經取得了超過四分之一的成績。與您的預期相比，進展如何？您在亞馬遜工作了一段時間後，它能為我們帶來什麼？您對此有何看法？其次，本季國際業務略有放緩，我只是想知道是否有任何國家需要關注或發生什麼事情。我們知道，去年你們的國際投資大約是 30 億美元。您認為最高水位線在哪裡？因此，也許您的國際業務會更加豐富一些。

Sure. Let me start with the Whole Foods question. We're continuing to be very excited about the opportunities we have to innovate with the Whole Foods and Amazon teams together in our physical stores. It states in our supplemental disclosure that physical stores revenue was $4.5 billion in Q4, which is primarily comprised of Whole Foods and was slightly better than what was built into our guidance that I gave you last call. So -- so far, our focus has been on continuing to lower prices even beyond the initial ones that we discussed at the close of the deal in late August. We've launched Whole Foods products on our Amazon website. And the technical work continues to make Prime the Whole Foods customer rewards program. And we expect to have more on that later in the year. We've also added Lockers and much more to come. So we're very happy with the initial results out of the team in Whole Foods down in Austin. Also, I will mention that we did see a small operating income/loss for the quarter from Whole Foods. At the time of the acquisition, we had stepped up the fair market value of certain assets on the balance sheet. This is going to increase the amortization. It's a noncash charge, but it will increase the amortization over the useful life. And a lot of that is forward front-loaded, so we'll see higher amortization in the first few years and then it reverses later. So excluding these noncash expense items, Whole Foods had a positive operating income in Q4, but you'll see in the 10-K that the operating income, including the charges, was slightly negative in Q4. International growth, your comment about slowing down, I think there's a slowdown versus Q4 -- 3, if that was your point. 28% growth in Q3, FX neutral, was helped quite a bit by Prime Day and kind of the strengthening of Prime Day in a number of locales. Although we've had Prime Day in most of those countries, it's really starting to gain more and more traction there. So that is probably more of a help to Q3 than a discussion of any weakness in Q4. So we're -- continue to be pursuing the same strategy as we have in North America, adding Prime benefits, adding devices, adding video content, adding AmazonFresh, Prime Now, giving a lot of value to the Prime customers in international countries as well. And also in that number is India. And India continues to be a good story for us. We feel that it's had a lot of growth in the past year. In fact, more Prime members joined India's Prime program in the first year than we've seen in any other country in the history of the world, our world. So the selection is also increasing Prime eligible selection is up over 25 million items, launching video there and also continuing to add other Prime benefits such as Prime Music will be coming soon. Amazon Family is there. As I said, Prime Video, and we had our first Prime Day in India. So that's a little bit on international growth.

當然。我先從全食超市的問題開始。我們對於與 Whole Foods 和亞馬遜團隊一起在實體店進行創新的機會感到非常興奮。我們的補充揭露指出，第四季實體店營收為 45 億美元，主要來自全食超市，略好於我上次給您的指導。所以，到目前為止，我們的重點是繼續降低價格，甚至降低到我們在 8 月底交易結束時討論的初始價格以下。我們已經在亞馬遜網站上推出了 Whole Foods 產品。技術工作仍在繼續，使 Prime 成為 Whole Foods 的客戶獎勵計劃。我們預計今年稍後將會有更多相關消息。我們還添加了儲物櫃，並且即將添加更多功能。因此，我們對奧斯汀 Whole Foods 團隊的初步成果感到非常滿意。另外，我要說的是，我們確實看到全食超市本季的營業收入/虧損很小。在收購時，我們提高了資產負債表上某些資產的公平市價。這將增加攤銷。這是非現金費用，但它會增加使用壽命內的攤銷。其中很多都是前期投入的，所以我們會在頭幾年看到更高的攤銷，然後在以後會逆轉。因此，除去這些非現金支出項目，Whole Foods 在第四季度的營業收入為正，但您會在 10-K 報表中看到，包括費用在內的營業收入在第四季度略為負值。國際成長，您關於放緩的評論，我認為與第四季度相比有所放緩，如果這是您的觀點的話。第三季成長 28%，外匯中性，這在很大程度上得益於 Prime Day 以及 Prime Day 在多個地區的加強。儘管我們已經在大多數國家舉辦了 Prime Day，但它真正開始在這些國家獲得越來越大的關注。因此，這可能對第三季度更有幫助，而不是討論第四季度的任何弱點。因此，我們將繼續推行與北美相同的策略，增加 Prime 福利、增加設備、增加影片內容、增加 AmazonFresh、Prime Now，為國際上的 Prime 客戶提供許多價值。印度也在其中。印度對我們來說仍然是一個很好的故事。我們感覺它在過去的一年裡取得了很大的成長。事實上，第一年加入印度 Prime 計畫的 Prime 會員數量就比世界歷史上任何其他國家都多。因此，選擇範圍也在不斷擴大，Prime 合格選擇已超過 2500 萬件，並在那裡推出視頻，同時還將繼續增加其他 Prime 福利，例如即將推出的 Prime Music。亞馬遜家族就在那裡。正如我所說，Prime Video，我們在印度舉辦了第一個 Prime Day。這就是關於國際成長的一些情況。

Our next question comes from Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Brian Nowak。

I have 2. The first one, in the press release, you talk about the strength of the Prime member growth in 2017. Could you talk a little bit about to the -- what you're seeing in growth in Prime subscribers in the United States at this point? And are you still seeing a similar tick up in consumer spending as they come into Prime as you have in the past? And the second one, Brian, to go back to an earlier question on areas of investment this year, you didn't talk a whole lot about kind of new categories to expand into beyond the old retail business. Curious to hear about the investment needed to go into logistics, health care and kind of new areas you haven't really cracked into as hard yet.

我有 2 個問題。第一個問題，在新聞稿中，您談到了 2017 年 Prime 會員的成長。您能否稍微談談—目前您看到美國 Prime 用戶的成長情況如何？當他們加入 Prime 會員計畫後，您是否仍看到消費者支出出現與過去類似的成長？第二點，布萊恩，回到之前關於今年投資領域的問題，您並沒有談論太多關於除了舊零售業務之外還要擴展到哪些新類別的問題。我很好奇想了解一下進軍物流、醫療保健以及您尚未深入的新領域所需的投資情況。

Yes. This is Dave. Thanks for the question, Brian. Just on the first piece, in terms of just Prime membership and Prime behavior, we continue to see that we're seeing sign-ups for memberships at a strong clip. When we look at the year-over-year growth in paid Prime members on a global basis, it's been consistent in Q4 year-over-year, similar growth rates year-over-year to what we've seen in some of the earlier quarters of this year. So that's, of course, a mix of strength in the U.S. and also strength in some of the newer markets that we've launched or introduced the Prime program in. We continue to see that as Prime members sign up and engage into the program, their purchasing patterns change and they do spend more as they move into the program. And of course, our focus is -- continues to be on adding some of the features around Prime that Brian's been talking about, but also importantly, making sure we're adding more selection to the offering through our own efforts, first party, but also programs like Fulfillment by Amazon, which is -- continues to be a fast grower for us.

是的。這是戴夫。謝謝你的提問，布萊恩。就第一部分而言，就 Prime 會員資格和 Prime 行為而言，我們繼續看到會員註冊人數正在強勁增長。當我們從全球範圍來看付費 Prime 會員的同比增長時，我們發現第四季度的同比增長率與去年同期持平，增長率與今年前幾季度的增長率相似。因此，這當然是美國實力的結合，也是我們推出或引進 Prime 計畫的一些新市場實力的結合。我們不斷看到，隨著 Prime 會員註冊並參與該計劃，他們的購買模式發生了變化，並且他們在加入該計劃後確實會花費更多。當然，我們的重點是——繼續增加 Brian 一直在談論的 Prime 的一些功能，但同樣重要的是，確保我們通過自己的努力，包括第一方，以及像亞馬遜物流這樣的計劃，為產品增加更多的選擇，這對我們來說仍然是一個快速增長的因素。

Yes. And on new businesses or expansion of categories, as you discussed, I would not talk to anything that's not been publicly announced, but on some of the ones you mentioned, they are underway and are continuing. I would say on logistics, we will continue to build our logistics capability both -- and that will be all the way, too. And delivery, we've been able to increase service levels in many cases by delivering it ourselves. And although we have a strong partner network here, we will always be able to leverage our strength and our knowledge about where shipments are going, both within our network and to final customers that will create opportunities for us there as we increase or better the customer experience as well. We continue -- I would say on the category side, the biggest effort will continue to be on groceries and consumables with the Whole Foods acquisition. And again, we continue to look at our whole offering of AmazonFresh, Prime Now, Whole Foods, how can they work together to create better and better offerings for our customer base. And to a lesser extent, versus grocery, I would say, we continue to build our business, B2B businesses, and very happy with the initial performance there with a number of the companies and universities that we've been working with and their initial results.

是的。關於新業務或類別擴展，正如您所討論的，我不會談論任何尚未公開宣布的事情，但對於您提到的一些業務，它們正在進行中並且正在繼續。我想說的是，在物流方面，我們將繼續建立我們的物流能力——而且也將一路發展。在配送方面，我們在許多情況下透過自行配送來提高服務水準。儘管我們在這裡擁有強大的合作夥伴網絡，但我們將始終能夠利用我們的優勢和對貨物運輸去向的了解，無論是在我們的網絡內還是在運往最終客戶，這都會為我們創造機會，因為我們也會增加或改善客戶體驗。我們繼續——我想說，在類別方面，透過收購全食超市，我們將繼續在雜貨和消費品方面做出最大的努力。我們將繼續審視 AmazonFresh、Prime Now 和 Whole Foods 等所有產品，看看它們如何協同工作，為我們的客戶群提供越來越好的產品。與雜貨店相比，我想說，在較小程度上，我們繼續發展我們的業務，B2B 業務，並且對與我們合作的許多公司和大學的初步表現以及他們的初步成果感到非常滿意。

Our next question comes from the line of Scott Mushkin with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Scott Mushkin。

So I want to go back to -- and I think you said one of the big focuses of the year is going to be on the consumables, Now, Fresh, Whole Foods. There's been a lot of press on the Whole Foods front, the out-of-stock issue and then clearly in the Now as we've been testing it and Fresh has the same issue. So I was wondering if you guys could talk about what the company plans to do. I mean, there is obviously the reputational risk that could come from that to kind of correct some of these issues and kind of what the view of the company is on the out-of-stock issues, not just at Whole Foods, but just generally across the consumables business in Fresh and Now.

所以我想回到——我想你說過今年的重點之一將是消費品、Now、Fresh、Whole Foods。媒體對 Whole Foods 的缺貨問題進行了大量的報道，現在，隨著我們對 Fresh 的測試，顯然也存在同樣的問題。所以我想知道你們是否可以談談公司計劃做什麼。我的意思是，糾正這些問題顯然會帶來聲譽風險，而且公司對缺貨問題的看法也很重要，不僅僅是在 Whole Foods，而是在 Fresh and Now 的整個消費品業務中都是如此。

Yes. I'm not -- let me just back it to a more general statement. I'd say, Whole Foods is not less in their commitment to providing the best selection of high-quality products and having them in stock for customers. We made no changes post the acquisition that would have impacted anything related to in-stock, except perhaps the fact that price decreases have brought up demand and there's an amount of rebalancing related to that. So I think the out-of-stock issues that may be getting press are tied more to the increased demand that we're seeing and also selective weather-related restocking issues. But stepping beyond any short-term issues, the commitment is -- remains to have healthy, high-quality selection in stock for products. That's what the Whole Foods team has committed to. That's what the Amazon team, with them, is committed to. And also across any delivery channel that we have, AmazonFresh, Prime Now or Whole Foods. So where there's issues, they'll be corrected. Where there's areas we can improve our selection and delivery for customers, we'll do so. But it'll be something that we're working on. So the immediacy, the perishability are all challenges everyone has in this area, but we're confident that we will have a good service and continue to delight customers.

是的。我不是——讓我把它回到一個更一般的陳述。我想說，Whole Foods 致力於為客戶提供最優質的產品選擇和充足的庫存。收購後，我們沒有做出任何可能影響庫存的改變，但也許價格下降帶來了需求，並且與此相關的重新平衡增加。因此，我認為引起媒體關注的缺貨問題與我們觀察到的需求增加以及與天氣有關的選擇性補貨問題有關。但除了任何短期問題之外，我們的承諾是——仍然為產品提供健康、高品質的選擇。這正是 Whole Foods 團隊所承諾的。這就是亞馬遜團隊和他們共同致力於的事情。並且還可以透過我們擁有的任何配送管道，AmazonFresh、Prime Now 或 Whole Foods。因此，如果出現問題，就會得到糾正。只要有可以改進的地方，我們就會為顧客改進選擇和交付方式。但這是我們正在努力的事情。因此，即時性和易腐性都是每個人在這個領域面臨的挑戰，但我們相信我們將提供良好的服務並繼續讓客戶滿意。

Our next question comes from the line of Youssef Squali with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

我們的下一個問題來自 SunTrust Robinson Humphrey 的 Youssef Squali。

We've seen that the number of private-label products on the site has increased pretty dramatically over the last 12, 18 months. Can you speak to your private-label strategy in general? How big is that segment today? How big can it become? And just broadly speaking, how are the margins in that segment versus comparable third-party products?

我們發現，在過去 12 到 18 個月裡，網站上的自有品牌產品數量急劇增加。您能概括地談談您的自有品牌策略嗎？如今這個群體的規模有多大？它能變得多大？廣義上講，與同類第三方產品相比，該領域的利潤率如何？

Yes. Thanks for the question. This is Dave. I think broadly, when I look at our strategy, it's focused on, number one, providing a broad selection for customers across a number of categories so that they can find and buy exactly what they're looking for. When you look at private brands, it's very much meant to supplement that great selection. And we look for ways to be able to find private-label items that have a high caliber of quality, but also can bring that selection and that convenience for customers and really supplement what vendors and sellers are already providing to customers in many cases. We've not broken out kind of how significant or how large that is. I think for a lot of these initiatives, when you look across categories that we offer, many of them are still earlier stage and have been around even from kind of infancy for shorter period of time, a year, a couple of years in some cases. Amazon Fashion is one area where you're seeing us offer a number of private apparel brands. Some of the more sort of popular lines with customers have been things like Goodthreads, Amazon Essentials, which is men's and women's basics. Consumables is, of course, another big area where we have the benefit of working with some of the Whole Foods private label, but also doing some of our other Amazon brands, things like Happy Belly and Wickedly Prime and others so. I think we'll continue to iterate on those and try to find different areas. And certainly, there's other verticals that I didn't mention there that we're interested in continuing to kind of learn from customers what they want and what they're looking for there. And so we'll keep adding selection.

是的。謝謝你的提問。這是戴夫。我認為，從廣義上講，當我審視我們的策略時，它的重點是：首先，為客戶提供跨多個類別的廣泛選擇，以便他們能夠找到併購買他們想要的東西。當您查看自有品牌時，它主要是為了補充這一出色的選擇。我們尋找方法找到具有高品質的自有品牌商品，同時也能為客戶帶來選擇和便利，並在許多情況下真正補充供應商和賣家已經為客戶提供的產品。我們還沒有弄清楚這到底有多重要或有多大。我認為，對於許多此類計劃，當你縱觀我們提供的類別時，你會發現其中許多計劃仍處於早期階段，甚至在嬰兒期就已存在較短的時間，在某些情況下只有一年、幾年。在亞馬遜時尚領域，您會看到我們提供許多自有服裝品牌。一些較受顧客歡迎的產品線包括 Goodthreads、Amazon Essentials 等男士和女士基本用品。當然，消耗品是另一個重要領域，我們不僅與一些 Whole Foods 自有品牌合作，還與我們的亞馬遜其他一些品牌合作，例如 Happy Belly 和 Wickedly Prime 等。我認為我們會繼續重複這些並嘗試尋找不同的領域。當然，還有其他我沒有提到的垂直領域，我們有興趣繼續從客戶那裡了解他們想要什麼以及他們在尋找什麼。因此我們會繼續增加選擇。

Our next question comes from the line of Ken Sena with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的肯‧塞納。

Maybe if you could just remind us of the thinking that -- behind keeping AWS and retail under one corporate structure. And does it make sense given the scale of where AWS is right now? And then -- and I'm sorry I have a little bit of an echo, I don't know why, but -- and we're hearing from marketers just how important Amazon is to their media strategy. So I don't know if you could just maybe talk about that a little bit more broadly in terms of the approach and your philosophy to that business.

也許您可以提醒我們將 AWS 和零售業置於一個公司結構之下的想法。考慮到 AWS 目前的規模，這是否有意義？然後——很抱歉我有點重複，我不知道為什麼，但是——我們從行銷人員那裡聽說亞馬遜對他們的媒體策略有多重要。所以我不知道您是否可以從更廣泛的角度談談您對該業務的態度和理念。

Sure. We see a lot of value in all of our businesses. And AWS is a key component as is the physical consumer business. The -- what I'll point out is the management team is a common management team. The consumer business, if you will, is, if not the biggest, one of the largest customers of AWS. So we see a lot of commonality there where we as -- depending on position in the company. On the consumer side, the use of AWS has driven great infrastructure efficiencies, just like other companies see when they use AWS, turning fixed cost into variable cost and pooling resources and not having a lot of trapped capacity throughout the company and taking advantage of all the new services and features. So as a internal customer, the consumer business is very happy with AWS. And I think AWS is also very benefited by the fact that they have a large internal beta customer that tries out and uses a lot of their products and services. So it's a good combination for a lot of reasons, and we see no reason to change the structure that we have.

當然。我們認為我們所有的業務都具有很大的價值。AWS 和實體消費者業務一樣，都是關鍵組成部分。我要指出的是，管理團隊是一個普通的管理團隊。如果你願意的話，消費者業務即使不是最大的，也是 AWS 最大的客戶之一。因此，我們看到了很多共同點，這取決於我們在公司中的職位。在消費者方面，AWS 的使用極大地提高了基礎設施效率，就像其他公司使用 AWS 時所看到的那樣，將固定成本轉化為可變成本，並集中資源，避免整個公司出現大量產能滯留，並充分利用所有新服務和功能。因此，作為內部客戶，消費者業務對 AWS 非常滿意。我認為 AWS 也受益匪淺，因為他們擁有大量內部測試客戶，這些客戶試用並使用了他們的許多產品和服務。因此，從很多原因來看，這是一個很好的組合，而且我們認為沒有理由改變現有的結構。

Yes. And sorry, Ken, your second question was?

是的。抱歉，肯，你的第二個問題是？

Yes. The second question was just on the advertising side. And just -- we're just hearing so much more how important Amazon is to broader media budgets. And so just hoping to get maybe a little bit more color just on your approach to the business right now, some of the drivers behind the recent success and just maybe just more of a sort of, as you look out over the next few years, kind of how important do you see this business becoming in the grand scheme of things?

是的。第二個問題只是關於廣告方面的。而且——我們聽到越來越多的消息稱亞馬遜對更廣泛的媒體預算有多重要。因此，我希望能夠更詳細地介紹您目前對業務的態度，以及近期成功背後的一些驅動因素，展望未來幾年，您認為這項業務在整體上有多重要？

Yes. I mean, I think right now, we're really just focused on finding ways to work with those companies, whether it's vendors or sellers that are coming to us and offer them a great experience on the website and an ability to be able to reach customers. So I think there's more to come on that side. As we said, we're definitely seeing some strong growth in our advertising revenue as part of the other revenue line item. And I think we're going to keep building more new tools based on what we're learning from our customers there to better serve in the future.

是的。我的意思是，我認為現在，我們實際上只是專注於尋找與這些公司合作的方式，無論是供應商還是賣家，我們都為他們提供良好的網站體驗和接觸客戶的能力。所以我認為這方面還會有更多進展。正如我們所說，作為其他收入項目的一部分，我們的廣告收入確實出現了強勁增長。我認為我們將根據從客戶那裡學到的知識繼續建立更多新工具，以便將來更好地提供服務。

I think we're also part of the key lean in from a lot of brands and agencies into the e-commerce marketing space. So whether it's our site alongside search or social marketing, it's really helping them engage customers on a high, efficient -- highly efficient manner.

我認為我們也是許多品牌和機構進軍電子商務行銷領域的關鍵力量之一。因此，無論是我們的網站結合搜尋還是社交行銷，都能真正幫助他們以高效的方式吸引客戶。

Thanks for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our IR website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.

感謝您今天參加電話會議並提出您的問題。重播將至少在本季末在我們的 IR 網站上提供。感謝您對 Amazon.com 的關注，並期待下個季度再次與您交談。