亞馬遜 (AMZN) 2018 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q4 2018 Financial Results Teleconference. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I'll be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Dave Fildes. Please go ahead.

感謝您的支持。大家好，歡迎參加亞馬遜 2018 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。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 2018 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO.

您好，歡迎參加我們 2018 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。

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 2017. Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, January 31, 2019, 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.

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 2017 年同期的結果。我們對您的問題的評論和回應僅反映管理層截至 2019 年 1 月 31 日的觀點，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. 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. Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisition, 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.

在本次電話會議中，我們可能會在新聞稿、本次網路廣播的幻燈片以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標，這些指標均發佈在我們的投資者關係網站上。您將找到有關這些非 GAAP 指標的更多揭露，包括這些指標與可比較 GAAP 指標的對帳。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。我們的指導還假設，除其他事項外，我們不會達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。

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 Justin Post with Merrill Lynch.

（操作員指示）我們的第一個問題來自美林證券的賈斯汀·波斯特 (Justin Post)。

I guess I'll ask about units, 14% in the quarter. Just how do you feel about the overall unit growth here given that growth was higher last year in the 20s? And do you think there's some investments you can make in other areas to kind of reaccelerate that going forward? And then, secondly, just if you could remind us or help us understand the Prime accounting change impact on subscription revenues in Q4?

我想我會問一下單位情況，本季為 14%。鑑於去年的成長率高達 20% 左右，您對這裡的整體單位成長有何看法？您是否認為您可以在其他領域進行一些投資，以加速未來的發展？其次，您能否提醒我們或協助我們了解 Prime 會計變更對第四季訂閱收入的影響？

Justin, this is Dave. On the second question, on the subscription service, we'd said on the last call, you probably remember, related to the adoption of the Accounting Standards Update and revenue recognition policies that was impacting our results in a number of areas in 2018, we'd said we'd anticipated about $300 million lower sort of headwind to subscription services revenue due to the accounting change. So that's where we came out for the quarter. So you'll see that we reported subscription services revenue increased 26%, when you exclude FX. So the $300 million is certainly part of that decelerate, a sequential deceleration in the growth rate in that line item.

賈斯汀，這是戴夫。關於第二個問題，關於訂閱服務，您可能還記得，我們​​在上次電話會議上說過，與會計準則更新和收入確認政策的採用有關，這些政策影響了我們 2018 年在多個領域的業績，我們曾表示，由於會計變更，我們預計訂閱服務收入將減少約 3 億美元。這就是我們本季的成果。因此，您會發現，當您排除外匯因素時，我們報告的訂閱服務收入成長了 26%。因此，3 億美元肯定是減速的一部分，是該專案成長率的連續減速。

Yes, and on unit deceleration, I think the unit numbers more and more require some interpretation because it doesn't include the fast -- some of our fastest growing areas, things like, as Dave mentioned, subscription services, AWS, advertising, Whole Foods units are not in that number. So we don't focus as much on the number. I would direct you more to the supplemental revenue guidance that breaks out the component parts. But in general, we feel good about the growth in the quarter. We think it was a -- Q4, in particular, was a great quarter for customers. The retail, a lot of strength in the retail part of the businesses. The teams here had done a great job planning, preparing and then executing on the quarter. AWS maintained a very strong growth rate and continue to deliver for customers. We had a great re:Invent conference in the quarter. So we feel good about the growth in the quarter and also the total revenue and income.

是的，關於單位減速，我認為單位數字越來越需要一些解釋，因為它不包括快速成長——一些成長最快的領域，例如戴夫提到的訂閱服務、AWS、廣告、全食超市單位都不在這個數字中。所以我們不太關注數字。我將向您詳細介紹分解各組成部分的補充收入指南。但總體而言，我們對本季的成長感到滿意。我們認為－第四季對客戶來說是一個特別好的季度。零售業，企業的零售部分實力雄厚。這裡的團隊在本季的規劃、準備和執行方面做得非常出色。AWS 保持了非常強勁的成長率並繼續為客戶提供服務。本季我們舉辦了一場精彩的 re:Invent 會議。因此，我們對本季的成長以及總收入和收益感到滿意。

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的馬克‧馬哈尼 (Mark Mahaney)。

Do you want to just comment a little bit on the international revenue outlook and any commentary on India and whether you think there's a material impact on your business? Secondly, could you talk about advertising revenue, just qualitatively or quantitatively, how that's doing? And third, if I could, you spent a lot on marketing in the quarter. It's a real step up. Do you want to just talk about the ROI that you think you're getting on that marketing spend?

您是否想對國際收入前景和印度的任何評論發表一些評論，以及您是否認為這會對您的業務產生重大影響？其次，您能否從品質或數量上談談廣告收入的情況？第三，如果可以的話，您在本季的行銷上投入了很多。這是一個真正的進步。您是否想談談您認為您在行銷支出上獲得的投資報酬率？

Sure, Mark. The first question's on India. Let me start with that. So we have incorporated into our guidance estimate, the best estimate we have for Q1 in India. However, there's much uncertainty as to what the impact of the government role changes is going to have on the e-commerce sector there. We remain committed to complying with all laws and regulations, and we will, but we're evaluating the situation. Our main issue and our main concern is trying to minimize the impact to our customers and sellers in India. We've built our business around price selection and convenience. We don't think the changes help in those dimensions for both the customers in India and also the sellers. Dave, why don't you talk about the advertising growth?

當然，馬克。第一個問題是關於印度的。讓我從那開始。因此，我們將對印度第一季的最佳估計納入了我們的指導估計中。然而，政府角色的變化將對電子商務產業產生什麼影響仍存在很大的不確定性。我們仍然致力於遵守所有法律法規，我們會這樣做，但我們正在評估情況。我們的主要問題和主要關注點是盡量減少對印度客戶和賣家的影響。我們的業務圍繞著價格選擇和便利性。我們認為這些變化對印度的客戶和賣家都沒有幫助。戴夫，你為什麼不談談廣告成長呢？

Yes. I think, I mean, we're continuing to -- there's a lot of focus on serving that customer set. One of the things we're trying to do is continually evolve our tools and the products to help that customer set, agencies, advertisers, make sure they've got a variety of ways to meet their goals. Some of the things we've done more recently over the last few months or so was expanded sponsor, brands placements, rolled out new campaign reports, so improve campaign manager features. So a number of -- there's a number of things beyond that, but features out there that are just going to, I think, make it easier for companies to grow with ad tools and the ad services that we offer. And we're continually excited about the opportunity there.

是的。我想，我的意思是，我們將繼續——將重點放在服務該客戶群上。我們正在嘗試做的事情之一是不斷改進我們的工具和產品，以幫助客戶、代理商、廣告商，確保他們有多種方式來實現他們的目標。在過去的幾個月裡，我們所做的一些事情是擴大贊助商、品牌展示位置、推出新的活動報告，從而改善活動管理器功能。因此，除了這些之外，還有很多其他功能，但我認為，這些功能將使公司更容易利用我們提供的廣告工具和廣告服務來成長。我們一直對那裡的機會感到興奮。

And then, on your question on marketing, yes, the marketing percent of revenue was up 110 basis points year-over-year. The -- this category also includes AWS sales and marketing. Keep that in mind because that's where a lot of our headcount investment is going. Headcount only grew 14% year-over-year, but the areas that we're growing in that mix were things like technology teams, device areas, AWS, especially sales and marketing. So variable marketing was pretty consistent with prior periods, and we feel good about our return on investment on the marketing, the variable marketing.

然後，關於您關於行銷的問題，是的，行銷收入百分比比去年同期成長了 110 個基點。此類別還包括 AWS 銷售和行銷。請記住這一點，因為我們的大量人力投資都流向了那裡。員工人數較去年同期僅成長 14%，但我們成長的領域包括技術團隊、設備領域、AWS，尤其是銷售和行銷。因此，可變行銷與先前的時期非常一致，我們對行銷、可變行銷的投資回報感到滿意。

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

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Doug Anmuth。

I just wanted to follow up on India. Just bigger picture, Brian, did the new policies change your view at all the attractiveness or the potential of operating in India? And how do you think about your investment strategy there in the near term? And then, also, just hoping you could talk about some of the impact in the U.S. and U.K. from free shipping during the fourth quarter holidays?

我只是想關注印度的情況。布萊恩，從更大的角度來看，新政策是否改變了您對在印度開展業務的吸引力或潛力的看法？您如何看待近期在那裡的投資策略？然後，另外，您能否談談第四季度假期期間免費送貨對美國和英國造成的一些影響？

Yes, really, we're still evaluating the situation in India. We feel very good about the long-term prospects in India and doing a good job for both Indian customers and Indian sellers. The new regulations need to be interpreted, need to be -- need to make sure they don't have unintended consequences. And again, I don't think it's necessarily consistent with better price, better selection, better convenience for the Indian customer. So it's all we can say on that topic right now.

是的，我們確實仍在評估印度的情況。我們對印度的長期前景感到非常樂觀，並為印度客戶和印度賣家做好服務。新的法規需要被解釋，需要被理解──需要確保它們不會產生意想不到的後果。而且，我認為這並不一定意味著為印度客戶提供更優惠的價格、更好的選擇和更好的便利性。這就是我們現在就該話題所能說的全部。

Yes, and I think, Doug, your second point was just around shipping, some of the shipping offers in the holiday. We did lower the free shipping threshold at the end of the fourth quarter, so customers took advantage of that. That was a great offer for them in the holidays. Brian talked a little about it before, but pleased with the holiday season, both from sort of a first-party side, but also sellers continue to do well. That's part of the holiday offering. We sold a number of record-breaking number of Alexa devices as well. And I think, just in that shipping vein, really pleased with the continued engagement from Prime members. We had the most-ever number of Prime members sign up this quarter than any quarter we've had. So really pleased with that.

是的，道格，我認為你的第二點是關於運輸，以及假期期間的一些運輸優惠。我們確實在第四季度末降低了免費送貨的門檻，因此客戶利用了這一點。對他們來說，這在假期裡是一個很棒的優惠。布萊恩之前談過一點，但對假期銷售感到滿意，無論是從第一方角度，還是從賣家角度，都繼續表現良好。這是節日禮物的一部分。我們還銷售了創紀錄數量的 Alexa 設備。我認為，就運輸方面而言，我對 Prime 會員的持續參與感到非常高興。本季度，我們註冊的 Prime 會員數量比以往任何季度都多。我對此非常高興。

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。

When I try to back out the impact of factors like Whole Foods, the advertising accounting change and other factors, what I see is stable and pretty healthy revenue growth in the retail segment but a slowdown in Q4 from what seems to have been, in more recent quarters, meaningful gross margin expansion in the retail segment. Can you discuss what may have driven that and how to think about retail gross margins going forward? And then, somewhat separately, retail margins last year benefited from several factors, including more modest hiring and more modest growth in fulfillment center capacity. Do you see these factors persisting this year?

當我試圖排除全食超市、廣告會計變更和其他因素的影響時，我看到的是零售部門的收入穩定且相當健康地增長，但第四季度的增長速度與最近幾個季度零售部門的毛利率有意義的擴張相比有所放緩。您能否討論一下造成這現象的原因以及如何看待未來的零售毛利率？然後，稍微單獨地講，去年零售利潤率受益於幾個因素，包括更溫和的招聘和更溫和的配送中心容量增長。您認為這些因素今年還會持續存在嗎？

Yes, thank you. Let me start with that last part because I think if we step back and put 2018 in perspective, there's some clear trends regarding our cost structure, starting with fulfillment costs. So in the prior 2 years, 2016, 2017, we had grown our square footage tied to fulfillment and shipping by greater than 30%. In 2018, that number grew by 15%. Certainly, unit demand was lower, but AFN, or Amazon Fulfilled Demand, where, if we combine FBA and retail, remained strong. So we had a banking, if you will, of some large expansions in the prior 2 years. Similarly, on headcount, we grew headcount by 48% in 2016, 38% in 2017, if you exclude the acquisitions of Whole Foods and Souq, which drove the number up to closer to 68%, I believe. Last year, we had 14% growth, and so there was a lot of leverage and a lot of -- in a way, there was a lot of prehiring in 2017 that we digested in 2018, while we still -- in some areas, especially things like our core retail business and also G&A functions, but then we continue to invest again in the technology tied to AWS sales team to an AWS device area. So their groups are growing considerably higher than that 14%, but in total, the company grew 14%. And then, on capital, especially infrastructure capital, if you use the capital lease line as maybe an indicator for what we had invested into our AWS business support infrastructure and global expansion, that number grew 10% last year when it had grown 69% in 2017. So in a lot of ways, 2018 was about banking the efficiencies of investments in people, warehouses, infrastructure that we had put in place in 2016 and '17. So while we will continue to concurrently drive growth and customer offering in Prime Benefits, we certainly do take costs seriously, and we will continue to work on operational efficiencies. I would expect those investments to increase relative to 2018. And we've reflected what we've seen so far in Q1 in our guidance.

是的，謝謝。讓我從最後一部分開始，因為我認為如果我們回顧 2018 年，我們會發現我們的成本結構有一些明顯的趨勢，首先是履行成本。因此，在之前的兩年（2016 年和 2017 年），我們與履行和運輸相關的面積增加了 30% 以上。2018年，這一數字成長了15%。當然，單位需求較低，但如果我們將 FBA 和零售結合起來，AFN 或亞馬遜滿足需求仍然強勁。因此，如果你願意的話，我們在前兩年進行了一些大規模的擴張。同樣，就員工人數而言，如果不包括對 Whole Foods 和 Souq 的收購，我們的員工人數在 2016 年增長了 48%，2017 年增長了 38%，我相信，收購會使這一數字接近 68%。去年，我們的成長了 14%，因此有很多槓桿，而且從某種程度上來說，2017 年有很多預聘工作，我們在 2018 年消化了這些工作，同時我們仍然在某些領域，特別是像我們的核心零售業務和 G&A 職能，但隨後我們繼續在與 AWS 銷售團隊和 AWS 設備領域相關的技術上進行投資。因此，他們的集團成長速度遠高於 14%，但總體而言，公司成長了 14%。然後，在資本方面，特別是基礎設施資本，如果使用資本租賃額度作為我們對 AWS 業務支援基礎設施和全球擴張的投資指標，那麼這個數字去年增長了 10%，而 2017 年增長了 69%。因此，從許多方面來看，2018 年都是為了提高我們在 2016 年和 2017 年對人員、倉庫和基礎設施的投資效率。因此，雖然我們將繼續同時推動 Prime Benefits 的成長和客戶服務，但我們確實非常重視成本，並且我們將繼續致力於提高營運效率。我預計這些投資將比 2018 年增加。我們已經將第一季迄今為止所看到的情況反映在我們的指導下。

Our next question comes from the line of Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的希思·特里。

A little bit -- to dig a little bit deeper into the CapEx capital lease side of things, you guys have said in the past that, generally, you work to build in line with your expectations for guidance so that you're trying not to overbuild or underbuild when thinking about your fulfillment and data center capacity. We saw that investment reaccelerate in the fourth quarter after getting the lows that you referenced in Q3. Anything to read into that about sort of what your expectations are for growth in those businesses, seeing that re-acceleration after the deceleration that we saw over the course of, at least, the first 3 quarters of last year?

稍微深入一點，深入探討一下資本支出資本租賃方面的問題，你們過去曾說過，一般來說，你們會按照指導預期進行建設，以便在考慮履行和數據中心容量時，盡量不要建設過度或建設不足。我們看到，在達到您提到的第三季的低點之後，投資在第四季度重新加速。您是否可以解讀一下，對於這些業務的成長，您有何預期？在經歷了去年至少前三個季度的成長減速之後，這些業務是否會再次加速？

Yes, I see total CapEx that was -- grew 33% in Q1, 1% in Q2, negative 1% in Q3, and then positive 17% in Q4, just the quarter itself. So there was, as you say, a bit of an investment in Q4 relative to Q2 and Q3. I still think the 17% is a low number for us when you talk about supporting the AWS business that's still growing at a very high clip and a very strong and healthy growth in FBA and customer demand and our expansion into new countries, both with AWS and also with our core consumer business. So I'm not prepared to give you the forecast for the year right now. I would say that I would consider 2018 to be a lighter investment year and a lighter year for adding fixed headcount, certainly compared to 2016 and 2017, and we'll reveal that as we go through the year, but we've built into the first quarter what we expect in the first 3 months.

是的，我看到總資本支出在第一季度增長了 33%，在第二季度增長了 1%，在第三季度增長了 -1%，而在第四季度增長了 17%，僅在這個季度。因此，正如您所說，相對於第二季度和第三季度，第四季度的投資有所增加。我仍然認為，當您談到支援仍以非常高的速度成長的 AWS 業務、FBA 和客戶需求的非常強勁和健康的成長以及我們向新國家的擴張（無論是透過 AWS 還是我們的核心消費者業務）時，17% 對我們來說是一個較低的數字。所以我現在還沒準備好給你今年的預測。我想說的是，我認為 2018 年是投資較少的一年，也是固定員工人數增加較少的一年，當然與 2016 年和 2017 年相比，我們將在今年年底前揭曉這一點，但我們已經在第一季度實現了對前三個月的預期。

Our next question comes from the line of 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. Just the first one is, to go back to the fourth quarter gross margins, I think, if we try to back out AWS, it looks like there was a little more gross margin pressure. Can you just talk to any of the puts and takes we should know about from a gross margin perspective in the fourth quarter? And then, that other line that I think includes the advertising business, can you just help us, any help at all on the growth of the advertising business or the impact of any of the accounting changes in the quarter?

我有 2 個問題。第一個問題是，回到第四季的毛利率，我認為，如果我們嘗試退出 AWS，那麼看起來毛利率壓力會更大一些。您能否從第四季的毛利率角度談談我們應該了解的利弊？然後，我認為另一條線包括廣告業務，您能否幫助我們，就廣告業務的成長或本季任何會計變更的影響提供任何幫助？

Yes. Sure. Sorry, I skipped over that gross margin question earlier, but yes, gross margins were, while up 180 basis points year-over-year, were not up as much as prior quarters. I would say, the positive tailwinds still remain. AWS had strong growth of 46% on an FX-neutral basis, third-party units continue to grow, advertising dollars continue to grow very well. Some of the headwinds, I would say, were outbound shipping costs, including the free shipping that we did, but mostly it was the higher Amazon Fulfilled units and the greater use of Amazon Logistics. And I would also say retail was very strong. We had, I think Dave mentioned, the Echo Dot was the highest selling unit globally. So devices had a very strong sales in the quarter. We discussed how we don't price devices to make money. We usually will expand -- our content expanding our device and usage throughout our group of customers who use our devices and then we monetize that in different ways to commitment to Amazon and the video and everything else. So a bit of it was mixed, but I would say that retail, which has a lower gross margin, more because of the revenue treatment was stronger in Q4.

是的。當然。抱歉，我之前跳過了毛利率的問題，但是，是的，毛利率雖然同比增長了 180 個基點，但沒有前幾個季度增長那麼多。我想說，積極的順風仍然存在。剔除匯率因素，AWS 實現了 46% 的強勁成長，第三方部門持續成長，廣告收入持續保持良好成長。我想說，一些不利因素是出站運輸成本，包括我們所做的免費運輸，但主要是亞馬遜配送單位的增加和亞馬遜物流的使用率的提高。我還想說零售業非常強勁。我想戴夫提到過，Echo Dot 是全球銷量最高的產品。因此本季設備的銷售非常強勁。我們討論瞭如何不透過對設備進行定價來賺錢。我們通常會擴展——我們的內容會擴展到使用我們設備的客戶群中的設備和使用範圍，然後我們以不同的方式將其貨幣化，以承諾對亞馬遜、視訊和其他一切。所以，情況有點複雜，但我想說的是，零售業的毛利率較低，更多的是因為收入處理，在第四季表現更強勁。

Yes, and just on the other revenue piece, Brian, just to get back to the accounting side, we did adopt that revenue recognition standard in 2018, as I mentioned. As part of the adoption, certain advertising services were classified as revenue rather than a reduction of cost of sales. So specific to Q4, the impact of that change was an increase of approximately $1 billion to other revenue. So you'll see that in the other revenue in total.

是的，就另一部分收入而言，布萊恩，回到會計方面，正如我所提到的，我們確實在 2018 年採用了該收入確認標準。作為採用的一部分，某些廣告服務被歸類為收入，而不是銷售成本的減少。具體到第四季度，這項變化的影響是其他收入增加約 10 億美元。因此，您會在其他總收入中看到這一點。

Our next question comes from the line of Colin Sebastian with Robert W. Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自羅伯特·W·貝爾德 (Robert W. Baird) 的科林·塞巴斯蒂安 (Colin Sebastian)。

I guess, 2 for me as well. In the quarter, looking backwards, not considering India and the impact going forward, but the international growth accelerated. So I was curious, any particular regions or product categories to call out, especially given some of the weakness in the U.K.? And then marketplace fees are changing in several categories, including home furnishings, health and beauty. Curious what the strategy is there. I assume to expand selection. But is it also an indication of an increasing focus on those retailer categories?

我想，對我來說也是 2。在本季度，回顧過去，不考慮印度及其未來的影響，但國際成長加速。所以我很好奇，有什麼特定的地區或產品類別值得關注，特別是考慮到英國的一些弱點？市場費用在多個類別中發生變化，包括家居用品、健康和美容。好奇那裡的策略是什麼。我認為要擴大選擇範圍。但這是否也顯示人們越來越關注這些零售商類別？

Sure. Let me start with your second question. Obviously, third-party sellers are an important part of our value proposition there. They've had great success on our site. More than half of our units sold are from third-party sellers. So it's very important to us that we have the right business profile, both for Amazon and for the sellers. So we will always be evolving that. Part of that involves changing fee structures, sometimes adding new fees or subtracting old ones. Part of it involves raising or lowering fees that sellers pay. So you're going to see this continually from us. We generally work to change the fees to make sure that the incentives are strong on both sides, and we continue to have a healthy growth in third-party. On the international, on an FX-neutral basis, the growth was 15% in Q3 and 19% in Q4, but last call, if you remember, I talked about the timing of Diwali and the impact that had on our growth rates. If we adjust for that, and again, Diwali had -- took place primarily in Q4 this year and it was split between Q3 and Q4 last year, if we adjust for that, international growth is pretty flat Q3 to Q4.

當然。讓我先回答你的第二個問題。顯然，第三方賣家是我們價值主張的重要組成部分。他們在我們的網站上取得了巨大的成功。我們銷售的商品中有一半以上來自第三方賣家。因此，對我們來說，擁有正確的業務概況（對亞馬遜和賣家而言）非常重要。因此我們將不斷改進這一點。其中一部分涉及改變費用結構，有時會增加新費用或減少舊費用。其中一部分涉及提高或降低賣家支付的費用。所以你會不斷地從我們這裡看到這一點。我們通常會努力改變費用，以確保雙方都有強大的激勵機制，並確保第三方業務繼續健康成長。從國際角度來看，不考慮外匯影響，第三季的成長率為 15%，第四季度的成長率為 19%，但如果您還記得的話，上次我談到了排燈節的時間及其對我們成長率的影響。如果我們對此進行調整，那麼今年的排燈節主要發生在第四季度，而去年則分佈在第三季度和第四季度，如果我們對此進行調整，那麼第三季度到第四季度的國際增長將相當平穩。

Our next question comes from the line of Lloyd Walmsley with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Lloyd Walmsley。

Two, if I can. First, just on the advertising side. We hear a lot of positive feedback from customers, but also, we hear suggestions, there are supply constraints. So how do you guys see inventory growth versus pricing growth as a driver in that business? And are there things you can do to grow inventory? And then, secondly, there've been some reports, your Amazon shipping effort is kind of expanding beyond some test markets. So wondering if you can give us a sense for what you've seen in those test markets and how you think about expanding your shipping efforts on that productized basis going forward?

如果可以的話，兩個。首先，僅從廣告方面來說。我們聽到了很多來自客戶的正面回饋，但我們也聽到一些建議，即存在供應限制。那麼，你們如何看待庫存成長與價格成長作為該業務的驅動力？有什麼辦法可以增加庫存嗎？其次，有報道稱，亞馬遜的運輸業務正在擴展到一些測試市場之外。所以想知道您是否可以讓我們了解一下您在這些測試市場中看到的情況，以及您如何考慮在未來以產品化為基礎擴大您的運輸能力？

Yes, Lloyd. Thanks for the question. I'll take the advertising piece first. I mean, I think, as I talked before, we're working on improving usability of tools. I mean, our priorities in this space, that's certainly one of them, looking for ways to make smarter recommendations, addressing the needs of brands, automating activities, inventing new products. And I think, in all those regards and those priorities, we think there's some good growth to continue to come, both in advertising for -- on our own properties, but also potentially beyond -- over the longer term. So -- but even as we look for advertising opportunities on places like Amazon.com, we think there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of experimentation. I think we're learning and are a very data-interested company and working with a lot of great brands to be able to develop better toolkits for them, understand what types of metrics they want to make them more successful based on what they're telling us.

是的，勞埃德。謝謝你的提問。我先拿廣告片。我的意思是，我認為，正如我之前所說的，我們正在努力提高工具的可用性。我的意思是，我們在這個領域的優先事項當然是其中之一，尋找方法做出更明智的建議，滿足品牌的需求，實現活動自動化，發明新產品。我認為，從所有這些方面和優先事項來看，我們認為未來仍將保持良好的成長勢頭，不僅在我們自己的物業上，而且從長遠來看，還可能在其他領域。所以——即使我們在 Amazon.com 等網站上尋找廣告機會，我們也認為有很多機會和很多實驗。我認為我們正在學習，並且是一家非常關注數據的公司，我們正在與許多優秀的品牌合作，以便為他們開發更好的工具包，根據他們告訴我們的情況了解他們希望哪些類型的指標使他們更成功。

Yes, and on transportation, I assume you're just talking about our expansion of Amazon deliveries and Amazon Logistics. Again, we have great partners in place for our business and support globally. What we do is add capacity where we feel we need to speed up service or ensure demand, particularly at peak. So we will continue to build out our DSP or -- and Flex and Ship with Amazon programs. So during the quarter, it was a much bigger presence obviously year-over-year. So we're happy with that, both from a performance standpoint. The delivery estimate accuracy, as we call it, was very strong on our self-delivered products and also the cost profile is very good as well.

是的，關於運輸，我想您剛才談到了我們對亞馬遜配送和亞馬遜物流的擴展。再次強調，我們在全球範圍內擁有優秀的合作夥伴來為我們的業務和提供支援。我們所做的就是在我們認為需要加快服務或確保需求的地方增加容量，特別是在高峰期。因此，我們將繼續建立我們的 DSP 或——以及 Flex 和 Ship with Amazon 計劃。因此，本季其業務規模顯然比去年同期大幅成長。因此，從性能角度來看，我們對此感到滿意。我們自行交付的產品的交付估算準確性非常高，而且成本狀況也非常好。

Our next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Eric Sheridan。

Maybe 2, if I can. One, on the media side, has there been any step up in terms of investments around media content to support your ambition with respect to Prime and Video? It's been a couple of years now since we got an update on rate of spend or how it might impact either historical periods or going forward periods. That would be number one. And then, number two, going back to Lloyd's question on the advertising front, how do you think about the video opportunity? You're moving beyond just branded opportunities or sponsored product search on your own properties, thinking about experimenting with over-the-top video or connected TV opportunities that might look in front of you going forward?

如果可以的話，也許是 2。首先，在媒體方面，您是否增加了對媒體內容的投資，以支持您在 Prime 和 Video 方面的雄心壯志？距離我們上次獲得有關支出率的更新資訊或了解其對歷史時期或未來時期的影響已經有好幾年了。那將是第一位的。然後，第二點，回到勞埃德關於廣告方面的問題，您如何看待視訊機會？您是否正在超越僅在自己的資產上進行品牌推廣機會或贊助產品搜尋的範疇，考慮嘗試未來可能出現的 OTT 影片或連網電視機會？

Let me start with video. We're not quantifying the Prime Video spend today, but we do -- it has been increasing. We expect it to increase even further in 2019. We're seeing a lot of, again, continued strong adoption in the usage and viewing and hours watched of both our music and our -- excuse me, video and music. And as -- if you step back, it builds stronger Prime connectivity with our Prime members. It leads to higher membership renewal rates and higher overall engagement. And we like what we see. We continue to see that engagement growing. I would say that we've had some particular success in -- recently with 10 Golden Globe nominations and 3 Oscar nominations, and Jack Ryan Homecoming and season 2 of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, in particular, were very well-received during the quarter.

讓我從視頻開始。我們今天沒有量化 Prime Video 的支出，但我們知道——它一直在增加。我們預計 2019 年這一數字還會進一步增加。我們再次看到，我們的音樂和影片以及音樂的使用、觀看和觀看時間持續強勁增長。如果你退一步來看，它與我們的 Prime 會員建立了更強大的 Prime 連結。這會提高會員續約率和整體參與度。我們喜歡我們所看到的。我們持續看到這種參與度不斷增長。我想說我們取得了一些特別的成功——最近獲得了 10 項金球獎提名和 3 項奧斯卡獎提名，還有《傑克瑞恩：英雄歸來》和《了不起的麥瑟爾夫人》第二季。尤其是《梅瑟夫人》，在本季受到了熱烈歡迎。

Yes, and then, on your second question just around advertising opportunities and around video, you may have seen not that long ago, IMDb, Internet Movie Database, one of our subsidiaries, launched Free Dive, which is an ad-supported free streaming video channel that's available in the U.S., and it enables customers to watch hit TV shows and movies without purchasing a subscription. So, ad-supported. So that's available on the IMDb website with your laptop or personal computer. And I think it's definitely on the Fire TV devices as well, as a great way to consume content. So I think excited about that. Other opportunities we've been working with in ads and video for a bit longer period of time had been things like our sports offerings, some of the live sports that we've done, things like Thursday Night Football. I really like the success that we've seen on those and a bit of learning from that, looking forward to pursuing more opportunities to engage and serve with customers of those types of video offers, but also take some opportunities to monetize with the advertising.

是的，然後，關於您關於廣告機會和視頻的第二個問題，您可能已經看到，不久前，我們的子公司之一 IMDb（互聯網電影數據庫）推出了 Free Dive，這是一個在美國提供的廣告支持的免費流媒體視頻頻道，它使客戶無需購買訂閱即可觀看熱門電視節目和電影。因此，有廣告支持。因此，您可以使用筆記型電腦或個人電腦在 IMDb 網站上存取它。我認為它在 Fire TV 設備上也絕對是一種很好的內容消費方式。所以我對此感到很興奮。我們在廣告和影片領域合作較長一段時間的其他機會包括我們的體育賽事、我們進行的一些現場體育賽事，例如週四晚間足球賽。我真的很喜歡我們在這些方面所看到的成功，並從中學到一些東西，期待尋求更多機會與這些類型的視訊產品的客戶互動並為他們提供服務，同時也抓住一些機會透過廣告賺錢。

Our next question comes from the line of Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默公司的 Jason Helfstein。

Just two. So just can you comment, did advertising slow down relative to third quarter? One. You're kind of adjusting for 606. And then, secondly, was there any reallocation in segments between online and physical stores? And if not, any commentary why physical stores was down year-over-year?

只有兩個。那麼您能否評論一下，相對於第三季度，廣告業務是否放緩了？一。您正努力適應 606。其次，線上商店和實體店之間的細分市場是否有重新分配？如果沒有，有什麼評論可以解釋為什麼實體店數量會比去年同期下降嗎？

Yes, thanks, Jason, for your questions. Let me start with the physical stores revenue. So physical stores decreased 3% year-over-year, and this is primarily Whole Foods, but also includes our other stores, the Amazon Bookstores, Amazon Go, Amazon Four Star. What happened in the quarter was we were lapping a period last year when we had purchased Whole Foods in Q3, as you remember, of 2017. In Q4, we adjusted their fiscal calendar to link it up with Amazon's, and it added about 5 days of revenue into Q4 of last year. So we're comping that year-over-year. The second piece is that the -- as you said, the online orders where people go to the Prime Now app or Whole -- and then order for delivery or pickup at Whole Foods stores does count or is counted in the online stores component of revenue. So if you adjust for those, what's the Whole Foods growth year-over-year on an apples-to-apples basis was approximately 6%. Because of some of those, again, mostly the year-over-year counting or days true-up issue, it's showing up as negative 3% in physical stores.

是的，傑森，謝謝你的提問。我先從實體店收入開始。因此，實體店年減了 3%，主要是 Whole Foods，但也包括我們的其他商店，亞馬遜書店、亞馬遜 Go、亞馬遜 Four Star。本季發生的情況是，我們正處於去年的一個時期，當時我們在 2017 年第三季收購了 Whole Foods。在第四季度，我們調整了他們的財務日曆，使其與亞馬遜的財務日曆銜接，這為去年第四季度增加了約 5 天的收入。因此，我們每年都會進行對比。第二點是，正如您所說，人們透過 Prime Now 應用程式或 Whole Foods 訂購商品，然後在 Whole Foods 商店送貨或取貨的線上訂單，是算數的，或者算在網路商店的收入部分。因此，如果對這些進行調整，那麼全食超市的同比增長率在同類基礎上約為 6%。由於其中一些原因，主要是同比計數或天數調整問題，實體店的銷售額顯示為負 3%。

Yes, and then just on your second question around advertising, if you look at the other revenue, the growth rate decelerated some. So it's -- at 97%, still very strong year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter. In other revenue, as I think you're aware, there are a number of components, but the largest by a good margin is the advertising revenue. And we are comping a period of rapid growth in the prior year. So that is part of the factor there, as you mentioned. But I'd just reiterate, we're continuing to see quite strong adoption across Amazon's vendors, sellers, authors, all types of advertisers that are utilizing that.

是的，然後關於你關於廣告的第二個問題，如果你看看其他收入，成長率有所放緩。因此，第四季的年成長率仍高達 97%，非常強勁。在其他收入方面，我想您知道，它包含許多部分，但佔比最大的是廣告收入。我們正在經歷去年的快速成長期。正如您所說，這是部分因素。但我想重申的是，我們繼續看到亞馬遜的供應商、賣家、作者以及所有類型的廣告商都對此進行了相當強勁的採用。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 資本市場的 Dan Salmon。

Brian, can we just return to your comment earlier about the increased use of Amazon Logistics, not a surprise there, but just curious, through the holiday season, any particular learnings that you can offer some color on? And how do you view the balance between using your own proprietary logistics versus third-parties as you go into 2019? And then, just a quick follow-up, obviously, the HQ2 news came out during the quarter. What would you highlight as maybe the most important next steps there? And maybe some color on the feedback from that process would be interested to hear that as well.

布萊恩，我們能否回到您之前關於亞馬遜物流使用量增加的評論，這並不奇怪，但只是好奇，在假期期間，您有什麼特別的了解可以提供一些嗎？進入 2019 年，您如何看待使用自有物流和第三方物流之間的平衡？然後，只是快速的跟進，顯然，HQ2 消息在本季度發布。您認為下一步最重要的措施是什麼？也許有人會對這一過程的回饋感興趣並想聽聽這一點。

Yes, sure. So let's start with HQ2. Of course, in November, we announced we selected New York City and Northern Virginia, and between the 2 cities we'll be investing $5 billion and creating more than 50,000 jobs. We also announced an operation center of excellence to be opened up in Nashville, which is about -- estimate of about 5,000 jobs. So right now, we're working through some next issues in both cities. We're looking forward to investing in New York and Northern Virginia and being a good community partner as well as Nashville. So not really much else to report at this time on that. On your comment or question on transportation, we do continue to expand our Amazon Logistics and our delivery capability, and it also matches up with our faster ship speed that we're seeing for Prime members as well. We added, of course, we have over 100 million items that customers can get within 2 days, but there's now over 3 million that will be delivered within 1 day or faster in 10,000 cities and towns. So Amazon Deliveries are a big part of that. Again, we have great third-party partners as well in the transportation space. What we like about our ability to participate in transportation is that, a lot of times, we can do it at same cost or better, and we like the cost profile of it, too. We can also invest selectively because we have more perfect information, we know where our demand is, we know where we're moving things between warehouses and sort centers. And by not involving third-parties all the time, we can -- we found that we can extend our ship cut-off -- excuse me, our order cut-offs, and we've done that over the last few years. So that's also another helpful side benefit for consumers when we are doing our own logistics -- excuse me, transportation final delivery.

是的，當然。那麼讓我們從 HQ2 開始。當然，我們在 11 月宣布選擇了紐約市和北維吉尼亞州，我們將在這兩個城市投資 50 億美元並創造 50,000 多個就業機會。我們還宣布將在納許維爾開設一個卓越營運中心，預計將創造約 5,000 個工作機會。因此，現在我們正在解決這兩個城市的一些後續問題。我們期待在紐約和北維吉尼亞州進行投資，並成為納許維爾的良好社區合作夥伴。因此，目前關於這一點確實沒有太多其他可報告的。關於您對運輸的評論或問題，我們確實在繼續擴大我們的亞馬遜物流和我們的配送能力，它也與我們為 Prime 會員提供的更快的運輸速度相匹配。我們補充說，當然，我們有超過 1 億件商品可以在 2 天內送達，但現在有超過 300 萬件商品可以在 1 天或更快的時間內送達 10,000 個城鎮。因此，亞馬遜送貨是其中很重要的一環。同樣，我們在交通運輸領域也擁有優秀的第三方合作夥伴。我們喜歡參與交通運輸的能力，因為很多時候，我們可以以相同或更低的成本做到這一點，而且我們也喜歡它的成本概況。我們也可以選擇性地投資，因為我們擁有更完善的訊息，我們知道我們的需求在哪裡，我們知道我們在倉庫和分類中心之間移動物品的位置。而且透過不一直讓第三方參與，我們發現我們可以延長船舶停駛時間——對不起，是我們的訂單停駛時間，我們在過去幾年裡已經這樣做了。因此，當我們自己進行物流（對不起，是運輸最終交付）時，這對消費者來說也是另一個有益的附帶好處。

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

我們的最後一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的羅斯桑德勒。

So the AWS operating margins historically kind of moved around a bit. Any color on what drove the decline sequentially from 3Q to 4Q? And then, I guess, going back to the investment catch-up team, it sounds like 2019 will be a little bit more aggressive push from you guys. Can you parse out whether you expect the pace of retail margin expansion that we're seeing in North America right now, is that going to continue and most of these investments are going to be in international and some of the stuff going on in India? And any color on the North America operating margin trajectory?

因此，AWS 的營業利潤率從歷史上看是有點波動的。能否解釋一下導致第三季至第四季連續下滑的原因是什麼？然後，我想，回到投資追趕團隊，聽起來你們在 2019 年會採取更積極的推動措施。您能否分析一下，您是否預期我們目前在北美看到的零售利潤率擴張速度會持續下去，而這些投資大部分將用於國際市場，而有些投資將用於印度市場？北美營業利益率走勢如何？

Yes, sure. Let me start with the AWS operating margin, as you called it out. That number will move around. We're very pleased with the 29.3% that we saw during the quarter. Of course, at any point in time, this business is going to be a combination of lowering prices, expanding geographically, adding people to build new -- especially tech teams and sales teams to build new and innovative products and staying very relevant and ahead of our customers' minds. And infrastructure will -- again, it will bounce between quarters a bit. Our capital lease expenditure in Q4 was a bit higher than the prior 3 quarters. That had a slight impact on the operating margin. But again, year-over-year, operating margins were up and were almost 280 basis points. We've said quite openly that this is going to bounce around. What we do is create great value for the customer on one end and then work to minimize our cost of infrastructure, and we're getting more and more creative around getting efficiency up and getting our cost of acquisition down.

是的，當然。正如您所說，讓我先從 AWS 的營業利潤率開始。該數字將會變動。我們對本季 29.3% 的成長率感到非常滿意。當然，在任何時候，這項業務都將是降低價格、擴大地域範圍、增加人員以建立新團隊（特別是技術團隊和銷售團隊）以打造新的創新產品以及保持與客戶的高度相關性和領先地位的結合。基礎設施將——同樣，它將在各個季度之間略有波動。我們第四季的資本租賃支出比前三個季度略高。這對營業利潤率產生了輕微的影響。但與去年同期相比，營業利潤率再次上升，幾乎達到了 280 個基點。我們已經公開表示過，這將會反覆出現。我們所做的一方面是為客戶創造巨大的價值，另一方面是努力將基礎設施成本降至最低，我們在提高效率和降低採購成本方面變得越來越有創意。

Thanks for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations site at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon, 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投資者關係網站上提供。感謝您對亞馬遜的關注，並期待下個季度再次與您交談。