Amazon shares fell 6 per cent in after-hours trading in New York on Thursday when the online retailer¹ significantly missed earnings³ expectations in the third quarter, and forecast operating income of as little as zero next quarter.

周四，亚马逊(Amazon)股价在纽约盘后交易时段大跌了6%，因为这家在线零售商在第三季度的盈利严重不及预期，并预期下一季度营业利润最低可能为零。

Investment in distribution warehouses⁴, video content from top tier directors and actors and the engineering teams behind virtual assistant Alexa helped push operating costs up 29 per cent — and look set to continue into the holiday shopping season.

亚马逊对于分销仓库、来自顶级导演和演员的视频内容以及虚拟助理Alexa背后工程团队的投资，帮助推动其运营成本增加了29%。看来这一趋势在进入假日购物季之后会延续下去。

Brian Olsavsky, chief financial officer, said it had opened 18 fulfilment centres during the quarter, the biggest growth in the delivery network since 2012.

亚马逊的首席财务官布莱恩.奥尔萨夫斯基(Brian Olsavsky)表示，第三季度亚马逊已开设了18个履行作业中心，为2012年以来配送网络扩张速度最快的一次。

Amazon reported earnings per share of 52 cents, up more than 200 per cent from the same period last year, but far from the average analyst⁵ estimate of 78 cents for the three months ended September. Net income was $252m.

亚马逊公告称，每股盈利为52美分，同比增幅超过200%，但远远不及分析师对第三季度每股盈利预测的平均值78美分。净利润为2.52亿美元。

Sales increased 29 per cent to $32.7bn, meeting the consensus⁶ forecast, with retail² sales in North America up 26 per cent and international retail sales rising 28 per cent.

销售额增加29%，至327亿美元，符合共识预测。北美地区零售额增加26%，国外零售额增加28%。

Revenue from Amazon Web Services soared 55 per cent to $3.2bn, the biggest year-on-year leap in sales, as prices came down and AWS rolled out new features. The operating margin⁷ at AWS increased to 31.6 per cent.

随着价格下调，亚马逊网络服务(AWS)推出新功能，AWS业务收入大涨55%，至32亿美元，为同比增幅最大的一次。AWS营业利润率上升至31.6%。

For the crucial fourth quarter, where retailers⁸ revel⁹ in holiday season shopping, Amazon forecast sales between $42bn and $45.5bn, up between 17 and 27 per cent compared with the fourth quarter of 2015. But it said it expected operating income of between zero and $1.3bn, compared with $1.1bn in the fourth quarter of 2015.

对于关键的第四季度，亚马逊预计销售额将达420亿至455亿美元，同比增加17%至27%。但亚马逊表示，预计营业利润将为0至13亿美元，而去年第四季度为11亿美元。