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Amazon saw profits fall to a seven-quarter low and forecast a drop in profits next quarter, as the company enters a phase of heavy investment in areas such as building warehouses, producing films, and setting up data centres.
亚马逊(Amazon)利润下滑至7个季度以来的低点，并预计下季度将会继续下滑，因为该公司进入了大手笔投资的阶段，投资领域包括建筑仓库、制作电影和建立数据中心等。
Profits dropped to $197m during the second quarter, yielding earnings per share of 40c — less than half what analysts expected and a quarter of the earnings per share during the same period last year.
今年第二季度，亚马逊盈利下降至1.97亿美元，每股收益为40美分——前者不及分析师预期的一半，后者仅为去年同期的四分之一。
The news sent Amazon’s share price down almost 3 per cent in after-market trading on Thursday, after surge this week that valued the company at more than $500bn at its peak and briefly lifted Jeff Bezos to the top of the world’s billionaire rankings compiled by Forbes.
该消息导致亚马逊股价在周四盘后交易时段下挫近3%；此前，本周亚马逊股价曾大涨，公司最高估值超过5000亿美元，短暂地把杰夫?贝索斯(Jeff Bezos)推到《福布斯》全球亿万富翁排行榜榜首。
Chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said that “all of the change year-over-year is in the investment area”, and emphasised that Amazon would continue investing heavily during the current quarter.
亚马逊首席财务官布莱恩?奥尔萨夫斯基(Brian Olsavsky)表示，“全部业绩变动发生投资领域”，并强调，亚马逊在本季度将继续大举投资。
He pointed to investments in distribution centres, video production, the Alexa voice assistant, and server purchases for Amazon Web Services as big areas of spending.
他指出，公司在配送中心、影视制作、Alexa语音助手和为亚马逊网络服务(AWS)购买服务器几方面的投资，是支出很大的领域。
Amazon has eschewed the usual public company path of delivering profits and dividends to shareholders, and instead has operated for decades on a low-profit, high-investment model.
亚马逊不像一般公众公司那样把利润和红利返还给股东，反而几十年来保持着一种低盈利、高投资的模式。
Although investors have mostly accepted that model — sending Amazon shares up 40 per cent this year on the back of strong sales growth — the upcoming investment phase could test their patience.
尽管投资者已基本认可了该模式——在销售额强劲增长的背景下，推动亚马逊股价在今年上涨40%——但即将来临的投资阶段可能会考验他们的耐心。
Mr Olsavsky sought to lower expectations for the current quarter, which he described as “typically a lower-income quarter” and “generally a high-investment period” ahead of the holiday shopping season at the end of the year.
奥尔萨夫斯基寻求降低外界对当前季度的预期，他把当前季度描述为“盈利通常会降低的一个季度”和年底的假期购物季之前的“通常投资额较高的一个时期”。
The company said revenues in the third quarter would increase 20-28 per cent, roughly the same rate as the second quarter, which saw sales rise 25 per cent to reach $38bn.
亚马逊表示，公司第三季度收入将增加20%至28%，大约为第二季度增幅的两倍。第二季度亚马逊销售额增长25%，增至380亿美元。
Profits in the current quarter will drop to between $400m and $300m, compared with $575m during the same period a year prior.
当前季度的盈利将下降至3亿至4亿美元，上一年同期则为5.75亿美元。
One of the fastest areas of growth for Amazon was in third-party logistics, as it provides handling services for an increasing array of merchants who sell goods via Amazon. Revenue from these third-party logistics services rose 38 per cent during the quarter to hit $7bn, representing more than a sixth of Amazon’s sales.
亚马逊增速最快的领域之一是第三方物流，该公司为在通过其平台销售商品的商家提供配送服务。第二季度，来自第三方物流服务的收入增加了38%，达70亿美元，高于亚马逊总体销售额的六分之一。
At the same time sales at Amazon Web Services, which provide cloud computing services for IT departments, saw growth slow to 42 per cent in the most recent quarter. Margins also sank in the division, hitting 22.3 per cent, although the unit remains the most profitable part of Amazon’s business.
同时，第二季度，为IT部门提供云计算服务的AWS的销售额的增幅放缓至42%。该部门的利润率也有所下降，降至22.3%，不过，该部门仍是亚马逊公司利润最高的一个部门。
