Amazon's $31B ad business, explained
One of the wildest running themes for Big Tech is the size of their side hustles:
Having said that, Amazon is the latest Big Tech company to officially unveil a “sizeable side hustle”. Two weeks ago, the company broke out its ad business (for years, it was classified in company filings under “other revenue”).
The punchline: Amazon’s ad platform generated revenue of $31B in 2021, which is nearly 3x the combined sales of Twitter, Pinterest and Snap (all ad-based social platforms).
One of the wildest running themes for Big Tech is the size of their side hustles:
- Apple’s Wearables business (AirPods, Watch etc.) is on a $40B a year run rate. In comparison, Tesla’s revenue hit $54B in 2021.
- Alphabet’s YouTube is currently on a larger annual revenue run rate ($34B) than Netflix ($30).
Having said that, Amazon is the latest Big Tech company to officially unveil a “sizeable side hustle”. Two weeks ago, the company broke out its ad business (for years, it was classified in company filings under “other revenue”).
The punchline: Amazon’s ad platform generated revenue of $31B in 2021, which is nearly 3x the combined sales of Twitter, Pinterest and Snap (all ad-based social platforms).
