If Amazon’s 66 million active customers all lived in the same country, it would be the world’s 19th most populous country, with more citizens than every European country except Germany. And if every US household spent $170 at Amazon.com this year, the total amount they’d spend would still be less than Amazon’s 2010 revenues of over $34.2B.^[1] Amazon has used the internet to create a truly global business platform, one which is poised for incredible growth in the coming decade. The question in many investors' minds these days is how profitable that business can be.

While most people naturally think of Amazon as the internet superstore that sells products in over forty categories, from books to electronics to groceries to jewelry to auto parts, the company has gradually expanded beyond that simple business platform; today Amazon is simultaneously an e-commerce and internet technology platform, a fulfillment and logistics platform, a search technology, an internet advertising platform, and even an internet startup incubator.

(Read more at Wikinvest )