Amazon sales surge to $12.95 billion

The world’s largest e-tailer Amazon announced that the firm’s sales had increased by 36 per cent to a record $10 billion.

A strong 2010 holiday season resulted in $12.95 billion, up from $9.52 billion the year before. The firm also said that Kindle e-book sales have overtaken sales of paperbacks, having earlier surpassed hardcovers.

The firm had initially said that it expected e-books to outsell paperbacks by the middle of this year but surging demand for the Kindle and e-book software brought the milestone six months earlier than expected.