Amazon plans to slash delivery times

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图片copyrightGetty图片

Amazon has promised to cut delivery times for customers of its Prime service.

亚马逊已承诺缩短其Prime服务客户的交付时间。

Amazon Prime is a subscription service offering free delivery and access to Amazon's TV shows.

亚马逊Prime是一项订阅服务，提供免费送货和亚马逊电视节目的访问。

Members in the US currently receive free two-day delivery, but the plan is to cut that to one day.

美国会员目前免费送货两天，但计划是将其减少到一天。

In the UK, Prime customers already get free one-day delivery. Amazon plans to spend $800m (£620m) over the next two months to cut delivery times elsewhere.

在英国，Prime客户已获得一天免费送货服务。亚马逊计划在未来两个月内斥资8亿美元（6.2亿英镑）缩短其他地区的交付时间。

Amazon also reported a first quarter profit of $3.6bn (£2.8bn), double the same period in the previous year.

亚马逊还报告第一季度利润为36亿美元（合28亿英镑），与去年同期相比翻了一番。

It was its fourth successive quarter of record profit.

这是其连续第四个季度的创纪录利润。

In the first quarter sales rose 17% to $59.7bn. Amazon expects sales to grow between 13% and 20% in the second quarter.

第一季度销售额上涨17％至597亿美元。亚马逊预计第二季度销售额将增长13％至20％。

Cloud computing

云计算

Sales surged at Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides computing services to companies over the internet - a service know as cloud computing.

亚马逊网络服务公司的销售额激增（AWS），通过互联网向公司提供计算服务 - 一种称为云计算的服务。

Launched in 2002, AWS has become a crucial part of Amazon's business, and sales rose 41% to $7.7bn in the three-month period to the end of March.

AWS成立于2002年，已成为亚马逊业务和销售的重要组成部分截至3月底的三个月内，该公司股价上涨41％至77亿美元。

“While the cost of building the data-driven infrastructure to support the cloud systems is vast, the fact it requires such deep pockets actually works in Amazon's favour,” said George Salmon, an analyst at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown.

“构建数据驱动基础设施以支持云系统的成本巨大，股票经纪人Hargreaves Lansdown的分析师乔治·萨蒙（George Salmon）表示，它需要如此丰厚的资金实际上对亚马逊有利。”

“It's difficult to see how a new challenger can wrestle business away from the likes of Amazon, Google, and the latest member of the $1tn club, Microsoft.”

“很难看出新的挑战者如何能够挣扎业务远离亚马逊，谷歌以及1万亿美元俱乐部的最新成员，微软。”

Microsoft has seen its stock market value top $1tn after reporting better-than-expected sales and profits.

微软公布其股票市值超过1万亿美元后报告好于 - 预期的销售额和利润。

The US software giant passed the mark briefly on Thursday, before its share price fell back.

美国软件巨头通过在股价回落之前，周四短暂地做了这个标记。