Amazon’s Revenues Disappoint

An Amazon center in Ridgmont, England, last December. The company's profit exceeded analysts' estimates, but its shares fell.

By DAVID STREITFELD

Amazon.com’s plans for world domination hit a slight bump on Tuesday.

For years, the retailer has been telling Wall Street to ignore how little money it was making and focus instead on the fact that it was bringing in more and more customers and keeping them so happy they never went anywhere else for anything.

In Amazon’s fourth-quarter results, however, investors finally glimpsed off in the distance that growth beginning to flatten. Its revenue rose to $17.43 billion, up 35 percent. Most retailers would die happy with such a jump. But for the e-commerce leader, sales were nearly a billion dollars short of what analysts had been expecting.

Even as investors are panting for Facebook’s public stock offering, established Internet stars are disappointing. Amazon’s poor showing came on the heels of a similar miss from Google.

Among the reasons for Amazon’s missed expectations: Video games were lackluster. There were supply issues from flooding in Thailand. And maybe there was a bit of backlash.

In December, Amazon.com created an uproar by encouraging customers to use a price-checking app on Main Street and in the malls, and then return to Amazon for a better deal. Booksellers, who have long felt themselves in the retailer’s cross hairs, were particularly offended. A tentative “buy local” movement sprang up.

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