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Amazon demolished Wall Street's profit expectations for

, thanks to a boom in online sales and huge demand for its cloud services.


NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports for our Newscast unit that the retail giant's profits more than doubled from a year ago.


Profits were up despite Amazon's heavy spending, according to 

Amazon's share price surged 7 percent in after-hours trading following the release of the quarterly news. Amazon's stock has outperformed the S&P 500 — rising 30 percent this year as of Thursday's market close.


CEO Jeff Bezos owns 16 percent of Amazon and is the richest man in the world, according to Forbes magazine. He is the first person to top $100 billion as No. 1 on the Forbes list of the

Amazon also announced on Thursday that its annual Prime membership fee is going up to $119 a year from $99. Company executives said that the 20 percent hike is due to higher costs to maintain the program, such as shipping fees.

New Prime members in the U.S. will be charged the higher fee starting May 11. The increase will apply to renewal memberships starting on June 16. The last time Amazon raised the annual fee was four years ago. Earlier this year, it increased the monthly rate to $12.99 a month from $10.99.

Besides free two-day shipping, Prime members get other perks, such as access to Amazon 's video and music streaming services.


Amazon currently commands roughly 43 cents of every dollar spent online, according to estimates by research firm 

Business and Economic News

Doreen McCallister

Author

Amazon's first quarter sales reached $51 billion, a 43 percent increase over last year. Its net income was $1.6 billion. Amazon also increased its annual Prime membership fee to $119 a year from $99.

Amazon reports huge quarterly profits, hikes Prime membership fee

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