Amazon's worst kept secret weapon – advertising

Four years ago, when under pressure from investors to turn a profit, Jeff Bezos managed to pull a rabbit out of his hat in the form of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) business, which he declared would have "strong returns on capital." Always on the lookout for even greater gains, investors are now hoping to see growth from Amazon's still relatively nascent advertising business, current a distant competitor to Facebook and Google. Advertising, as it happens, has a much higher operating margin profile than retailing, and so growing that piece of its empire could allow Amazon to keep its retail prices low and continue to vanquish competitors.