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"Amazon reported record sales of $21.3 billion (\u00A313.5bn) for the final quarter of 2012. The world&amp;#039;s largest online retailer&amp;#039;s shares increased by 11% in after-hours trading as news of its successful Christmas period reached the stock exchange.  The success of Amazon&amp;#039;s Kindle product line and its eBooks helped it make year-on-year gains of 20% in international sales alone as consumers snub the high street in favour of shopping online. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re now seeing the transition we&amp;#039;ve been expecting,&amp;quot; said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. &amp;quot;After five years, eBooks is a multi-billion-dollar category for us and growing fast - up approximately 70% last year. &amp;quot;In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a bookseller, up just 5%. We&amp;#039;re excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever-expanding ecosystem and selection.&amp;quot; The success of online retailers such as Amazon has hit the UK high street hard, with HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster all collapsing in recent months. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/internet/news/a454988/amazon-reports-record-quarterly-sales/>