Amazon delivers hefty profit

San Francisco: Internet colossus Amazon on Thursday reported that its quarterly profit more than doubled on soaring revenue from online commerce and cloud services.

The earnings beat market expectations and came with an announcement that Amazon is raising the annual Prime subscription rate in the US to $119 from $99, effective next month.

Prime has been a strong driver of Amazon revenue, but it has also heaped on costs as the company invests in logistics for deliveries and online content including original television shows, according to executives.

Amazon said it earned $1.6 billion in the first three months of this year on revenue that soared to $51 billion from $36 billion in the same period last year.

Amazon shares climbed more than seven percent to $1,626 in after-hours trades that followed release of the earnings figures.

The Seattle-based firm spotlighted the juggernaut growth of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, which hosts services and content that companies use in the internet cloud.

AWS leads big-name rivals Microsoft and Google in the market that has boomed with the lifestyle shift to accessing movies, music, games and more from online devices.

"AWS had the unusual advantage of a seven-year head start before facing like-minded competition, and the team has never slowed down," Amazon founder and chief Jeff Bezos said in the first quarter earnings release.