Amazon may say have included its ad platform as "other" revenue category, but showed that the business is promising.
In the U.S., Amazon's ads are bringing in more and more advertising dollars, growing the platform's to become the third largest online ad seller after Google and Facebook. According to eMarketer, this pushes the e-commerce giant ahead of Microsoft and Oath (a Verizon subsidiary) for the first time.
With the potential of getting about $4.61 billion in 2018, this is a whopping 60 percent increase from the earlier $2.89 billion projection in March.
The news comes just weeks after Amazon surpassed $1 trillion in market value.
Amazon's advertising business has quickly become one of its fastest-growing business units, and it should continue to expand as Amazon invests more in the field.
Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky has previously told investors of an increased growth in hiring for Amazon's ad sales and web services teams. Having doubling down on video ads and ads on its streaming platform Twitch, Amazon has started pitching advertisers to buy ads from the platform by saying that they are "brand safe," and less risky than buying ads from platforms like Google's YouTube and Facebook.
The company is also working hard to develop all of the necessary technology and tools, while also making it easier for advertisers to purchase ads.
Amazon's advantage when selling ads, come from its website, which according to comScore, drew about 200 million unique monthly visitors in the U.S. at the end of 2017.
In the U.S., Amazon has its Fire TV as the second most popular streaming device, according to Parks Associates. What's more, Amazon Echo is one of the top selling smart speakers in the market, according to CIRP.
The ecosystem Amazon controls, including its massive cloud infrastructure's reach, helps Amazon in luring more and more advertisers to its platform.
But most importantly, Amazon isn't like Google or Facebook that prioritizes ads. For this reason, Amazon's ads use less sophisticated tracking method than both Google and Facebook, making them less invasive.
Potentially hurting the duopoly ad war between Google and Facebook, Amazon is playing it safe. This makes it a potential alternative to the two.
Previously, Amazon streamlined its ad products with the introduction of Amazon Advertising.