Look at the cash flows from operations. This is a big indicator of whether the core business is profitable. I have not looked at Amazon, but non-cash write-off usually play a significant role in lowering net income.
If you operations are sucking up cash, then the sustainability of the business depends on ability to inject new cash from somewhere else.
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2013: $134M revenues and $25M loss.
Amazon 2012: $61B revenues and $39M loss.
To say, net income may not be the best indicator of success for high growth tech companies. They reinvest every dollar to continue to spur growth.
19% vs 0.6% makes the two not really comparable.
Not to say you don't have a point (net profit isn't the only factor), just that your example is weak.
Look at the cash flows from operations. This is a big indicator of whether the core business is profitable. I have not looked at Amazon, but non-cash write-off usually play a significant role in lowering net income.
If you operations are sucking up cash, then the sustainability of the business depends on ability to inject new cash from somewhere else.