Amazon vs DigitalOcean: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Amazon reported $716.9B of revenue in FY2025 and $77.7B of net income. DigitalOcean reported $901.4M of revenue in FY2025 and $259.3M of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Amazon
- Latest revenue
- $716.9B (FY2025)
- Net income
- $77.7B
- Net margin
- 10.8%
- Revenue growth
- +20.3% a year, FY2016–FY2025
DigitalOcean
- Latest revenue
- $901.4M (FY2025)
- Net income
- $259.3M
- Net margin
- 28.8%
- Revenue growth
- +23.4% a year, FY2019–FY2025
Financial summary
Amazon
Amazon's headline revenue understates how concentrated its profit is. FY2025 net sales were $716.9B and operating income was $80.0B, of which AWS supplied $45.6B on $128.7B of sales. The North America segment turned $426.3B of sales into $29.6B of operating income, and International turned $161.9B into $4.8B. Advertising services, which Amazon reports inside the retail segments, grew from $56.2B in FY2024 to $68.6B in FY2025. Operating cash flow was $139.5B, but capital spending on AWS and AI capacity reached $131.8B, leaving free cash flow of $11.2B against $38.2B a year earlier.
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean grew revenue from $255 million in 2019 to $901 million in 2025. It turned GAAP-profitable in 2023 ($19 million), earned $84 million in 2024, and reported $259 million of net income in 2025, with adjusted EBITDA of $375 million (42% margin) and adjusted free cash flow of $168 million (19% margin). Growth then accelerated: Q1 2026 revenue was $258 million (up 22%) and Q2 2026 revenue was $281 million (up 29%), with Q2 net income of $35 million, adjusted EBITDA of $114 million, and $767 million in cash at June 30, 2026. Management guided to about 30% revenue growth for 2026.
Revenue and profit by year
Amazon
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $716.9B | $77.7B | 10.8% | +12.4% | Source |
| FY2024 | $638B | $59.2B | 9.3% | +11.0% | Source |
| FY2023 | $574.8B | $30.4B | 5.3% | +11.8% | Source |
| FY2022 | $514B | -$2.7B | -0.5% | +9.4% | Source |
| FY2021 | $469.8B | $33.4B | 7.1% | +21.7% | Source |
| FY2020 | $386.1B | $21.3B | 5.5% | +37.6% | Source |
| FY2019 | $280.5B | $11.6B | 4.1% | +20.5% | Source |
| FY2018 | $232.9B | $10.1B | 4.3% | +30.9% | Source |
| FY2017 | $177.9B | $3B | 1.7% | +30.8% | Source |
| FY2016 | $136B | $2.4B | 1.7% | — | Source |
DigitalOcean
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $901.4M | $259.3M | 28.8% | +15.5% | Source |
| FY2024 | $780.6M | $84.5M | 10.8% | +12.7% | Source |
| FY2023 | $692.9M | $19.4M | 2.8% | +20.2% | Source |
| FY2022 | $576.3M | -$27.8M | -4.8% | +34.5% | Source |
| FY2021 | $428.6M | -$19.5M | -4.6% | +34.6% | Source |
| FY2020 | $318.4M | -$43.6M | -13.7% | +24.9% | Source |
| FY2019 | $254.8M | -$40.4M | -15.9% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Amazon
- Online stores37.6%
First-party product and digital media sales recorded gross. $269.3B of FY2025 net sales.
- Third-party seller services24.0%
Referral commissions plus related fulfillment and shipping fees charged to independent sellers. $172.2B of FY2025 net sales.
- AWS18.0%
Cloud compute, storage, database, and AI services sold on consumption pricing. $128.7B of FY2025 net sales and $45.6B of operating income.
- Advertising services9.6%
Sponsored ads, display, and video advertising sold to sellers, vendors, publishers, and authors. $68.6B of FY2025 net sales.
- Subscription services6.9%
Prime membership fees plus digital video, music, audiobook, and e-book subscriptions. $49.6B of FY2025 net sales.
- Physical stores3.1%
Sales where customers select items in a store, mainly Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh. $22.6B of FY2025 net sales.
- Other0.8%
Shipping services, healthcare services, certain video licensing, and co-branded credit card agreements. $5.9B of FY2025 net sales.
DigitalOcean
- Core cloud (Droplets, Kubernetes, storage, databases)
Not disclosed
Usage-based and monthly billing for compute and platform services.
- AI and inference
AI customer ARR $234M (~21% of ARR, Q2 2026)
GPU Droplets, bare metal GPUs, serverless inference, and the Inference Engine.
- Cloudways managed hosting
Not disclosed
Monthly managed hosting plans for agencies and SMBs.
Business model and strategy
Amazon
How it makes money
Amazon runs a hybrid model: it buys inventory and sells it directly, and it rents its store, warehouses, and ad inventory to independent sellers. In FY2025 online stores produced $269.3B of net sales, third-party seller services $172.2B, advertising services $68.6B, subscription services $49.6B, physical stores $22.6B, and AWS $128.7B.
Growth strategy
Amazon's growth now comes mostly from the higher-margin layers on top of its infrastructure. Advertising services grew from $56.2B in FY2024 to $68.6B in FY2025 as Amazon added inventory in Prime Video, grocery, and its demand-side platform.
Competitive advantage
Amazon's advantages depend on scale rather than patents. It carried $534.1B of gross property and equipment at the end of FY2025, including $155.1B of land and buildings and $172.5B of servers and networking equipment, which pays for delivery speed and cloud capacity smaller rivals cannot fund.
DigitalOcean
How it makes money
DigitalOcean sells cloud infrastructure on usage-based and monthly pricing. Customers pay for Droplet virtual machines, GPU instances, managed Kubernetes, managed databases, object and block storage, bandwidth, App Platform, Cloudways managed hosting plans, and AI inference (billed by usage or tokens).
Growth strategy
DigitalOcean's strategy under Paddy Srinivasan has two tracks. First, move upmarket: its number of $100K+ customers grew 9% in Q2 2026 while their revenue grew 98%, and $1M+ customers generated 23% of revenue. Second, become an inference and agentic AI platform: it combines GPU Droplets (NVIDIA and AMD), serverless inference, the Inference Engine, and agent tooling with its existing compute, storage, and databases.
Competitive advantage
DigitalOcean's edge is simplicity for small teams: a clean control panel, predictable pricing with bundled bandwidth, and products that launch in minutes without hyperscaler-style configuration. Its free community tutorials rank highly for common Linux, Docker, and Kubernetes queries, giving it a low-cost acquisition funnel.
Questions about Amazon vs DigitalOcean
Which company has higher revenue — Amazon.com, Inc. or DigitalOcean?
Amazon.com, Inc. reported $716.9B (FY2025), while DigitalOcean reported $901.4M (FY2025). By last reported revenue, Amazon.com, Inc. is the larger business, with DigitalOcean reporting a smaller revenue base.
What is the market cap of Amazon.com, Inc. vs DigitalOcean?
Amazon.com, Inc.'s market capitalisation stands at $2.69T, while DigitalOcean's is $16.0B. Amazon.com, Inc. carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to DigitalOcean.
Which is more financially efficient — Amazon.com, Inc. or DigitalOcean?
Amazon.com, Inc. generates $455k / employee in revenue per employee, while DigitalOcean generates $617k / employee. DigitalOcean shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Amazon.com, Inc. and DigitalOcean make money?
Amazon.com, Inc. and DigitalOcean generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Amazon.com, Inc.: Amazon runs a hybrid model: it buys inventory and sells it directly, and it rents its store, warehouses, and ad inventory to independent sellers. DigitalOcean: DigitalOcean sells cloud infrastructure on usage-based and monthly pricing.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — Amazon.com, Inc. or DigitalOcean?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Amazon.com, Inc. trades at 3.8x P/S and DigitalOcean at 17.7x P/S. DigitalOcean commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to Amazon.com, Inc.. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is Amazon.com, Inc. bigger than DigitalOcean?
By last reported revenue, Amazon.com, Inc. ($716.9B (FY2025)) is the larger company compared to DigitalOcean ($901.4M (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Amazon vs DigitalOcean overview