How Do Companies Make Money?
A business earns revenue when it delivers something a customer pays for. The useful question is who pays, what they receive, and how the company records the sale. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Spotify and Visa show why those answers differ even among familiar companies.
Figures below come from each company's named fiscal year. Dollars and euros remain in the reporting currency; amounts from different companies are not added together.
Six common ways revenue is earned
| Model | Customer pays for | Check in the filing | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product sales | A physical or digital product | Units, product revenue, cost of sales and gross margin | A product sale is not the same as profit after distribution and other costs. |
| Subscriptions and software | Ongoing access or a software license | Recognized subscription revenue, deferred revenue and renewals where disclosed | An annualized run rate or contract value is not recognized annual revenue. |
| Marketplace and seller services | Commissions, fulfillment or other services around a third-party sale | Seller-service revenue and the accounting basis for gross versus net sales | Gross merchandise value is not the marketplace's revenue. |
| Advertising | An audience reached through ads | Disclosed ad revenue and the costs of acquiring or serving that audience | A large user base alone does not establish ad revenue or profitability. |
| Cloud and usage | Computing, storage, data or support used over time | Reported segment or product revenue and the cost of running the service | Cloud product groups can overlap reported segments; do not add them together. |
| Payment networks | Network, processing and cross-border services | Net revenue, processed transactions and client incentives | Payment volume is money moving on the network, not network revenue. |
Companies often combine these models. A subscription sold through a marketplace may involve several parties, but the filing shows which revenue the reporting company actually recognized.
Read the business model in the numbers
Apple: products alongside services
Apple's fiscal 2025 Form 10-K separates $307.003 billion of Products net sales from $109.158 billion of Services net sales, totaling $416.161 billion. Products and Services also have separate cost-of-sales lines. That lets a reader compare how much each category sells and what it costs before claiming that one category produces more profit. Apple FY2025 Form 10-K
Amazon: retail, seller services, ads and cloud
Amazon's 2025 Form 10-K reports $716.924 billion of total net sales, including $172.162 billion from third-party seller services, $68.635 billion from advertising services and $128.725 billion from AWS. Seller-service revenue includes commissions and related fulfillment and shipping fees; it is not the full value of goods sold by outside sellers. The categories are parts of the total, so adding them to total sales would count them twice. Amazon FY2025 Form 10-K
Microsoft: licenses, subscriptions and cloud usage
Microsoft reported $331.839 billion of fiscal 2026 revenue: $64.696 billion in Product and $267.143 billion in Service and other revenue. It separately reports operating segments and a Microsoft Cloud measure. Those views describe overlapping parts of one business and must not be added together. The revenue recognition and segment notes explain the different bases. Microsoft FY2026 annual report
Spotify: paid subscriptions plus advertising
Spotify's 2025 Form 20-F says Premium made up 89% of total revenue and Ad-Supported made up 11%. A free listener can support the ad business; a Premium subscriber pays for the subscription. Subscriber count is a usage measure, not a substitute for recognized revenue, and the two revenue streams carry different costs. Spotify FY2025 Form 20-F
Visa: a payment network earns fees, not payment volume
Visa reported $40.000 billion of fiscal 2025 net revenue. Its filing lists service, data-processing, international-transaction and other revenue, then subtracts client incentives to arrive at the net amount. Payment volume describes activity on the network, not sales Visa can book. That distinction matters when comparing Visa with a bank that lends money or a merchant that sells products. Visa FY2025 Form 10-K
A five-minute filing check
- Write down the fiscal year end and reporting currency before comparing figures.
- Find the revenue note and identify each product, service or segment measure.
- Check whether the company acts as the principal seller or earns a fee for facilitating someone else's sale.
- Keep revenue, profit, transaction volume, bookings and annualized run rates in separate columns.
- Use the matching cost and operating-income lines to understand the economics; a large revenue stream need not be the most profitable.
Common questions
How do you find out how a company makes money?
Read the latest annual report's revenue recognition note, product or segment revenue table, and management discussion. Identify the payer, what is delivered, the reporting period and whether the reported amount is revenue, transaction volume or a contract commitment.
Is recurring revenue the same as profit?
No. Recurring revenue describes how sales repeat; profit also depends on the cost of delivering the product or service, sales costs, research, interest and taxes. Compare revenue with the matching period's cost and operating income.
Can you add a company's business lines to its reported revenue?
Only when the filing says the lines are disjoint and use the same accounting basis. Product groups and operating segments can overlap, and transaction volume or annualized run rates are not additional revenue.
Explore company business models
These profiles offer more company context. Check each page's period and source before reusing a figure.