By Deepa Seetharaman
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc reported earnings of 45 cents per share for the crucial holiday quarter, trouncing analysts' expectations and sending its shares up 9 percent.
Wall Street expected Amazon to report earnings per share of 17 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Operating expenses rose 14.6 percent in the quarter to $28.7 billion. Net shipping costs represented 4.6 percent of worldwide net sales, slightly lower than the previous four quarters.
Revenue rose 15 percent to $29.3 billion, slightly short of the average analyst estimate of nearly $30 billion. About a third of Amazon?s annual revenue is recorded in the holiday quarter.
Amazon has been pouring money into beefing up its $99-a-year Prime membership program. Worldwide, paying Prime membership rose 53 percent in 2014, and 50 percent in the U.S. market. In 2014, Amazon paid billions for Prime shipping and put $1.3 billion into its Prime video service, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement.
(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; additional reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Bernard Orr)