Amazon.com on Thursday reported high profit and revenue demonstrating the growing market power of its core retail business and new cloud services division. The company also offered a bright outlook, with revenue guidance for the current quarter of $28 billion to $30.5 billion, compared to the $28.33 billion analysts had expected.

While Amazon displayed impressive growth for a company its size - revenues last quarter rose 28.2 percent to $29.13 billion, the biggest revenue growth since 2012 - its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing division was the highlight. Revenues at the division climbed 64 percent to $2.56 billion while operating income more than tripled to $604 million.

AWS, launched 10 years ago, delivered more profit in the quarter than Amazon's retail business. Research firms say AWS has more than 30 percent of the fast-growing cloud-computing market and it remains far ahead of rivals including Microsoft and Google.

Amazon said it also has seen strong growth in subscribers to its Prime loyalty program, which offers one-hour delivery, original TV programming and access to its digital entertainment products such as Prime Music and Prime Video for an annual fee of $99.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also touted the success of new hardware products -- such as the Echo voice-response system and the Fire TV Stick.

Amazon's net sales in North America, its biggest market by revenue, increased 26.8 percent to $17 billion in the first quarter.

Amazon reported net income of $513 million for the quarter ended March 31, marking a fourth straight quarter of profits for the once perennially money-losing company.