AWS Generates $3B+ in 2013

So it's official: Amazon Web Services generated $3.1 billion in revenue in 2013. Okay, official might be a strong word, since Amazon does not report AWS revenue in public filings. But anaysts and cloud geeks watch the growth of the Other category for a rough sizing of AWS revenue.

Based on tonight's earnings announcement, the Other category has grown from $58M in Q1 2006, to $1.1B in Q4 2013 - suggesting a total 2013 revenue of about $3.1B. This would put them on track to generate $5B+ in revenue in 2014. Most notable was their year ending 18% quarter over quarter revenue growth, which if sustained, could bring them to $6B+ in 2014.

A year ago, while making the rounds at our local VCs seeking capital for my startup, there was one slide in my pitch deck that raised eyebrows with a few investors: the market opportunity. The top down analysis in the slide depended upon a disputable projection: the current size of the public cloud market. In particular, some took issue with my estimate that AWS 2012 revenues were $2B, with one going as far as to connect me with an analyst who insisted otherwise (he projected AWS revenue to be $750M in 2012, and between $1-1.5B in 2013).

So here we are a year later, with another another year of 55% CAGR for AWS, and quarter over quarter growth of 18%+...

All I can say is: that's a lot of Other. ;)