[aclements18]

Amazon 2012: $61B revenues and $39M loss.

To say, net income may not be the best indicator of success for high growth tech companies. They reinvest every dollar to continue to spur growth.

[Guvante]

19% vs 0.6% makes the two not really comparable.

Not to say you don't have a point (net profit isn't the only factor), just that your example is weak.

[sologoub]

Look at the cash flows from operations. This is a big indicator of whether the core business is profitable. I have not looked at Amazon, but non-cash write-off usually play a significant role in lowering net income.

If you operations are sucking up cash, then the sustainability of the business depends on ability to inject new cash from somewhere else.