Shares in the giant online retailer, Amazon slipped 4% in after hours trading in New York after the group reported sales growth of 22% in its final quarter to $43.7bn, close to $1bn lower than the market had expected.

Amazon is rapidly expanding into cloud computing and data services and it generated revenues of $3.5bn from this division, a near 50% increase from a year earlier but lower than the pace of growth in the previous quarter.

Investors were also absorbing Amazon’s guidance that its operating income would fall in this year’s first quarter, compared to last, due to ongoing massive capital investment in data centres – including here in Ireland – and in an air hub in Ohio to accommodate its growing fleet of cargo aircraft .

The company's Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has constantly put investment in new projects ahead of maximising short term profits.

Its investments include drone delivery technology, and video streaming.

These results praise the performance of The Grand Tour (which features the former-stars of BBC's Top Gear) - it's rolled the service out to more than 200 countries.

The company's film studio is also behind Manchester by the Sea, which has racked up a total of seven Oscar nomination, including Best Actor and Best Picture.