7月22日，亞馬遜公布了其2004年第二季度的收益狀況。盡管公司的季度收益低于華爾街專(zhuān)業(yè)人士的預(yù)測(cè)值，但這個(gè)網(wǎng)上最大的零售商仍堅(jiān)稱(chēng)要繼續(xù)實(shí)行免費(fèi)送貨的激勵(lì)機(jī)制，消息傳出后公司股票在幾小時(shí)內(nèi)狂跌。外電有這樣的報(bào)道：The company's forecasts for the third quarter were weaker than analysts expected. "The outlook for the near term, in the September quarter, implies a fairly significant drop in operating margins," Mark Mahaney, an analyst with American Technology Research said. operating margin的意思是“營(yíng)運(yùn)利潤(rùn)率”，指公司扣除非現(xiàn)金支出因素前的利潤(rùn)率。計(jì)算方法是用利息、稅項(xiàng)、折舊、攤銷(xiāo)前收益除以收入，然后乘以百分之百。該比率是衡量企業(yè)運(yùn)營(yíng)效率的指標(biāo)。