Amazon has announced its second-quarter earnings for 2014. For the quarter ended June 30, the online retailer posted an operating loss of $15m, down from a loss of $79m in the same quarter last year. The net loss for the quarter increased to $126m from the $7m of last year.

The adjusted per-share loss has also gone up to 27 cents, higher than the 2 cents per share loss it posted last year and missing estimate of posting a loss of 15 cents per share. Revenues for the quarter went up 23% to $19.34bn, beating expectations of $19.3bn.

The company, on an analyst conference call, attributed the decline in profits to higher investments to expand distribution for its retail products and online services, and the recent decrease in prices of Amazon Web Services (AWS) which were designed to drive higher sales. Also its operating expenses were 24% higher during the quarter, reaching $19 bn.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Tom Szkutak said: “Our results are inherently unpredictable.” With sales between $19.7 billion and $21.5 billion, and an operating loss of between $410 million and $810 million the analyst call was short of any detail on Amazon’s current position and full of general statements which meant very little.

For example Szkutak said: “In terms of China, we’ll continue to invest” for customers there and we’re doing “a lot of interesting things” to serve customers there, but decided not to say what any of the interesting things actually were.

While the majority of financial analysts covering the stock retain a ‘buy’ rating and the remainder rate it a ‘hold’ there was widespread dismay on shareholder forums at Amazon’s performance. They are becoming distinctly unhappy with Amazon’s long play on dividends.

If the USA’s interest rates climb on the back of higher prices and slow output and the consumer starts to spend less, one Seeking Alpha reader commented, “A half billion operating loss today will morph into much larger losses as the macro picture turns ugly.”