Amazon.com adds music, movies to its Japanese site

Bloomberg News Service

SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc., the largest Internet retailer, started selling music CDs, DVD software and movie and music videos on its Japanese-language Web site, boosting the product offerings to Japanese consumers.

About 360,000 Japanese and foreign music CDs are available to Japanese customers at the local site, as well as 10,000 DVD titles and 66,000 music, movies, sports and documentary program videos, the company said. The site also sells 1.8 million Japanese-language and foreign-language books.

Amazon.com is trying to expand its business while reducing costs and attempting to post its first profit excluding certain items. The company has attracted about 400,000 users to its Web site in Japan since introducing the service on Nov. 1 last year. Japan is the fourth international site for Amazon.com. The company also has Web sites for shoppers in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos doesn't expect the Japan business to be profitable any time soon.

"The Japan operation is certainly in an investment phase," he said at a press conference, declining to say when he expects the Japanese operations to be profitable.

Shares of Amazon.com fell 52 cents to $14.12. They have fallen 71 percent in the past year.

Amazon.com said customers who buy 5,000 yen ($41) in new products will qualify for a discount of 500 yen, an offer lasting to the end of this month.

The Seattle-based company reiterated last week that it expects to have a "pro forma" profit, or profit before goodwill and other expenses, in the fourth quarter.