Looks like certain promotional product professionals might have proved themselves prognosticators.

Discussing potential competitive threats and advantages associated with Amazon, some industry pros recently predicted that, as a component of its evolution, the ecommerce platform would progressively become a type of search engine shopfront where companies would vie for eyes, with paid spots being a key component of the competition.

It seems Amazon is doing just that.

On Thursday, the Seattle-headquartered corporation reported that revenue for its “Other” category, which primarily includes advertising sales, increased to $10.1 billion in 2018 – far outpacing a forecast of $2.8 billion. Amazon generates the advertising revenue by charging companies to promote their products on its platforms.

“Brands and ad agencies have been working closely with Amazon as it builds an ad platform to compete with Google and Facebook, and $10 billion in 2018 makes it the third-largest ad business,” according to an AdAge report.

At $3.4 billion, revenue in the “Other” category in the fourth quarter was the highest of any of last year’s quarters – and 95% greater than the prior year’s Q4.

Amazon’s “strong handle on consumer purchase behavior sets it apart from Google and Facebook in the digital ad market, which has made the company an attractive option for advertisers,” Monica Peart, senior director of forecasting for eMarketer, said in a report issued last September.

Monica Peart, eMarketer

The advertising revenue increase was part of the broader gains in revenue and earnings Amazon made last year. For 2018, net sales increased 31% to $232.9 billion. Net income soared, rising from 2017’s $3 billion, or $6.15 per diluted share, to $10.1 billion, or $20.14 in 2018. Operating income more than tripled to $12.4 billion.

For the fourth quarter, which includes the important holiday period, revenue was up about 20% year-over-year to $72.4 billion. Quarterly net income outpaced the comparable period in the prior year, rising from $1.9 billion, or $3.75 per share, to $3 billion, or $6.04 per share. Q4 operating income was $3.8 billion, compared to 2017’s $2.1 billion.

Amazon expects to continue the momentum in the first quarter of 2019. The company is predicting that Q1 sales will be between $56 billion and $60 billion, which would represent growth of between 10% and 18% compared with the first quarter of 2018.

Despite Amazon’s strength, the company’s indications that it would spend more in 2019 and that it could face some challenges in India acted as a drag on stocks early Friday. Overall, however, analysts stood by the stock while adjusting price targets, CNBC reported.

Amazon Posts Record Earnings But Stock Falls https://t.co/kxtA3F6n5Z pic.twitter.com/DXF9ylcRWn

— CFO (@cfo) February 1, 2019

Other highlights from Amazon’s full-year earnings report that promo pros might find interesting include:

*Amazon continued to invest in helping selling partners increase their sales in stores, including introducing a USPS Priority Mail Cubic ship method for Seller Fulfilled Prime and merchant fulfilled sellers, which offers a volume-based pricing ship option; launching a new FedEx One Rate -- a weight agnostic ship method that enables sellers to fulfill Prime orders nationwide; and reducing Fulfillment by Amazon storage fees in the U.S., European Union, and Japan.

*Small and medium-sized businesses had their best holiday season ever in Amazon’s stores, the company said. More than 50% of units sold in Amazon’s stores this holiday season came from small and medium-sized businesses. According to Amazon, third-party sales are growing faster than first-party sales, and nearly 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses surpassed $100,000 in sales in Amazon’s stores in 2018.

*Amazon Fashion launched Prime Wardrobe in Japan and the U.K., allowing Prime members to order clothing, shoes, and accessories and only pay for what they keep.