Amazon.com Inc. today reported a 24% year-over-year revenue increase in the third quarter, along with a $41 million net loss as the retailer boosted its spending on its fulfillment network and services by 34%.

Among its Q3 activities, Amazon deployed 1,382 Kiva robots in three fulfillment centers, says CEO Jeff Bezos. Amazon bought fulfillment services provider Kiva Systems Inc. for approximately $775 million in 2012.

“We signed up millions of new Prime members,” he says, and “began hiring and training 70,000 new U.S. [warehouse] employees to help serve customers this holiday season.”

That marks the first time Amazon gave a Prime figure for a 90-day period, an official said during today’s earnings conference call, but the e-retailer would not be more specific about that figure. A research note from Wells Fargo Securities this week estimated the Prime membership has hit 15 million, and said that Prime members spend three times as much as other Amazon customers.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30 Amazon reported:

• Net sales of $17.09 billion, a 23.7% increase from $13.81 billion in the same quarter last year.

• North American net sales of $10.30 billion, up 30.7% from $7.88 billion for the third quarter of 2012. North America accounted for about 60% of sales in the third quarter of 2012, compared with 57% in the same period last year.

• International net sales totaled $6.79 billion, up 14.7% from $5.92 billion in 2012. International accounted for about 40% of sales in the third quarter, compared with approximately 43% last year.

• Worldwide sales of books, music and videos increased 9.3% to $5.03 billion from $4.60 billion, while electronics and other general merchandise increased 29.1% to $11.04 billion from $8.55 billion in the same period last year.

• Services sales, including Amazon Web Services, a provider of data storage and computing capacity to companies of all kinds, increased to $3.28 billion from $2.26 billion, a 45.1% increase.

• Net loss of $41 million compared with net loss of $274 million in the same period last year. The net loss for Q3 2012 included a $169 million writedown of Amazon’s stake in LivingSocial, a daily-deal operator.

• Operating loss of $25 million, down 10.7% from $28 million year over year.

• Spending on marketing increased 28.5% to about $694 million from $540 million in the third quarter of 2012.

• Spending on technology and content increased 45.4% to about $1.73 billion from $1.19 billion.

• Spending on fulfillment increased 34.4% to $2.03 billion from $1.51 billion.

• General and administrative spending increased 20.9% year over year to $278 million from $230 million.

For the year to date, Amazon reported:

• Net sales of about $48.86 billion, a 22.7% increase from $39.82 billion from last year.

• North American net sales of $29.18 billion, up 28.9% from $22.63 billion for the same nine-month period last year.

• International net sales totaled $19.67 billion, up 14.5% from $17.18 billion in 2012.

• Worldwide sales of books, music and videos increased 7.9% to $14.48 billion from $13.42 billion, while electronics and other general merchandise increased 28.2% to $31.67 billion from $24.69 billion in the same period last year.

• Net income of $34 million compared with net loss of $137 million in the same period last year.

• Spending on marketing increased 29.0% to $2.00 billion from $1.55 billion in 2012.

• Spending on technology and content increased 46.4% to $4.70 billion from $3.21 billion.

• Spending on fulfillment increased 36.0% to $5.66 billion from $4.16 billion.

• General and administrative spending increased 22.3% year over year to $810 million from $662 million.

 

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