The Japanese unit of Amazon.com announced Wednesday its expansion to sell compact discs, digital versatile discs and video tapes, but said there was no sign of the company making a profit yet.
Jeffrey Bezos, founder and chief operating officer of the U.S.-based dot-com giant, told a news conference in Tokyo that the book business in Japan is going steadily.
Since Amazon opened its Japanese Web site in November, the number of registered customers has reached 400,000, he said.
Bezos did not disclose its membership target for the Japanese operation after starting additional services.
He said Amazon plans to report its overall operating profits in the October-December period, although the firm's Japan operation will remain in an "investment phase."
Amazon.co.jp now offers 360,000 CD titles, 10,000 DVD titles, and 66,000 video titles in addition to 1.8 million Japanese and foreign book titles.
Bezos said Japan's resale price maintenance system for products acquiring copyrights, including books and CDs, is not a big problem for its online business.
Providing a wide selection of goods is the primary value that Amazon creates for customers in any country, he said, adding that convenience and price are the second and third most important factors.
About the potential of Japan's business-to-consumer electronic commerce market, Bezos said: "In some way Japan ultimately will be even a better place to do e-commerce, in part because population density is so high in Japan, real estate is very expensive, and delivery distances are quite short."
While Amazon has entered e-commerce markets in five countries -- Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.S. -- it has no current plan to advance into new countries, Bezos said.