Net income for the three months ended 30 September, Amazon's third financial quarter, tumbled from $231m in 2010 to $63m.
Amazon ramped up its marketing spend for the quarter by 53% to $370m, compared to $241m the previous year.
Its investment in technology and content, related to its new range of Kindle devices including its tablet Kindle Fire, soared 73% to £769m.
In September, . Priced at the lower end of the market from Apple's iPad at $199, it aims to be the perfect platform for content and will ship on 15 November in the US.
It also unveiled two other Kindle e-readers, along with a raft of licensing agreements with broadcasters including 20th Century Fox, Sony and CBS, to provide its Amazon Prime customers with 12,000 movies and TV shows to stream.
Amazon is reported to be investing in further content deals to support the Kindle Fire.
Amazon did not release specific Kindle sales figures. However, Jeff Bezos, its founder and chief executive, said 28 September, which was the day the new Kindle range went on sale in the US, was the biggest order day for Kindle to date.
He said: "In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch. And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned."
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