A business Amazon launched a year ago has already generated $1 billion of revenue

In its first year, Amazon Business has generated more than $1 billion in sales from more than 400,000 business customers, the company said during its earnings report released on Thursday.

Amazon Business wasn't exactly a started-from-scratch new unit, as Venture Beat reported at the time.

It launched at the end of April, 2015 and replaced a service called AmazonSupply that had been around since 2012. AmazonSuppy was a marketplace that focused more on industrial products and office supplies. It was Amazon's first attempt to get into the market occupied by warehouse retailers.

Amazon Business is run by Prentis Wilson who also ran AmazonSuppy. Wilson came to Amazon after working as a buyer for Cisco.

The revised Amazon Business expanded the scope of the stuff for sale. As Amazon describes it, it offers "hundreds of millions of products - everything from IT and lab equipment to education and food service supplies" that businesses can buy for special prices.

It also enlisted manufacturers and distributors to sell their stuff directly to Amazon customers. Amazon said that 30,000 third-party sellers have participated and have fulfilled over half of the Amazon Business orders.

All this to say that Amazon Business may have had a bit of head start in reaching $1 billion in its first year but, even so, it looks like Amazon has another hit on its hands.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.