Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos have been in the news a lot lately, whether it’s about the possible site of the company’s new headquarters or a “feud” with the President. Bezos was all business in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday though, as he revealed Amazon has more than 100 million Amazon Prime subscribers around the world.
In the 13 years since it has launched, Amazon Prime has served provided numerous incentives for being apart of the monthly or annual membership program. Perks include free and discounted shipping, music and video streaming, and free e-books.
These fees aren’t the only way the program makes the company money though, as the shipping department is rather profitable as well. According to the CEO, Amazon shipped more than 5 billion items through Prime in 2017. More than half of those were sold through third-party sellers, while Amazon’s own goods sold well too, with 2017 being a phenomenal year for devices like the Amazon Echo and Fire.
With Prime costing $99 a year or $12.99 a month in the US, with similar membership prices in 15 other countries, previous estimates by outside analysts guess that the number would be around 90 million in 2017.
How does this all stack up against the competition though? Below is a comparison of the most notable subscription services that Amazon Prime competes against (entertainment wise).
Netflix: 125 million
Amazon Prime: 100 million
Spotify: 71 million
Apple Music: 40 million
Hulu Plus: 17 million
Quite possibly the most interesting thing about all of this is that this is the first Bezos publicly stated how many Prime members the company has signed up.
Time will only tell how many subscribers Amazon Prime will have by this time next year. But be sure to tune back into the site for updates in the meantime.
