It Turns Out People Really Like Amazon Prime
It's hard to believe that Amazon Prime has been available for 13 years at this point, but perhaps ever more surprising is Amazon's hesitancy to talk about just how popular it is among users. Obviously, we can guess that Prime has been a big win for Amazon, but the fact that the company has never shared specific subscriber numbers means it's impossible to know just how successful it's been. That all changed today, as Amazon finally shared some hard numbers for the first time in Prime's 13-year history.
As it turns out, Amazon Prime is indeed the smashing success we all thought it was. In a letter to investors, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos reported that the service has over 100 million subscribers. Many of those subscribers are paying at least $99 a year for the service, so Amazon is raking in a significant amount of cash from Prime subscribers alone.
On top of that, Amazon says that it has now shipped 5 billion items through Amazon Prime, which is an eye-watering number indeed. Shipping is the main draw of Amazon Prime, as it allows users to get free two-day shipping on all Prime-eligible items. As time goes on, more and more items become eligible for Prime, making a subscription more valuable to those who do a lot of shopping on Amazon each year.
While free shipping is definitely the biggest benefit, the other perks afforded to Prime subscribers keep expanding as well. Those who shell out for Prime get access to Prime Video, Amazon's own Netflix competitor, as well as Prime Music, which is a pared-back version of the company's subscription-based Amazon Music Unlimited service. Prime benefits also expand to other sites Amazon owns, such as Twitch.tv, where users can subscribe to one streamer for free and net some on-the-house games each month.
Speaking of Music Unlimited, Bezos also stated that it now has "tens of millions" of subscribed users, though in typical Amazon fashion, he didn't share specific numbers. Still, he suggests that Music Unlimited is growing quickly, as it saw membership double over the past six months. Perhaps we're looking at a service that will one day be a serious threat to Spotify and Apple Music? Time will tell. For now, head down to the comments section and let us know if you're one of Amazon's 100 million Prime users!