In the past an analyst has suggested that companies such as Apple should consider launching more subscription-based services for both hardware and software. If Apple ever needed convincing that the subscription model works, Amazon might be the one to do it as the company has recently confirmed that Amazon Prime has over 100 million members.This is according to a recent SEC filing (via CNN) in which Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos who wrote a letter to shareholders revealed the number. According to the letter (in part), “13 years post-launch, we have exceeded 100 million paid Prime members globally. In 2017 Amazon shipped more than five billion items with Prime worldwide, and more new members joined Prime than in any previous year – both worldwide and in the U.S.”
As CNN points out, Bezos has in the past been a bit cagey when it comes to announcing Prime membership figures and previous estimates had it around 90 million, which we guess came pretty close to the official figures. That being said, it’s not surprising that there are so many Prime customers especially when you consider the perks that are part of it, such as free and expedited shipping, Prime-exclusive sales, cloud storage, music, videos, and more.
Also with over 100 million members, this means that based purely on revenue generated by Prime membership fees of $99 a year, Amazon is pulling in at least $10 billion. Also as it stands, Prime is still somewhat limited in its availability and we can only imagine those numbers growing should Amazon expand to more countries in the future.
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