Eric Ravenscraft
In 2014, Amazon raised the yearly price of its Prime subscription from $79 per year to $99. Starting May 11th, it’s getting bumped again up to $119 per year.
The new price will take effect starting May 11th. Current subscribers will see the increase whenever their subscriptions renew after June 16th. If your Prime subscription renews between now and June 16th, congratulations, you won’t see your price go up until next year.
The price bump is, if not expected, then at least predictable. Amazon continues to use Prime as a vehicle for new beneficial programs to keep subscribers hooked on more than just free two-day shipping. So far this year alone, the company has added Whole Foods delivery to Prime Now, and has started giving away free PC games to Prime subscribers with Twitch.
The subscription is so successful that Jeff Bezos recently announced that over 100 million people globally are members. That’s a lot of money, but with all the benefits Amazon keeps adding, it’s also a large expense. Raising the price for users every few years will probably lose a few subscribers, but most will stay.
In Q1 of 2018, Amazon made $51.04 billion in revenue. A $20 price increase to 100 million Prime users will net an immediate $2 billion in additional revenue for Amazon.
Source: Recode
