Amazon just revealed one of its biggest, longest-kept secrets: The company has more than 100 million Prime members, CEO Jeff Bezos includes in his annual letter to shareholders.
Jeff Bezos says Amazon has more than 100 million Prime members
That’s the first time Amazon has disclosed that stat.
Asa Mathat
“13 years post-launch, we have exceeded 100 million paid Prime members globally,” he wrote. “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.”
The size of Amazon’s Prime subscriber base has long been a topic of speculation and prediction; last year, for example, BI Intelligence pegged it around 80 million members in the U.S.
Going back many years, Amazon has disclosed “tens of millions” of Prime members, but Bezos and the company famously obfuscate many stats.
The membership — $99 annually in the U.S. — generally represents Amazon’s best, highest-spending customers, who receive benefits like fast, free shipping, unlimited access to Prime streaming videos, preferred pricing in Amazon’s retail book stores and more.
The letter also disclosed that Amazon Music has “tens of millions of paid customers” — compared to Spotify’s 71 million and Apple Music’s more than 40 million.
“Amazon Music Unlimited, our on-demand, ad-free offering, expanded to more than 30 new countries in 2017, and membership has more than doubled over the past six months,” Bezos wrote.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
