Amazon is raising the price of annual Prime memberships to $139
By Clare Duffy, CNN Business
Amazon is raising the price of its annual Prime subscriptions from $119 to $139 per year in the United States, the company announced along with its earnings report Thursday. The price of a monthly subscription will also increase from $12.99 to $14.99.
The company said it is increasing the price because of “expanded Prime membership benefits,” such as added Prime Video content and expanded free same-day shipping, as well to compensate for the rising costs of labor and transportation in its distribution network. The move comes as prices for just about everything — from food to energy — have gone up in recent months. Amazon also said last year that it had raised wages for thousands of workers.
The company last raised prices for Prime in 2018, when it bumped the annual membership up from $99. The latest price hike represents a 17% increase.
The change will go into effect on February 18 for new Prime members and after March 25 for existing members.
The Prime price hike wasn’t the only major news in the report. The company’s profits also doubled during the December-end quarter, to $14.3 billion, blowing past Wall Street analyst expectations. The huge jump in profit was due largely to the company’s accounting for its investment in electric vehicle company Rivian Automotive, which had a massive IPO in November.
And while the company posted operating losses in both its North America and international e-commerce business, its biggest profit driver, Amazon Web Services, reported a nearly 49% increase in operating income, to $5.3 billion.
Overall sales from the quarter were up more than 9% from the year-ago quarter, to $137.4 billion, just shy of the $137.6 billion analysts had forecast.
Amazon shares jumped more than 17% in after-hours trading following the report Thursday.
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