Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), known to be secretive about the number of its Prime members said that within a week before Christmas it added approximately three million new members. The phenomenal growth could have been stimulated by the online holiday shoppers. The key factors driving this latest growth for Amazon are the $99/year free shipping service and subscription for video streaming.
More Than 60 Million Prime Members
Amazon avoids divulging its exact number of Prime members; however, it does usually roll out an approximate number of its Prime members. According to analysts, Amazon had at least 60 million to 80 million Prime members globally in September, months before the start of the holiday season. A close competitor, Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) reports to be having around 69 million members across more than 60 countries in the world.
Even though the Prime membership services of Amazon are available in most of the countries, its Prime Video product is only available to users in the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Japan.
Thus, the figures indicate that it was one of the most successful and eventful years for the Seattle based company. Amazon is trying to overcome fierce competition it faces from the leading traditional retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT). Traditional retailers have aggressively starting pushing off their e-commerce initiatives to rival e-commerce giants like Amazon. Amazon is also focusing on the new age rivals like Jet.com.
Record Business
Amazon described its success as ‘record holiday business’ and hinted that more than 200 million items were shipped through Prime free during the current holiday season. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon in a press release said that the company had another great holiday season via Prime with more than three million new members joining the company in the third week of December.
According to Bezos, the Prime members have doubled their time of viewing the Prime Video and its original title; ‘The Man in the High Castle’ is the most watched television series on the Prime Video. Almost a year ago, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) had indicated its new Prime membership stood at 10 million new members worldwide without making the actual figure clear.
Sources: geekwire
