Amazon is raising the price of Prime membership in the US. An annual subscription will jump from $119 to $139, while those who pay monthly will see their fee rise from $12.99 to $14.99.
The price hike will hit all existing subscribers from 25th March 2022; new users will have to shell out more from 18th February.
Amazon last hiked the price of annual Prime membership in 2018, when it increased to $119 from $99. Four years before that, it bumped the fee from $79 to $99.
The news broke as Amazon unveiled profits of $14.3billion – almost double that of a year ago. The tidy sum, combined with the Prime price bump announcement, sent the company's shares soaring by 14 per cent.
In the UK, Amazon Prime costs £7.99 a month or £79 a year. If Amazon were to mirror its US price hike in the UK, Prime would increase to around £9.99 a month or £99 a year.
According to Amazon CEO Andy Jassey, the membership increase is down to the continued supply chain and labour shortages caused, in part, by the spread of the Omicron variant.
It's also worth remembering that Amazon has spent billions on Prime Video, its streaming rival to Netflix. Just last year, the company purchased MGM Studios for a reported $8.45 billion.
Amazon isn't alone in bumping its fees, of course. Netflix recently hiked all of its prices in the US, while competitor Disney+ added $10 to the cost of a yearly subscription last March.
Toying with the idea of joining Amazon Prime? You'd do well to grab the 30-day free trial now and lock in the lower price until March before it's too late.
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