Amazon Prime is like the best thing ever if you happen to be an avid online shopper. Or if you like TV and movies. Or music. The subscription service that includes two day shipping on physical orders has been a huge hit on subscribers. This year their numbers grew.
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Venture Beat reports that over 10 million people tried Amazon Prime for the holidays this year. That's a really impressive number.
The thing about it though is that the company probably didn't earn $990 million worth of revenue from it. Some of those, a large number of them probably, were likely free trial periods that either came from the special promotions or people who just purchased a Kindle Fire for Christmas.
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The company pushes Prime membership at every turn, offering free trial months that can be cancelled as part of the deal. During the holiday season, it makes sense to try it out since you'll be ordering a number of items as gifts and the like.
This isn't to say that the service isn't popular, it most certainly is. Back in 2013 they had 10 million subscribers and the number hasn't gone down so it's a safe bet that even with the price hike from $79 to $99 a year, people are still invested in the program.
Which is a good thing as the company is trying out their new Prime Now service which offers one hour delivery on certain items. If they're able to do it successfully, it will conquer one of Amazon's largest hurdles; lack of instant gratification.