The ranks of people subscribing to Amazon.com Inc’s Prime service for speedy delivery of purchases and streamed television has topped 100 million, chief executive officer Jeff Bezos said on Wednesday in an annual letter.
The high in subscriptions at Prime, launched 13 year ago, was among milestones from last year shared by Bezos in the letter, a copy of which was filed with US securities regulators.
Amazon shipped more than 5 billion items through its Prime service last year and logged an unprecedented number of new memberships, Bezos said.
Prime subscriptions cost US$99 in the US and come with fast, free shipping, as well as online access to movies and television shows.
The Seattle-based company has been investing heavily in original television content.
“Prime Video continues to drive Prime member adoption and retention,” Bezos said. “We’ve expanded our slate of programming across the globe.”
Amazon offers Prime service in cities in nine countries.
In January, the company raised the monthly US Prime subscription price to US$12.99 from US$10.99, but left the annual cost at US$99.
Best known as an online retail colossus, Amazon has the leading system for hosting services or content in the cloud and is the force behind the Alexa digital assistant being built into a wide array of devices.
Amazon boasts more than 560,000 employees and reported a profit last year of slightly more than US$3 billion.
The company on Wednesday also announced a collaboration with US consumer electronics retail chain Best Buy Co to sell Toshiba and Insignia “smart” Amazon Fire televisions infused with Alexa.
“Amazon and Best Buy have a long history of working together, and today we take our partnership to a new level,” Bezos said in a joint statement.
Best Buy already sells the Amazon Kindle and other gadgets.
Amazon has begun to make its physical presence known, buying the Whole Foods Market Inc grocery chain last year and opening more than a dozen bookstores.
In addition to its own stores , Amazon is creating partnerships with traditional retailers in a sector that is threatened by its dominance.
Kohl’s Corp has carved out space for Amazon shops in some of its department stores and Sears Holdings Corp sells Kenmore appliances on Amazon.com.
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