(CMR) Amazon is raising the price of its annual Prime subscriptions from $119 to $139 per year in the United States, the company announced Thursday. A monthly subscription will also increase from $12.99 to $14.99.
The change will go into effect on February 18 for new Prime members and after March 25 for existing members.
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. Amazon's global workforce has reportedly doubled over the past two years, to 1.6 million employees, and the company also said last year that it had increased wages for thousands of workers.
Meantime, the company reported that profits also doubled during the December-end quarter, to $14.3 billion. According to CNN, the huge jump in profit was due mainly to the company's accounting for its investment in electric vehicle company Rivian Automotive, which had a massive IPO in November.
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