Amazon Prime increases its annual subscription by 39% to 49.90 euros
Inflation and declining business are also affecting tech giants like Amazon. The company has announced by email to its customers that the Amazon Prime subscription, the service that includes everything from free shipping to the streaming service or playing online on its platform, will increase in price from September 15: from 3, 99 euros to 4.99 euros in the monthly plan, and from 36 euros to 49.90 euros in the annual plan, which means increases of 25% and 39% respectively. Since 2018 the company had not increased its prices in Spain.
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The rise in prices has not been only in Spain, it has also affected other European countries. For example, in Germany, Amazon's largest market outside the US, Amazon Prime will increase its price by 30%, while members of the subscription service in France will pay 43% more.
The company has justified the increase in its rates "to the general and material increase in spending levels due to the increase in inflation, which affects the specific costs of the Prime service in Spain and which is due to external circumstances that do not depend on Amazon.”
Amazon follows the path of other large technology companies that had a boom with the pandemic and now see their businesses falling because there are no longer confinements while there is a general increase in costs due to the war in Ukraine.
6,000 million in income in Spain, but paid only 292
The company assures that it has improved its services during these years without increasing prices since 2018: “During this time we have increased the selection of products available with fast and unlimited Prime shipping, added and expanded the ultra-fast shipping of fresh products from supermarket and added more high-quality digital entertainment, including series, movies, music, games and books. Specifically, Prime Video has increased the number of Amazon Originals series and movies.
Amazon has specified that it will give more details of the price increase when the renewal period approaches: “customers can check the details of their next renewal date, switch to an annual plan, with savings of more than 9 euros per year regarding the monthly payment or cancel your Amazon Prime subscription at amazon.es/amazonprime”.
Parallel to the price increase, the company is maintaining a forceful content purchase strategy in its battle with other platforms. On the one hand, it has reached a agreement to broadcast the Champions League in the UK starting in the 2024/2025 season, a tournament that has already been offered in Italy and Germany since last season. In addition, this year closed the purchase of the MGM studios for 6,900 million euros.
Like other companies in the sector, Amazon is also giving the leap into the healthcare business to diversify its income: it has bought the medical insurer One Medical for 3.9 billion dollars.
The Amazon's income in Spain "exceeded 6,000 million euros” in 2021, but only paid 292 million, according to a company statement.
