Amazon reveals number of Prime members for first time

More than 5 billion Prime items were shipped worldwide last year

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has finally answered a question his company has declined to answer for more than a decade. In his letter to shareholders, the richest man in the world talked some turkey, too.

For those who wonder how many Amazon Prime members there are on planet Earth, it’s more than 100 million, Bezos said.

The chief executive’s revelation represents the first time since Prime was launched 13 years ago that Amazon has made public the number of members.

Prime members pay $99 a year, or $49 for students, to receive free, expedited shipping on more than 100 million items. Other benefits also come with the membership, for example at the upscale grocery chain Amazon bought last year: “Our Prime member exclusive promotion broke Whole Foods’ all-time record for turkeys sold during the Thanksgiving season,” Bezos said in his letter.

Last year, the company shipped more than 5 billion items ordered via Prime, Bezos said, adding that more new members joined Prime in 2017 than in any other year, both globally and in the U.S.

The Seattle e-commerce giant has reported for the past few years the revenue it garnered through “subscription services,” providing an indication of its Prime sales without specifying the number of members. In its annual report for 2017, Amazon charted rapid growth in subscription-generated revenue, from $4.5 billion in 2015 to $6.4 billion in 2016 to $9.7 billion in 2017.