Amazon (AMZN) Investors Cheer 18% Prime Price Hike, Members Grumble

Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) two dollar increase in the price of its monthly Prime membership may not be a big deal for some members, but it had a big impact on the stock Friday, sending share up as much as 1.4%. For a behemoth like Amazon with a $630 billion market cap, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Amazon raised the price for the monthly Prime subscription from $10.99 to $12.99. Students will pay $6.49, up from $5.49. Interestingly, the annual subscription rate was unchanged at $99, or $49 for students.

The change goes into effect in February for existing customers.

Overall, Prime members were less thrilled than Wall Street about the price increase, and some expressed disappointment on twitter and threatened to cancel, but many users are likely to continue to see value in free two-day shipping, unlimited streaming, and other features.

“So Amazon Prime is increasing its cost.....but its still worth it for same-day, 2-day shipping, and the shows (Man in the High Castle!!),” said @MattofMind on twitter.

@BZRKBadger wrote, "@amazon raising the price of prime by $2, with what new benefits...nothing. ok, good time to rethink ‘value’."

StreetInsider Premium first published a variation of this article at 9:06AM ET. Try StreetInsider Premium for two weeks free here.

You May Also Be Interested In

• Active options: AMZN NFLX HTZ MSTR NBIS PLTR SNDK CRWV MSFT ONDS ORCL CSCO
• NANO Nuclear Announces Participation in Several Investor Conferences
• Cisco rating cut at HSBC as analyst sees a lack of catalysts