Amazon to increase fee for Prime members by 20 percent

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had revealed in his annual letter to shareholders that there are over 100 million Amazon Prime members worldwide. 

The increased for prime membership comes after Amazon posted its first quarter results, which show a 43% sales jump. A significant portion of that was driven by demand for Amazons cloud services, but product sales registered a very strong 33% gain, reports eMarketer. 

Amazon said it made USD 9.7 billion from subscription services, representing 5% of total sales. However, that figure is not exclusively Prime membership fees, as it includes sales from Amazons Kindle Unlimited, Music Unlimited service and others, though. 

The rising costs of providing the service were cited as a factor in the price change. The company pointed up faster shipping speeds and the wider range of eligible items.  Its much different that in was in 2014, said Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky on a call with analysts.