Amazon added 50 million Prime subscribers over the pandemic, touched 200 million

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is all set to step down in Q3 2021 to make way for Andy Jassy to take over and he has written his final annual letter to Amazon’s shareholders. In the letter, Bezos has mentioned that the number of Amazon Prime subscribers has reached 200 million. This new figure surpasses the 150 million subscribers milestone Amazon crossed in Q4 2019. This essentially means that Amazon had 50 million subscribers signing up for Amazon Prime, a service that offers fast shipping, original TV content, etc, over the pandemic last year. And that accounts for an approximate 33% growth.

And speaking of numbers, that’s not all. Last year was Amazon’s most profitable year yet and it managed to grow bigger over a time when many, many other businesses crashed or shrank. Halfway through 2020, when the US saw the first big surge in Covid-19 cases across the country, Amazon was already doubling its profits, and this was even after the company pledged $4 billion of its Q2 2020 earnings to buy personal protective equipment (PPE), clean its facilities, ensure higher wages for hourly teams, and explain its Covid-19 testing capabilities. By March 2021, Amazon got FDA authorisation for an at-home Covid-19 test kit that they had developed.

As The Verge points out, 2020 has been a busy year for any CEO to steer through, especially as a final year. And it was also a year of handing both the pandemic and a company like Amazon that’s this big and this profitable. But despite all the success, 2020 has been a PR nightmare for the company. Amazon’s warehouse employees who are major players in its success are still struggling to be recognised and have failed to create a union. And 2021 has seen Amazon fighting on Twitter with US state representatives about taxes and also publicly disputing reports about some Amazon workers having to pee in bottles to meet the company targets. 

Amazon later apologised to Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) the - “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?” tweet. Bezos mentioned in the letter that they needed to do a better job for their employees after the union vote. You can read the full letter here.