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Amazon signs 10 million new Prime members during the holidays

In its annual post-Christmas debrief, the company also touts the coming expansion of its one-hour delivery service, mobile shopping and Fire TV.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury
2 min read

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

Amazon, in its annual day-after-Christmas debrief, announced Friday that this holiday season it signed up 10 million new members to its Prime service, which costs $99 a year.

Prime's two-day shipping was likely the big draw for customers -- particularly last-minute shoppers -- but Amazon is also touting other Kindle perks such as e-book and video rentals, and even its one-hour delivery service, Amazon Now, which debuted last week in Manhattan.

While eBay's rival Now delivery service discontinued in 2014, it seems eBay's loss is the online giant's gain as Amazon announced plans to expand in 2015.

"We are working hard to make Prime even better and expanding the recently launched Prime Now to additional cities in 2015," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in the press release, without mentioning specific cities. He added that Amazon customers ordered more than 10 times as many items with the company's same-day delivery over the same period in 2013.

Almost 60 percent of Amazon customers shopped this season using a mobile device. And Cyber Monday once again was Amazon's peak mobile shopping day.

As for its customers' gift lists, Amazon said that its own Fire TV Stick, Fire HD 6 and Fire HD 7 were among the most wished-for items on the site this holiday season. Amazon Fire TV was the best-selling streaming media box, and the Fire TV Stick is now the fastest-selling Amazon device ever.

Here are a few more top sellers in tech-related categories (where "Frozen"-themed goods aren't as popular):

  • TVs: Samsung 32-inch 1080p 60Hz Smart LED TV; Samsung 40-inch 1080p 60Hz Smart LED TV; LG Electronics 42-inch 1080p 60Hz LED TV
  • Cameras: GoPro Headstrap Mount + Quick Clip; GoPro HERO4 SILVER; Accessories Kit for GoPro Hero4
  • Computers: Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-inch, 2GB); ASUS Chromebook 13-inch with Gigabit WiFi (16GB, 2GB); HP 11-2010nr 11.6-inch Chromebook (Snow White)
  • Video Games: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare; Just Dance 2015; Super Smash Bros