Amazon raises monthly fee for Prime service by 18 percent

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(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Friday raised the monthly fee for Amazon Prime, its fast-shipping and video-streaming service, to $12.99 from $10.99, while maintaining the annual fee.

The company also hiked the monthly subscription fee for Amazon Prime Student members, its service targeting college students, to $6.49 from $5.49.

Existing monthly Prime and Prime Student members will pay the new price for renewals after Feb. 18, Amazon said on its website. amzn.to/2mRHs6C

The annual Prime membership fees would remain at $99 and for student members at $49.

Amazon had hiked the annual fee for the service by 25 percent to $99 in 2014.

Amazon Prime is a key growth driver for the company as members tend to buy more from the e-commerce giant.

Revenue from subscription fees that include Prime jumped 59 percent to $2.4 billion in the quarter ended Sept.30.

Amazon’s shares were up 1.2 percent at $1,309.00 in early trading on Friday.