When Netflix and different streaming giants discovered themselves in want of extra cash, they cracked down on viewers who shared passwords.
Folks grumbled, however the gambit labored.
Now, the identical precept is being utilized to a different service we use every single day: On-line delivery.
Amazon is discontinuing a well-liked service that allowed Amazon Prime members to share quick, free delivery privileges with folks outdoors their family, marking a serious shift in how Amazon orders are fulfilled and probably elevating prices.
This system, Prime Invitee, will vanish in lower than a month.
By this system, which began in 2009, an Amazon Prime member might share their delivery advantages with one different grownup, even when that particular person used a unique handle. The invitee obtained a restricted Prime account with the free two-day delivery perk.
Prime Invitee stopped taking new enrollees in 2015 — however legacy customers have been in a position to proceed to benefit from the perk.
The Invitee program is ending Oct. 1. Taking its place — for the estimated 240 million Prime subscribers worldwide, greater than 180 million within the U.S. alone — is the Amazon Household program, the place delivery and different advantages could be shared so long as the members reside on the similar handle.
“Amazon Household allows Prime members to share a variety of advantages with one grownup — whether or not that may be a partner, member of the family, or roommate — and Prime Video and extra digital content material like Kindle eBooks, audiobooks, and video games, with as much as 4 kids of their family,” Amazon stated in a press release to The Occasions.
Dan Ives, an analyst at monetary providers agency Wedbush Securities, stated Amazon’s determination to vary its subscription coverage is a “signal of the instances.”
He stated the e-commerce large was taking a web page from Netflix.
The issue that streamers reminiscent of Netflix wrestled with was clients sharing or promoting info for complete accounts. These streamers beforehand turned a blind eye to password sharing, seeing it as a manner of rising their viewers. The observe was sophisticated for on-line suppliers by illicit marketplaces that popped up promoting account passwords. Streamers and pay-TV suppliers misplaced $9.1 billion in income in 2019 to account sharing and piracy.
Some specialists thought the shared password crackdown was dangerous, however it turned out to be a giant success for Netflix and different streamers like HBO Max launched their very own efforts.
A crackdown on password sharing adopted. Now, Amazon is cracking down, too. Though the Prime program doesn’t contain password sharing — slightly, the invitee has a stripped-down model of a Prime account — it does unfold the perk throughout households.
Based on Reuters, which cited inside firm knowledge, Amazon’s latest Prime Day (which this 12 months was prolonged to 4 days for the primary time) failed to satisfy final 12 months’s whole U.S. sign-ups. A Reuters evaluation discovered that the corporate acquired 5.4 million in U.S. sign-ups over 21-days forward of the July Prime Day this 12 months, an estimated 116,000 fewer than the 12 months earlier than — the info didn’t embrace the precise time interval for 2024.
Amazon pushed again on the report in a press release to The Occasions, saying its Prime membership continues to point out robust progress and buyer engagement within the nation and internationally, as reported in its second-quarter earnings.
“Moreover, Prime Day 2025 and the three weeks main as much as the occasion had record-breaking Prime buyer sign-ups worldwide,” the assertion stated. “We proceed to see sturdy adoption globally.”
However, the Prime Invitee program is being phased out.
Amazon is following “Netflix’s mannequin when it comes to the household program and attempting to finally crack down on password and account share,” Ives instructed The Occasions. “For Netflix, it’s been a house run success. And Amazon goes to go down the identical path. … It’s a power concern for Amazon.”
“The clock struck midnight on this for lots of households,” Ives stated of Prime Invitee.
However does the corporate stand to lose members as a result of change?
Free delivery is necessary to many U.S. buyers.
A latest survey by private finance web site NerdWallet discovered that greater than 2 in 5 Individuals stated they might virtually all the time go for a retailer that provides free delivery over one which doesn’t. Survey members additionally stated the 2 most necessary elements after they store on-line are lowest value and free delivery.
A lot of those that need to preserve the Prime delivery perk will now must pay for it. For these affected by the change, Amazon is providing a limited-time deal of 12 months of Prime for $14.99. The supply is legitimate till Dec. 31. The membership recurrently prices $14.99 a month, $139 for a 12 months.
Ives doesn’t anticipate clients to desert Prime as a result of Amazon’s newest transfer as a result of he stated many view the service as being as important as their utilities or TV service. Added to that, the corporate doesn’t have a lot competitors on the identical scale, he stated.
What does the Amazon Household program supply?
The Amazon Household program provides Prime members the chance to share membership advantages with one different grownup of their family, as much as 4 teenagers (who had been added earlier than April 7, 2025) and as much as 4 profiles for kids.
Further grownup members and any former invitees who don’t reside with the account holder will want their very own Prime membership.
For a Prime member to share a profit with one other grownup, the handle should be one “you contemplate to be your private home and the place you spend the vast majority of your time,” based on Amazon.
Shared advantages from this system embrace:
- Free supply on Prime-eligible objects.
- Entry to unique Prime occasions and offers .
- Prime video (with advertisements).
- Prime Studying, which incorporates e-books and audiobooks however a smaller library than Amazon’s Kindle Limitless service.
- Entry to third-party advantages (for instance, Grubhub with no supply charges).
- Amazon Music Prime could be shared with one different grownup within the Amazon household. This enables each adults to entry ad-free listening on shuffle.
