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Comment by antirez | Hacker News Reader

Never understood why prime is so cheap in Europe. In Italy is 20 euros, and was 10 a few years ago. Sure, prime video here has a very weak offer, but still free shipment for 20/year is a good deal.

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Probably greater density -> cheaper shipping.

Also they probably are working to lock people in initially with low prices and hike prices overtime once they are dependent (monthly scheduled shipments, etc)

Yep locking was my best guess...

The comfort you never needed.

It varies quite a bit; it's 50€/year in Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg, and 70€/year in Germany/Austria, for exemple.

Terrible offer for Prime Video in Europe indeed, but also very cheap as standalone, around 3EUR/month. I’m not sure what the long term plan is. I’d assume they will add live streaming content (football, olympics etc)? That’s what really brings people in front of the screen.

They're still breaking into the market. Same with non-prime free shipping in Europe, its very good. Once Amazon becomes dominant online and local shops close you'll see Amazon prices rise and quality slip like it is in USA (1-2 weeks to deliver non-prime boxes).

Not all of Europe. It's £8/month in the UK. But lots of things say they'll come next day, and then usually do. And the movie selection is arguably better than on Netflix.

Amazon Prime is great in the UK. I'm surprised that it's two-day shipping in the US. That doesn't seem like a good deal at all. In the UK I regularly get items from ordering to my doorstep in under twelve hours and I don't live near any major city.

The US is huge. You won’t get cheap one day shipping anywhere. Although if you’re in a major city or some other lucky area you will sometimes get one day delivery or same day on Prime items or when choosing two day shipping.

It won’t stay that way. But yeah that’s surprising it’s still so cheap in Italy. Perhaps they haven’t cornered the market yet or have enough customers.

Other comment are right but you also forget about salary (which are lower, so purchase power is smaller)

Belgians are one in top of the richest in the world, by averages.

So we just don't spend it as much, as we have excellent cheap health care and in America, it seems you can go broke if one thing happens due to extreme costs -> more spending. That's seems to be my current opinion of reading HN, feel free to correct me

I have this to back me up :https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_financi...

But I'm wondering what the averages would be if we exclude the top 2%. Which probably skew the numbers for the USA ( not sure)

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