Rich people love Amazon Prime

Amazon's Prime membership service continues to take over upper income households in the US, a new survey from financial firm Piper Jaffray shows.

Amazon Prime is the company's paid membership service that costs $99 a year or $10.99 a month. Subscribers get free two-day shipping, access to a bunch of video and music streaming content, as well as online storage space.

According to the survey, households with over $112,000 a year in annual income continued to show the highest penetration among all income groups.

Nearly 75% of households making over $112,000 a year are estimated to be Prime members, up from about 50% a year ago, and roughly 70% last quarter.

Check out the products under $50 flying off Amazon's shelves:

But Piper Jaffray noted that the income group that showed the sharpest penetration increase was households making $68,000 to $112,000 a year, as it surpassed 60% for the first time this quarter.

"Growth from households earning $68K-$112K/year (4th quintile) was the largest contributor to growth, which we believe is indicative of upper middle income penetration having more room to grow," Piper Jaffray wrote in the note.

All in all, Piper Jaffray estimates there are between 60 and 65 million Prime households in the US, and more than 70 million worldwide, contributing roughly $7 billion in pure cash to Amazon's balance sheet.

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