22 charts that show the incredible growth of Amazon Prime

AP

Amazon Prime is the online retailer's paid membership program that gives people free two-day shipping, free access to a bunch of books, movies and music, as well as unlimited cloud photo storage space.

Prime is an important part of Amazon's business because it helps to create more loyal customers who tend to spend more on its site.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos likes to call Prime "an all-you-can-eat, physical-digital hybrid that members love."

These 22 charts will give you a better idea of what Prime is and how the business is doing:

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

Amazon Prime originally launched as an annual membership program. Until last month, it only offered a $99/year option. Now it comes in three different tiers: an annual, monthly, and a video-only service.

Prime's growth has ramped up over the past two years, as it added more benefits and content, while expanding to more markets. Amazon doesn't disclose the exact number of Prime members, but the estimate is roughly 80 million worldwide.

Prime's biggest market is the US. Evercore estimates there are at least 64 million Prime members in the US alone ...