Amazon launches a new digital subscription marketplace

Amazon announced today that it’s launching a new marketplace hub for third party companies to sell subscriptions for digital services.

The new service, called “Subscribe with Amazon,” will serve as a central, trustworthy hub for digital subscriptions. While business will have to apply and get approved by Amazon to be featured on the marketplace, the requirements aren’t too tough. For now, that the product must be a “digital app, website, or software,” with a US address that charges some kind of recurring fee. For example, the marketplace currently offers things as diverse as access to the New Yorker, a subscription to Sling TV’s online television service, and Creativebug’s instruction videos.

Right now, Amazon is only offering third parties to apply for digital products, but it’s easy to see how the service could expand to physical subscriptions (like say, snack boxes or makeup.)

Businesses will have the ability to build custom Amazon pages, and to offer a variety of subscription options, including introductory, monthly, and annual rates. And of course, companies will have the option to offer Amazon Prime customers exclusive discounts, should they so choose. When it comes to monetization, Amazon takes a 30 percent cut of transactions for a customer’s first year as a subscriber, which goes down to 15 percent afterwards.