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Amazon’s Social Network Seems a Lot like Pinterest 

The News

This screen grab shows Amazon's new "social network," Amazon Spark, displayed on an iPhone. The service, which launched publicly Tuesday, July 18, 2017, and is only available to Prime members in Amazon's loyalty program, is aimed at hardcore Amazon users and encourages them to spend more money with the e-commerce giant. (Courtesy of Amazon via AP)

NEW YORK – Amazon is launching a new social network aimed at getting its hardcore users to spend even more money with the e-commerce giant.

The new service, called Spark, essentially takes Amazon Prime, mixes it with Pinterest and adds a dash of Instagram. Like Pinterest, it lets users share photo-heavy posts about their interests, ideally those leading to shopping.


The service launched publicly on Tuesday on Amazon’s iPhone app, and is only open to Prime members, who pay $99 a year for Amazon’s loyalty program. An Android version is planned.

Spark first asks users to select at least five subject areas of interest. The app then generates an Instagram-like feed of posts that display yellow dots on purchasable items in the photos. Tapping the dots displays links to Amazon product pages.