Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best.” Said Nancy Pearcey and we here at EasyRates couldn’t agree more. With Amazon launching it’s E-Commerce services in Singapore later this year, local online retailers Lazada, Redmart have joined forces with video streaming service Netflix and ride sharing and food delivery app Uber and Uber Eats to come up with it’s LiveUp membership program to combat the arrival of Amazon and it’s popular membership program Amazon Prime.
What Is LiveUp?
LiveUp is a paid membership program offering discounts and perks at the participating websites (Lazada, Netflix. Uber, UberEats and Redmart). Membership starts at $28/ year during this promotional period and will be $49.90/year when that ends.
LiveUp is inspired by Amazon’s Prime service that provides access to a few of Amazon’s services such as Prime Video, Music and Reading (Which provides video streaming, music streaming and unlimited reading of a selection of books and magazines) as well as audio books from Audible and bundles that with fast (as fast as 2 hours), free shipping on over 50 million eligible items. This is of course an ingenious idea as it encourages customers to watch videos, stream music, read books and of course buy more from Amazon and stay within the Amazon ecosystem.
LiveUp is quite similar, with Lazada offering free and fast delivery as part of membership (Though we are curious if Lazada will soon be offering 2 hour deliveries as well), while Netflix provides video streaming, with RedMart, Uber and UberEats providing some perks as well. Though LiveUp will at launch offer less services than Amazon Prime, it also does so at a fraction of the cost, with membership at $49.90 while Amazon Prime has an annual subscription of $99 USD (SGD$138.37) and is not available in Singapore yet.
So What Kind Of Perks Does LiveUp Offer?
6 Month Free 2 Screens + HD Subscription (Worth $83.88)
Get SGD 10 off every 10th ride (Up to 12 times a year)
Enjoy exclusive Uber VIP access in Singapore
Refunded delivery fee for orders over SGD 35 (Up to 4 times a month)
(Worth about $144)(Based on the lowest delivery fee of $3)
10% rebate* on every order until 30 June 2017, 5% ongoing rebate (Capped at SGD50/ Month)
Free & fast delivery storewide, always
Free delivery on every order from Taobao Collection
5% rebate* on every order
Exclusive LiveUp member-only promotions
* Rebate issued in the form of Lazada/ RedMart credits and redeemable on Lazada/ RedMart within 30 days
Is It Worth It?
Definitely! At the current promotion price of $28.80/ year – $49.90 after the promotional period -LiveUp is a steal! The free 6 month Netflix subscription alone is worth the cost of subscription.
Special Note
If you already have a Netflix account, don’t worry about it, your account will instead be credited with $27.96 (2 Months worth of 2 Screens + HD Subscription) during the trial period. With the remaining 4 Months credit balance provided when you end your trial period and pay for your annual subscription.
Whether or not the other perks from Lazada, Redmart and Uber are useful to you however, very much depends on your own personal preferences and online shopping habits, with loads of competition from Qoo10, HonestBee and Grab, you may not end up using many of these perks.
Our Verdict
If you’re currently on a Netflix subscription and intend to stay on it for a while, this is definitely a great choice for you and a no brainer. Otherwise, you’d have to be a fairly regular user of the services offered by Lazada, Redmart and Uber to make LiveUp worth it. Also, the rebates from Redmart and Lazada are offered as credits to be used when you shop at these sites again, expiring in 30 days which makes it a little less worth it.
All that said though, at the promotional price of $28/year – and later only at $49.90 a year – LiveUp is pretty worth it, but you don’t have to make that decision right now, since there’s a free 60 day trial with all the perks included. We hope you enjoyed reading our review of the new LiveUp Membership Program. Do you think we left something out? Leave us a comment in the section below! Love what we write? Share us on Facebook!