Amazon on Wednesday announced its "Login with Amazon" service that will allow consumers to login to games, applications and more using their Amazon credentials. It's a similar service to what Google, Facebook and Twitter already offer, and it provides developers and consumers alike with a new option for accessing popular apps without having to create a separate username and password.

The option has been available for select consumers who decided to access Woot and Zappos, two Amazon properties. The company found that 40 percent of its new Zappos.com customers opted to use Login with Amazon while new customers on Woot used the option "two times more often than any other social login on their site," the online retailer said.

Using an Amazon account to login to a game or application provides access to Amazon's GameCircle achievements and leaderboards, the ability to make in-app purchases with an Amazon account and more. It also offers greater distribution opportunities for developers through Amazon's AppStore.

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Amazon Announces Login with Amazon to Reduce Sign-In Friction and Drive Higher Customer Engagement
Developers and website owners can securely connect with Amazon's over 200 million active customersSEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 29, 2013– (NASDAQ: AMZN) — Today, Amazon launched Login with Amazon, a new service that will enable the over 200 million active Amazon customers to securely and simply login to apps, games, and websites. Login with Amazon allows developers to easily reduce sign-in friction for their customers, leading to higher engagement and order conversion.According to a 2012 Harris Interactive study, over half of all American Internet users have five or more unique passwords to remember. Login withAmazon reduces sign-in friction by eliminating the need for users to create an account and password, and instead allows them to sign-in using their existing Amazon account information. Amazon customers can choose to share certain attributes of their account profile with apps, games, and websites by using Login with Amazon.

"Login with Amazon enables app developers and website owners to leverage Amazon's trusted sign-in solution, allowing them to focus on providing a great experience for their customers," said Michael Carr, Amazon Vice President, eCommerce Services. "Amazon customers now have a hassle-free way to quickly and securely sign-in to apps, games and websites, without having to remember yet another password."

As early adopters of Login with Amazon, Zappos and Woot, both Amazon subsidiaries, saw significant customer adoption. Zappos saw 40 percent of its new customers choose to sign-in to Zappos.com with an Amazon account. Woot found that new customers picked Login with Amazon two times more often than any other social login on their site, and those customers had the highest rate of order conversion.

Login with Amazon is available at no charge to developers of apps, games, and websites. The service is easy to integrate, as developers can typically go from registration to launch in a matter of hours. It is based on the OAuth 2.0 authorization framework, allowing developers to leverage a widely-adopted open protocol. For additional details about Login with Amazon, including code samples and the SDKs for Android and iOS, please visit login.amazon.com.

Login with Amazon is the latest offering in an array of services that make Amazon the most complete end-to-end ecosystem for developers building, monetizing and marketing their apps and games. These capabilities include:

  • The ability for app developers to use Amazon Web Services' (AWS) technology platform for their infrastructure needs. Building blocks such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon DynamoDB allow developers to focus on what differentiates their app rather than the undifferentiated heavy lifting of infrastructure.
  • GameCircle, which includes capabilities like Achievements, Leaderboards, Friends and Whispersync for syncing games across devices, and leads to better engagement with games.
  • In-App Purchasing on Kindle Fire, Mac, PC and web-based games. This enables developers to offer items in their apps and games while allowing their end users to simply use their Amazon accounts to make the purchase.
  • A/B Testing, which helps developers improve app functionality with the ability to simultaneously test two different in-app experiences to determine which is more successful prior to launching to a broad audience.
  • Game Connect, which lets developers list their virtual goods for sale on Amazon, increasing discoverability of their games and making the purchase of virtual goods as easy and convenient as possible for customers, leading to increased monetization for developers.
  • Amazon AppStore submission for distribution to nearly 200 countries globally enables developers to reach millions of Amazon customers worldwide.

To learn more about Login with Amazon, please visit: login.amazon.com.