posted on July 17, 2002 10:51:57 PM new
AOL is being targeted by an competitor running an advertising campaign against AOL. They boast that they offer everyhting that AOL does, only for $9.95 per month. The advertising starts off asking the question: "What do you call someone who pays more than DOUBLE for their online service? Answer: an AOL user!" That can't be too good for AOL if the ads keep going on that way.
posted on July 17, 2002 11:09:04 PM new
Amazing- I just saw that commercial on TV.
I hope that the 11 page article isn't too intimidating- each page is short, but it looks as though AOL has been cooking the revenue books for several years.
One of their tricks was in selling ad space on eBay for eBay. AOL received a percentage of the fees, but counted all the payment as their own revenue and expensed eBay's share on their books. This was one of the things AOL did to make it look as though their ad revenue was growing.
posted on July 17, 2002 11:32:01 PM new
Maybe AOL should do what eBay did: Shut down their customer service and then accidentally bill everybody double. Problem solved! LOL
posted on July 17, 2002 11:45:11 PM newThat can't be too good for AOL if the ads keep going on that way.
AOL pioneered the web. AOL painted the web as a warm, fuzzy, family-oriented kind of place back when everybody thought you had to be some kind of techno-geek to go online. Plus, AOL delivered content right to the user's home page.
That strategy worked then, but it won't work any more. Nowadays, anybody under age 90 is already on the web and most are savvy enough to figure out how to use the search engines. IOW, users have outgrown AOL.
Today AOL must compete based on content and not merely perception. And AOL doesn't deliver quality service. Since web surfers aren't tethered to the AOL home page any more, little things like an extra $10 or $15 per month do make a difference. This kind of ad campaign is very damaging as it is aimed at current AOL users.
Our local electronics superstore now has its own ISP and is offering unlimited web access for $9.99/mo. My Dad dropped Compuserve last month and is saving about $13.
posted on July 18, 2002 12:06:33 AM new
CompuServe and Prodigy are the pioneers at providing content to Internet users. AOL pioneered the GUI (Graphical User Interface) many years later which did indeed make the Internet a much more friendly place. In fact, if I rememeber right, AOL gave users a gateway onto the internet long before Copuserve and Prodigy did. That may have been their undoing. As far as I'm concerned, AOL is such an unethical corporation that I'm glad to see it get spanked, because AOL also pioneered the Internet Corporation that rapes and abuses its users without concern.
