Is AOL over?

The*Empress

The*Empress

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there are only 2,800,000 people using AOL now...
Where is everybody?
Did they quit AOL?
 
AOL isn't gong anywhere, that is for SURE!

secondly, I do NOT give DAMN about AOL, cause they are ALWAYS OUT LINE!

If AOL is truly going out of business, I would throw a big party!

Miss*Pinocchio said:
there are only 2,800,000 people using AOL now...
Where is everybody?
Did they quit AOL?
Click to expand...
 
uh? what is AOL?? hehe..


I would throw a party if AOL is out of business.
hehe
 
What I found out is that AOL don't own AIM! I couldn't believe but its the way it is.

SherryCherish said:
yayaya surely glad to hear, but only i like about AOL is "AIM" that's it!
Click to expand...
 
diehardbiker65 said:
What I found out is that AOL don't own AIM! I couldn't believe but its the way it is.
Click to expand...

:dunno: I knew this one.. AOL doesnt own AIM... hehe thats what dumb aol users thought so.. (snickers)
 
yeah cause everytime I ask for someone email address, most of them don't have AOL...
 
AOL Latin America got lost in big move

Posted on Mon, Aug. 08, 2005

INTERNATIONAL

A closer look at what went wrong in AOL's bid to become Latin America's top internet service provider

BY JOHN PAIN
Associated Press


There isn't even a place to sit in the unlit reception area of the nearly empty office that was to have been America Online's launchpad to Internet domination in Latin America.

Just a handful of employees now remain, and a security guard in the mirrored-glass office building in Fort Lauderdale that houses AOL Latin America wasn't sure the company was still there.

Only six years ago, AOL seemed to have everything going for it when it ventured south of the Rio Grande into a fast-growing market.

It had the strength of a powerful U.S. brand, lots of money and a partnership with a media company based in the region. A glitzy launch party in Brazil even had an A-list movie star -- Michael Douglas -- hold a live online chat.

But now, America Online Latin America has filed for bankruptcy protection after losing $1 billion. From 1.4 million paying subscribers at its 2002 peak -- based mostly in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico -- AOL Latin America was down in March to about 400,000 subscribers, the most recent figures available.

The failure is a result of getting into the area's Internet boom late, underestimating the competition and a stubborn reliance on strategies more suited to the U.S. market, analysts say.

AOL ''was basically trying to transport their business model intact into Latin America,'' Gartner analyst Juan Fernandez said. ``A lot of what differentiated AOL in the U.S. particularly really didn't relate well in Latin America.''

SLOW START

AOL and the Cisneros Group, a successful Venezuela-based media company, announced their Latin American venture in December 1998. But the service wasn't up and running until the following November in Brazil, the region's biggest Internet market.

By that time, competitors like Universo Online were already established. Brazil's largest Internet provider had already been operating its own portal for 3 ½ years.

What's more, the UOL portal used content familiar to Brazilians. Its owners included the parent company of Brazil's largest newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo, and a magazine publisher, Editora Abril.

Many Brazilians also considered AOL arrogant, as its slogan translated as ''the best because we're the biggest,'' even though it was just a startup in their country.

CDs AND CREDIT CARDS

AOL Brazil also faltered because it relied on the very strategy that rocketed AOL to the top in the United States -- the massive distribution of CDs with Internet setup software, said Jose Otero, president of Signals Consulting. A credit card is needed to sign up for an account using the CDs, and the much lower use of plastic in Latin America hurt, he said.

Other obstacles: Brazil prohibits a company from offering both Internet access and service. That meant AOL Latin America had to negotiate deals with incumbent phone and cable companies to provide access. Because many of those firms were competitors, such agreements were hard to come by, said Marc Einstein, a senior Latin America analyst for Pyramid Research.

The company also ran into problems with free Internet service providers like iG in Brazil. Though these ISPs had trouble making money, they were successful in siphoning customers away. And AOL typically charged more than other pay companies, Fernandez said.

AOL faced similar problems when it expanded in the summer of 2000 into Argentina and Mexico, the region's second largest Internet market.

The Internet in Mexico was dominated by Teléfonos de México, also known as Telmex, which used the Prodigy brand name for its Internet service.

BY THE MINUTE

In many Latin American countries, local phone use is charged by the minute instead of a flat per-call fee, Einstein said. That added to the cost of Internet usage and pushed Web surfers away from AOL.

AOL Latin America spokesman Martin Lanzoni declined to answer questions for this story, saying only that the company's services ''will not be interrupted.'' He said Chief Executive Charles Herington was not giving interviews. Officials for Cisneros and Time Warner's AOL unit referred questions to AOL Latin America.

To get off the ground, the venture had received massive investments from its owners and a 2000 deal with Brazilian bank Banco Itaú that bundled Internet services with accounts. Along with an August 2000 initial public offering, it raised more than $700 million.

But the owners eventually cut off funding as AOL Latin America failed to become financially self-sufficient. Its market share now wallows at less than 3 percent.

Part of that fall also came as broadband use grew rapidly in Latin America, a problem that also has cost AOL members in the United States. Broadband use is expected to surpass dial-up connections around the end of this year in the region, according to a Pyramid report.

And once again, AOL was behind -- broadband wasn't available for subscribers in Brazil until August 2003.

So with the money running out, no new funding available and customers fleeing, AOL Latin America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 24.

NOT PROFITABLE

The company ''as a whole has never been and is not projected to be profitable,'' said the filing in Delaware federal bankruptcy court.

The company's shares are trading at around 5 cents on the over-the-counter market.

As for the future, the bankruptcy filing said AOL Latin America was shopping for buyers, or it would shut down if there were no takers.

Analysts say it's unlikely the company could use bankruptcy to regroup and come back strong in Latin America.

''The market has consolidated behind a couple of strong players,'' Fernandez said. ``It's been a really tough market for a lot of companies like AOL.''
 
I quit AOL years ago because of the expense....since then I have been using cheaper ISPs and never looked back. :)
 
I quit AOL like 5 years ago and I'm happy with a high speed ISP which is cheaper than AOL and more reliable, too. :lol:
 
Miss*Pinocchio said:
there are only 2,800,000 people using AOL now...
Where is everybody?
Did they quit AOL?
Click to expand...
In fact. AOL lost over 900,000 people already.

Why pay $25 for dial-up plus phone bill?

AOL programs is awful and eat lot of your rams.
 
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