Execs at Your Grandmother’s ISP say they want to do away with subscription fees for broadband users and become a free e-mail service like Google, Yahoo, etc. The poor folks stuck on dial-up would still have to pay $25.90 per month.
USA Today says the company spends $1 billion a year on marketing its subscription service. Now it wants to use that $1 billion to market its free accounts. Well, there’s one good thing: No more annoying discs in the mail.
Too bad AOL didn’t use that $1 billion to market free accounts when it was a novel idea – about 5 years ago.
The paper also notes some sobering stats for the company:
“Skeptics say AOL is grasping at ways to keep up with its rivals. Since making its content free last June, AOL’s audience growth has been comparatively weak. Google went up 26% to 95.4 million visitors in May 2006, compared with a year earlier. AOL grew 1%, to 72 million, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.”
Via USA Today
