AOL has given its 22 million AIM users a free 2GB e-mail account, another in a line of free services.
Internet services provider AOL wants to do what Yahoo does: make millions of dollars from advertising revenue.
It’s a revenue source that is growing year by year. Companies have been shifting ad dollars out of traditional media and into online campaigns. Ad sales rose in the US to $2.8 billion USD in the first quarter of the year, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
“While the online audience gets bigger and broader, the TV audience continues to fragment, even as the cost of advertising spots rises,” notes Tom Hyland, Partner and New Media Group Chair, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“Add the growth of broadband in the home, which enables advertisers a platform to deliver rich media, and brand advertisers have a new mass audience to target. The economics are too compelling for marketers to ignore.”
With the new free e-mail service, AOL hopes to provide its AIM users with a useful feature, while pushing a variety of ad content into their view. The Internet has become a medium advertisers cannot ignore.
As subscriber revenue continues to drop with people leaving for cheaper or faster services (or in the case of those in SBC Communications’ area, both), the company has begun turning to advertising supported services.
With millions of AIM users coupled with the nearly 22 million subscribers to AOL, the company has a lot of eyeballs it can present to advertisers. A good combination of enticing services and quality advertising could help AOL partially transition from a services provider to a portal company.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
