AOL FOUNDER TALKS MASS MARKET STRATEGY.Byline: Tome Abate San Francisco Examiner The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th Century. History 19th century The beginning of the Examiner is a topic of some controversy. Having taken America Online See AOL. from none to nearly 6 million subscribers in just over a decade, AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. founder Steve Case Steve Case (born August 21, 1958) is a businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). He reached his highest profile when he played an instrumental role in AOL's merger with Time Warner in 2000. paused during a visit to San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden to look at the road ahead. ``Despite all our progress, only 11 percent of households in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. subscribe to Verb 1. subscribe to - receive or obtain regularly; "We take the Times every day" subscribe, take buy, purchase - obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; any on-line service,'' Case said. ``We're trying to figure out a way to reach out to the mass market and turn this into a mainstream medium more like television.'' Case, chairman of the Vienna, Va.-based AOL, was here Thursday to promote the service's latest software for connecting home computers to discussion groups, information libraries and chat sessions in cyberspace. The leader in making it easy to get on line, AOL will ship version 3.0 of its software for Windows on June 1. A Macintosh version will follow three or four months later. The new software is supposed to download artwork more efficiently, improve access to the World Wide Web and make it easier to create buddy lists, a feature that notifies subscribers when any of their specified buddies is on line. Case, 37, explained in an interview how AOL plans to prosper as a proprietary on-line service in the face of competition from the Internet. He also discussed the rationale behind AOL's shifting alliances with Microsoft Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp., and touched on the fortunes of GNN GNN - Global Network Navigator , AOL's Internet service. One question Case frequently gets asked is how proprietary services like AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy can continue to survive as the Internet gets easier and cheaper to access. AOL and other on-line services charge $10 a month for several hours of access. Actual monthly charges often run higher, however, because on-line services charge more for extra hours of use. Last week, AOL announced that in July it will reduce its price for 20 hours of usage to $19.95 - $34.25 less than it now charges - in a bid to woo new customers and combat cheaper competitors. Internet access providers generally charge $20 a month but offer an unlimited number of hours per month. Case said AOL would continue to do well because consumers value convenience and simplicity more than the gross cost-per-hour of on-line connections. By making it easy to find information or to chat in discussion groups, AOL hopes to offer the aura of a friendly place to hang out. ``In a confusing world, people seek brands they can trust,'' Case said. |
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