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mike · 08-12-2003, 10:25 AM

AOL Time Warner may be chaning their name. Time Warner says that AOL gets them bad PR and vice versa. I personally like that name, AOL Time Warner, it has a nice ring to it, but I do not sit at the board of directors of table. The issue will be talked about in the next directors meeting later this month.

Steve · 08-12-2003, 02:54 PM

As much as I don't think AOL is going to last, I agree that AOL Time Warner is catchy and I think it will be an overall pain to change the name!

Bleys · 08-12-2003, 07:03 PM

I think AOL and TimeWarner will both last on their own. But I would be suprised if one is spun off from the other.

That was a stupid merger.

They should have been managed as separate entities and done cross promotion, profit sharing, etc. To combine them like they did was a bad idea. Ah, but hindsight is 20/20.

mike · 08-12-2003, 09:04 PM

I belive AOL Time Warner is here to stay as they are one of the biggest ISPs in the world and offer a lot of features. AIM is hurting them though, I think. Taking up screen names for people who would pay for it.

Bleys · 08-13-2003, 12:17 AM

Er, that should have read "I wouldn't be surprised..."

I don't think AIM is hurting them at all. It is the largest instant message service (combined with ICQ, also an AOL company, they have tremendous reach). I'm sure they make a fair amount of money off the ads they serve through AIM, though the most important thing is it gets the AOL brand out there all over the place. AIM is a great brand building tool. I bet it attracts a lot of people to AOL.

mike · 08-13-2003, 01:15 PM

I do not think so. I belive it is a key feature of AOL and steers a lot of people away from it. I am sure a lot of peope subscribe to AOL for IM/eMail, and you can get email free and AIM free too, so I belive that hurts them. However if they charged for AIM they would loose business, because 90% of the AIM users would have to pay and I doubt many would.

Bleys · 08-13-2003, 02:02 PM

It's a double edged sword the way you are looking at it. People sign up to AOL for the IM, but would people sign up to AOL for the IM if they could only talk to other AOL users? Because AIM is free now you can talk to all your friends regardless of their ISP. Plus, with ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN all free, AIM has to be free to compete.

But honestly I think most people sign up for AOL for one of the following reasons (not AIM, at least, not anymore):

1. It's super easy to use
2. Has some exclusive content
3. Cheaper than broadband (though not always cheaper than a local ISP)
4. (this is a big one) They have such brand name recognition a lot of people who are new to the net think AOL is their only option
5. (another big one) They have good parental controls

mike · 08-13-2003, 07:41 PM

The name is huge. I would say that is easly the biggest one and I agree like I said, it is a two sided story. The email system is better than outlook too, automaticlly loads, etc. I belive AOL also has a search engine and shopping.