AOL goes free in the UK today. Jeff
zdnet.co.uk
Mon, 23 Aug 1999 17:45:17 GMT
Jane Wakefield
AOL hopes to be preaching to a new audience Tuesday as it launches Netscape Online -- the free ISP aimed at the Loaded generation.
Although you will never get AOL to admit it, Netscape Online is clearly a response to the phenomenal success of Dixons' Freeserve, and right up to the eleventh hour the world's number one ISP claimed it had no intention of embracing the free model. The U-turn was couched as an extension of existing services, but secretly AOL must be hoping to gain back some of its customers as well as getting the lads onboard.
So what will the ISP, famed for family values, possibly have to offer 18-30 lads?
The launch Tuesday will have a modern "evangelical" theme according to one PR spokeswoman and an edge of "millennial angst" -- whatever that means. Whether the young, single men the service is hoping to attract suffer from millennial angst, or are just interested in the footie results, remains to be seen, but AOL will do its best to evangelise the AOL brand in a way the boys will understand.
Partnering with Guardian Unlimited, men's magazine Maxim, Sports Line (provider of sports news and content) and ZDNet UK News, AOL is hoping its laddish services will set it aside from myriad free offerings. With football teams already offering themselves as ISPs to the true fans, and rival lads' mags Loaded and FHM pursuing a strong online strategy, the boys already have plenty of Net choice. Whether AOL will be preaching to the converted is also up for debate.
While some think AOL's tardy entry into the free ISP market may be too late, James Eibisch, analyst with research firm IDC, thinks the new model is in with a fighting chance. "It is not too late. A clear minority of people are online so most of the market is left and it makes a lot of sense for AOL to target the Loaded audience," he said. To this end content will be king says Eibicsh. If the content relies on formulas followed by the lads' mags, it may not be enough. The latest circulation figures for Loaded, FHM, etc. suggest magazines dedicated to gadgets, girls and Giggs may have had their day.
Nick Jones, analyst with research firm Jupiter, believes AOL may find its new service cannibalises users from existing AOL brands such as Compuserve, which it bought in 1997. "Compuserve has a very male demographic," says Jones. "Some of the young, male professionals maybe tempted by this."
AOL has long term plans to dominate in Europe, and Tuesday's UK launch will be just the start. In Germany on Thursday it will announce a flat monthly fee for unlimited AOL use in an attempt to go head to head with Deutsche Telekom, and may launch Netscape Online in other European countries. Experts agree the ISP faces an uphill struggle to loosen the grip the public telephone operators have on the ISP market on the continent.
Netscape Online goes live at midday Tuesday. While some may find the idea of the family-orientated AOL wooing the lads slightly strange, the target audience gives the lie to the importance of this service to AOL. It is the first time AOL has acknowledged the importance of the free model and, as it goes after Freeserve, it is not just the boys it will be chasing.
Initially though it is the lads AOL is after and whether the service can become as synonomous with lad culture as birds, beer and footie will become clear in the next few months.
Marketing will be key -- a naked Gail Porter to replace the computer generated Connie perhaps? |
