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To: puborectalis who wrote (2905)	10/10/1999 9:17:00 AM
From: allen v.w.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4337

Hello Stephen, Is this a reply to me or just a post of some info about AOL in general? Thanks! ALLEN: (:->

To: puborectalis who wrote (2905)	10/11/1999 1:12:00 AM
From: Joana Tides	Respond to of 4337

Thanks for (Lehman Bros.) Brian Oake's Internet comments, Stephen. Agree re: Talk City (TCTY) <<Brian Oakes: "TalkCity is the leading independent chat company on the Net that's bringing chat not just to the consumer market, but also the business marketplace, where corporations will use chat as a customer support tool" >> Agree - That entire site is a demo for set-up services it offers to businesses so TCTY's got income coming in two ways. It's growing. First, the talkcity.com site's visitors get the benefits of the free webpage set-up, portal community, etc. while spending money on the ad banners ... so customers and prospective customers can simultaneously surf this as a demo model while evaluating which features they'll be ordering for their own site. The Loop i$ inherent in this business model. *Disagreeing with Mr. Oakes re: <<Audience: "About free ISPs--today they are free newspapers living from advertising; why not ISPs in the future?" Brian Oakes: "Primarily because they will never get enough ads to offset the communication costs, let alone customer support costs and development costs to offer a quality service, much the way most newspapers still charge for the paper, because free doesn't work">> Disagree - He is wrong about "free doesn't work" - can personally say that with certainty because i worked with a free newspaper from its start-up some years ago; saw it grow fast from itself and make plenty of money from advertising after the printing & distribution expenses were paid. The guy who published it grew it from a 6 page paper (a fold & an insert) to a 48 page tabloid with two centerfolds in the two sections... in a year! He rented a small office, paid a printer & distributor, sales & writers were independent contractors - he went into the black with it from the third or fourth issue. So he worked/played hard for a decade with it, then sold it to retire young as a multimillionaire. And a free ISP would have broader means of attracting revenue as advertising wouldn't be the only avenue of income possibilities.... the dotcoms could take advantage of revenue possibilities in subscriptions, marketing stats lists, online focus panels, franchises of access, not to mention acquisitions/alliances to grow the portal, etc. The telecom expenses would be minimized by wholesale purchase of access lines and such. (FYI Disclosure: TCTY (portal community/demo) NZRO (free isp) & ZIPL (works with free isp customers) & CMGI ( whose Alta Vista now offers the free ISP access) & MSFT are among my holdings.) Thinking the free isp business model won't wipe out the AOLs and it's comparing apples to oranges. Many people would prefer a paid subscription relationship with the isp provider - one where the choice of not viewing pop-up ads, high-speed access, premium content, & maximum privacy could be assured. AOL already offers a monthly subscription to it's full content when accessed from another isp, so it'd be taking in more revenue as more people get online anyway. $25.95 a month for the AOL isp includes subscription content to countless online magazines, newspapers, and proprietary sites. I have AOL, & think it's a bargain. No such thing as something for nothing. It's even possible an aggressive free isp could make more money per head than the paid access isp's would; especially when considering the reversal points of economies of scale. Regards, Joana