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To: AnnaInVA who wrote (18155)	12/31/1998 7:47:00 AM
From: Larry S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 53068

Chat AOL: AOL now counts 15 million members By Jim Hu Staff Writer, CNET News.com December 30, 1998, 12:45 p.m. PT America Online's paying audience keeps growing. The online service today announced that it has reached the 15 million-member mark. AOL counted 14 million members in mid-November, so today's announcement marks the fastest acquisition of a million members in the company's history. AOL attributed much of the growth to the holiday season. Christmas day saw the most new members signing up in a single day in the online giant's history. Proportional to Net usage patterns, AOL's new membership rate tends to accelerate during the winter months and slow down during the summertime. Nevertheless, analysts said AOL's major marketing initiatives--such as its most recent AOL 4.0 CD-ROM "carpet bombing" campaign and its spotlight in the film You've Got Mail--have helped it win over new Web users. "AOL's got great momentum now and their stock has given them a nice bit of free marketing over the past number of months," said Jupiter Communications analyst Mark Mooradian. -------------------------------------------------------------- I find particularly interesting the Xmas day sign-up. I conclude that Santa brought lots of shiney new puters this year, people opened them up, and went on line, via AOL. The timely release of the movie "you got mail" is a great form of subtle advertising (and a great movie) - to millions of movie viewers, AOL is the way to get on line ( and meet a cute, perky meg ryan or cuddly? (help me here, girls) tom hanks. This re-inforces my thinking that AOL is the ISP of choice for many people. We, perhaps more sophisticated users, might argue that internet access thru AOL is weak, but 1 million more members sign November speaks for itself. And once someone has signed on, there is a high probablility they will stay with AOL, and send in their $21/mo, and also eyeball all the ads, banners, special promos, etc that they will see on AOL. Internet access may well be like your car or home insurance. how often do you change agents, just keep writing that check every month/year. same may well be true with AOL - inertia - people on line with AOL will just stay with them. I would view this current dip as a buying opportunity. larry