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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Robinett who wrote (16279)	5/10/1999 3:12:00 PM
From: Vendit™	Respond to of 41369

Hi Steve, Let me turn the question around and ask you how anybody could afford to give their ISP service away and stay in business? Vendit

To: Steve Robinett who wrote (16279)	5/10/1999 3:32:00 PM
From: Steve Robinett	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

Vendit, You're comment was that AOL could give their service away if need be... I say with $17.47+/month/subscriber, AOL certainly cannot give away its service. It would go broke fast. Now you want to know how any ISP could give away service. Some people might suggest advertising as a revenue source (the over-the-air, free TV model) but since AOL gets only a relatively small percentage of its revenues from advertising (ads & e-commerce were about 20% this quarter depending on how you figure it, with or without netscape) and those ad revenues will not support free AOL membership. As I said in the last post, that's why they just raised fees because costs were so high and other sources of revenue were not compensating. Best, --Steve