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

To: CGarcia who wrote (17754)	5/20/1999 5:31:00 AM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 41369

CGarcia, I hope that all of us on this thread realize that AOL is more about content. If users opt for AOL because of their content, ICQ, buddy list etc. then they will opt for AOL and they would tell their cable provider to get AOL. Cable also will come under pressure from the FEDs. In my town, we have only one cable provider and that is TCI. They do not care for service, their rates keep increasing and their quality of service deteriorating. They have a monopoly. However, cable is not a necessity yet and there are sufficient number of people who use other forms of reception such as aerial and dish networks. I would assume that the situation in my town is typical. Hence the FEDs do not think it necessary to step in yet. Steve Case and the boys also realize that it is not worth the time and money for high speed access now. It surely will not increase their membership than if they were to improve their content for the moment. Now let me take you to another scenario. How many people take public transport versus private cars. Now ask, how many people would opt for cable where their choice of viewing would be limited to the station offered by the cable company. Instead, how many would opt for dish network where they can point their dishes to several satellites. So cable is not the be all and end all. The Internet analyst gurus who are yelling from the rooftops that the name of the game is to "be there" will soon realize that the name of the game is not simply to "be there" but to be there where you are in demand and AOL will be there when the situation demands such

To: CGarcia who wrote (17754)	5/20/1999 5:33:00 AM
From: JB2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

But how much appeal does AOL's content really have? I mean, most people get AOL as their first ISP because they don't know any better, it's the most common well-known company for them to sign up with. As customers get more internet savvy, I predict they'll just gravitate to who ever's cheaper. Once you're on the net, you're on, who cares how you got there? Also, look at the model of television's emergence into the marketplace. First it was a novelty, but people didn't really start tuning into a specific channel until something entertaining really grabbed the market. Maybe AOL should start cultivating some ties with tv production studios, and writers,and work on developing some very engaging proprietary content, to make them stand out from the rapidly growing fray.