How is this for a reflection of how business models are changing online. AOL and its famous walled garden has been slowly been torn down, with the last of its private services, AOL Red, set to be launched for free on the web by early fall. Still, there are millions of AOL subscribers, many of which are legacy subscribers that pay a lower fee and tack the service on to their normal, often cable or DSL, provider. These are often families that are afraid to lose what they're used to, especially, their email addresses. Now AOL is considering:
"AOL is considering offering its services free to users withhigh-speed Internet connections, gambling that ad revenue will offsetthe loss of subscription fees."
Which is a long way from where AOL started, and recognition that people don't really need AOL as much as they might use it more often if it were free. Would this stop the decline of AOL subscribers? Could this possibly help AOL even gain subscribers?technorati tags:aol, walled, garden, free, red, broadband, dsl
