9 ms·

For those who are wondering why this might be a good investment: AOL still has 2 million (!) dialup subscribers that fork over $20 a month. http://qz.com/40156

by huskyr 11y ago

For those who are wondering why this might be a good investment: AOL still has 2 million (!) dialup subscribers that fork over $20 a month. http://qz.com/401567/more-than-2-million-american-homes-are-stuck-in-the-90s-with-aol-dialup-internet/ http://qz.com/401567/more-than-2-million-american-homes-are-...

jenius 11y ago
I feel like this is a perfect reason why this is a bad investment. Anyone who is still subscribed to AOL dialup is honestly probably a senior citizen or technology-illiterate. AOL is not even marketing their dialup service anymore. These people over time will slowly decline until those 2 million eventually hit zero. In fact, you can clearly see the nearly exponential downward trend right on the article you linked. This makes it a nice amount of basically free money for AOL currently, but an absolutely terrible investment for the future.
- andyjohnson0 11y ago
  A significant number of AOL dialup customers are living in rural areas where broadband is just not available [1]. [1] http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/neighbors-still-use-dial-internet-88957 http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/neighbors-still-u...
  - DrJokepu 11y ago
    With 4G broadband this is going to become irrelevant very quickly.
    - ams6110 11y ago
      4G is generally available in rural areas?
      - DrJokepu 11y ago
        Not right now, but is there a reason why it won't be?
        Lawtonfogle 11y ago
        Economics of covering the area. If it costs more to cover than they expect to make in any reasonable time frame, especially if it never breaks even when you account in maintenance, then they won't do it.
      - ascagnel_ 11y ago
        Yes; Verizon has an offering designed explicitly for rural areas[1], but it's expensive. The linked article is from 2012, and prices have since declined, but the general gist of the service is the same: a big antenna you bolt to your house or a tree and will pull from an existing account-level share plan (if you have one). [1] http://www.cnet.com/news/verizons-homefusion-now-brings-4g-lte-home-but-not-for-cheap/ http://www.cnet.com/news/verizons-homefusion-now-brings-4g-l...
        norea-armozel 11y ago
        The last time I lived in a deep rural area (Norton, KS) there wasn't a good cell option. The cell tower that covered the town was flaky at best in terms of reception. So, I guess your mileage may vary applies in that situation?
        ams6110 11y ago
        You still have to be in a 4G coverage zone. I guess we're getting into the definition of "rural." Where I live I have no coverage from any carrier.
        protomyth 11y ago
        People will have better luck with rural telephone companies trying to stay alive then big wireless carriers. Sprint and T-Mobile absolutely suck in coverage area for rural folks. One example, Steele ND and the surrounding area is served by a small rural telephone company that is laying a lot of fibre (I'm hoping they head North). A 200M plan (no cap) for $45 a month. This is being repeated quite a lot in rural areas with rural cooperatives.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Even if there's good reason to use it, there's no potential for growth. The only way this can go is down. It's pretty much going to be a race to recoup the investment before all these rural areas are covered by cellular (even 2G would be faster than dialup!) or satellite internet becomes cheap enough.
- ams6110 11y ago
  Or (some of them) may simply live in areas where broadband internet is not available. I've only had it at home for about 5 years, prior to that dial-up was my only option.
- sleaze-bag 11y ago
  don't forget though, AOL owns TechCrunch, Engadget, Huffington Post, and a bunch of other crap, and they have a pretty massive ad platform. Id wager that the ad platform is what Verizon is really after here.......and maybe a nice bonus would be controlling huffington post and getting them to stop writing articles about how shitty comcast/verizon/twc are and how net neutrality is a good thing.....but that is just me being a bit speculative
- rokhayakebe 11y ago
  I feel like this is a perfect reason why this "may be" a good investment. These people may be switched to Verizon's wireless internet services.
- gscott 11y ago
  Selling Depends is a big market, there is a lot more cash from adult diapers to be made.
richardwhiuk 11y ago
At a cost of $2000 a sub, that's pretty expensive though.
- astrodust 11y ago
  They're going to rake in that much in people forgetting to cancel their AOL dial-up account.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
bane 11y ago
Their respective headquarters are also right down the road from each other.
darkstar999 11y ago
But they definitely aren't being acquired for that reason.
basch 11y ago
I doubt it was for the subscribers. Look at AOL's recent acquisitions in the last 10 years. Video: StudioNow, 5Min Media, GoViral, Vidible News: Weblogs, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post Marketing: Lightningcast, Third Screen Media, AdTech, Tacoda, Quigo, buy.at, Pictela, gdgt, Adap.tv, Convertro, Gravity One by AOL sunset Gravity, Pictela, ADTECH, Adap.tv, AdLearn, and Convertro (along with subproducts like Adap.tv Marketplace, and AOL's native data platform) into one product. One by AOL is a HUGE product. http://corp.aol.com/2015/04/14/aol-launches-one-by-aol/ http://corp.aol.com/2015/04/14/aol-launches-one-by-aol/
- devy 11y ago
  StudioNow had been broken off from AOL and repurchased back by the initial investors two years ago, although AOL still holds a minor stake in StudioNow (at the time). [1] Disclosure: I used to work for AOL StudioNow. 1: http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2013/01/studionow-breaks-from-aol.html http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2013/01/st...
serve_yay 11y ago
They do have that, but I suspect this has more to do with ads than those customers. If it was about those customers, Verizon would be paying quite a lot for them.

by huskyr 11y ago

jenius 11y ago

I feel like this is a perfect reason why this is a bad investment. Anyone who is still subscribed to AOL dialup is honestly probably a senior citizen or technology-illiterate. AOL is not even marketing their dialup service anymore. These people over time will slowly decline until those 2 million eventually hit zero. In fact, you can clearly see the nearly exponential downward trend right on the article you linked. This makes it a nice amount of basically free money for AOL currently, but an absolutely terrible investment for the future.

andyjohnson0 11y ago
A significant number of AOL dialup customers are living in rural areas where broadband is just not available [1]. [1] http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/neighbors-still-use-dial-internet-88957 http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/neighbors-still-u...
- DrJokepu 11y ago
  With 4G broadband this is going to become irrelevant very quickly.
  - ams6110 11y ago
    4G is generally available in rural areas?
    - DrJokepu 11y ago
      Not right now, but is there a reason why it won't be?
      - Lawtonfogle 11y ago
        Economics of covering the area. If it costs more to cover than they expect to make in any reasonable time frame, especially if it never breaks even when you account in maintenance, then they won't do it.
    - ascagnel_ 11y ago
      Yes; Verizon has an offering designed explicitly for rural areas[1], but it's expensive. The linked article is from 2012, and prices have since declined, but the general gist of the service is the same: a big antenna you bolt to your house or a tree and will pull from an existing account-level share plan (if you have one). [1] http://www.cnet.com/news/verizons-homefusion-now-brings-4g-lte-home-but-not-for-cheap/ http://www.cnet.com/news/verizons-homefusion-now-brings-4g-l...
      - norea-armozel 11y ago
        The last time I lived in a deep rural area (Norton, KS) there wasn't a good cell option. The cell tower that covered the town was flaky at best in terms of reception. So, I guess your mileage may vary applies in that situation?
      - ams6110 11y ago
        You still have to be in a 4G coverage zone. I guess we're getting into the definition of "rural." Where I live I have no coverage from any carrier.
        protomyth 11y ago
        People will have better luck with rural telephone companies trying to stay alive then big wireless carriers. Sprint and T-Mobile absolutely suck in coverage area for rural folks. One example, Steele ND and the surrounding area is served by a small rural telephone company that is laying a lot of fibre (I'm hoping they head North). A 200M plan (no cap) for $45 a month. This is being repeated quite a lot in rural areas with rural cooperatives.
- mikeash 11y ago
  Even if there's good reason to use it, there's no potential for growth. The only way this can go is down. It's pretty much going to be a race to recoup the investment before all these rural areas are covered by cellular (even 2G would be faster than dialup!) or satellite internet becomes cheap enough.
ams6110 11y ago
Or (some of them) may simply live in areas where broadband internet is not available. I've only had it at home for about 5 years, prior to that dial-up was my only option.
sleaze-bag 11y ago
don't forget though, AOL owns TechCrunch, Engadget, Huffington Post, and a bunch of other crap, and they have a pretty massive ad platform. Id wager that the ad platform is what Verizon is really after here.......and maybe a nice bonus would be controlling huffington post and getting them to stop writing articles about how shitty comcast/verizon/twc are and how net neutrality is a good thing.....but that is just me being a bit speculative
rokhayakebe 11y ago
I feel like this is a perfect reason why this "may be" a good investment. These people may be switched to Verizon's wireless internet services.
gscott 11y ago
Selling Depends is a big market, there is a lot more cash from adult diapers to be made.

richardwhiuk 11y ago

At a cost of $2000 a sub, that's pretty expensive though.

astrodust 11y ago
They're going to rake in that much in people forgetting to cancel their AOL dial-up account.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

bane 11y ago

Their respective headquarters are also right down the road from each other.

darkstar999 11y ago

But they definitely aren't being acquired for that reason.

basch 11y ago

I doubt it was for the subscribers. Look at AOL's recent acquisitions in the last 10 years. Video: StudioNow, 5Min Media, GoViral, Vidible News: Weblogs, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post Marketing: Lightningcast, Third Screen Media, AdTech, Tacoda, Quigo, buy.at, Pictela, gdgt, Adap.tv, Convertro, Gravity One by AOL sunset Gravity, Pictela, ADTECH, Adap.tv, AdLearn, and Convertro (along with subproducts like Adap.tv Marketplace, and AOL's native data platform) into one product. One by AOL is a HUGE product. http://corp.aol.com/2015/04/14/aol-launches-one-by-aol/ http://corp.aol.com/2015/04/14/aol-launches-one-by-aol/

devy 11y ago
StudioNow had been broken off from AOL and repurchased back by the initial investors two years ago, although AOL still holds a minor stake in StudioNow (at the time). [1] Disclosure: I used to work for AOL StudioNow. 1: http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2013/01/studionow-breaks-from-aol.html http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2013/01/st...

serve_yay 11y ago

They do have that, but I suspect this has more to do with ads than those customers. If it was about those customers, Verizon would be paying quite a lot for them.