For First Time in 8 Years, AOL Revenue Increases
Q4 2012 revenue increased to $599 million, a 4 percent gain.
For the first time in eight years, AOL, the once-dominant American global brand company that invests in brands and websites (Engadget, Joystiq, etc.), has reported an increase in revenue.
During the fourth quarter of 2012, the company generated revenue of $599 million, an increase from the $576 million it made in 2011's Q4, which represents a 4 percent gain. The figure beat analyst estimates of $573 million.
AOL said the increase is because of a jump in sales from its global advertising, which grew by 13 percent from 2011. Ad revenue from third-party networks increased by 31 percent, while search revenue jumped by 17 percent.
Subscription sales decreased by 10 percent, with the average monthly churn rate being 1.8 percent. Comparatively, AOL suffered an 18 percent decline and a 2.2 percent churn rate during 2011's Q4. For the entirety of 2012, revenue dropped to $2.19 billion from $2.2 billion in 2011. AOL stressed that it expects to see its revenue grow for 2013.
"AOL returned to growth and generated significant value for shareholders in 2012," said CEO Tim Armstrong. "AOL has strong momentum entering 2013 and is positioned to continue on our growth path by executing our strategy to build the next generation media and technology company."
AOL was a good source for replacement floppies
My DOS boot disk is on one haha
I used to collect those things; I'm sure I have a "1.0" version disc laying around in some old CD case somewhere. I wonder if it's worth anything...
Yeah! I've got that on a Floppy myself.
AOL was a good source for replacement floppies
My DOS boot disk is on one haha
I'm surprised they aren't dead.
AOL was the best thing...until the next thing came along...and then Facebook destroyed that...and now Facebook is destroying itself with its (lack of) privacy...
Hmm, according to that article, they lost 10 percent to 'natural causes'...that doesn't surprise me. I bet most of these dial-up users are elderly...and we all know what happens after you get old...
http://glossynews.com/aol/article-1302.php
Yes, I imagine there are more dial-up users than we might think, on first blush. The idea seems absolutely archaic, but every once in while it's worth keeping in mind that the widespread availability of broadband is probably less than a decade old.
Hell, I had a cell phone the size of a brick in 2001. It's amazing how quickly things change these days; how many decades, I wonder, did it take the whole of society to adopt far more important things like electricity or indoor heating/plumbing? There are probably people in the United States right now who still use an outhouse.
depends on packageing and condition,
heard they were going for 50-500$ as collectors items.
It probably has more to do with the fact that AOL is notoriously hard to get rid of once they have their claws in you. There are probably people out there still paying for AOL and don't realize it. My aunt recently told me she still pays the monthly fee for access to her email. She is not Internet savvy and had no clue that she doesn't need to pay anyone anything to access her account online. I wasn't really surprised when I found out that she called and cancelled it twice and still they billed her her every month just like they did to me many years ago when I dropped AOL as an ISP and went DSL. AOL has always been a crap company and always will be.
Yeah, I had that problem too, way back in the day. The offender wasn't AOL, though -- I think it was Earthlink. Bloodsuckers charged me for what must've been close to extra two years despite my constantly cancelling.
Seems like that problem was an epidemic with dial-up providers. I guess the monthly charge was small enough that they could pull it off without most people noticing. Adds up, though.
Anyway, life is war, unfortunately. Whether it's the bank, the DMV, an unscrupulous dial-up provider -- chances are, someone is going to screw you over in some small way, and fairly often, either through institutional ruthlessness or bureaucratic incompetence. For example, I've been registered under three separate spellings of my name with my municipality's Jury Selection Committee for the last five years or so -- and no matter what I do, I can't get them to fix the error. So I'm summoned to jury duty constantly, and it's a fight each and every time.
C'est la vie. C'est la guerre.
In all seriousness, in our locale sometimes its the only thing people can get. ATT promised that the area would be all DSL/Cable by a certain date...well....that didn't happen (surprise huh?) and most folks in the northern part of the county can only get dial-up. What's even worse is these folks have trouble believing that dial-up modems are not standard on PC's anymore.
So, I can see why they are still around, but to be posting THAT much revenue and to be making money is astounding!
At that point, you're better off with 3G wireless if possible. I can't imagine trying to browse today's web over dialup... most sites assume their main userbase has some type of broadband
Personally, I've got cable through the local company. But the county is large and some folks even just outside city limits have trouble getting broadband. As far as 3g wireless is concerned, yep; that's what I recommend for them, either that or satellite (but only as a last result there.)
It's blows my mind the vast difference between internet connectivity options only available to some folks in these United States. As far as infrastructure is concerned in our country, we are way behind in terms of technology in bringing high speed internet to the majority of folks.