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Is AOL Finally Crashing and Burning?
An anonymous reader writes "AOL's disastrous quarterly report showed cash from continuing operations was down 44% from a year ago (adjusted operating income was down 37%), as it continues a rocky transition from monthly subscription fees to advertising. (Their quarterly report also notes 'the cessation of large-scale access subscriber acquisition campaigns' — investor-speak for the fact that AOL will finally stop mass mailings of free trial accounts.) Unfortunately, AOL's advertising business 'did even worse. Its revenues declined by $110 million... every single segment is down.' AOL has already lost 86% of the 30 million subscribers it reported in 2001 — down to just 4.3 million — but advertising hasn't yet filled the gap (possibly because many AOL ads had been displayed to the users AOL no longer has). But at least, as one technology blogger notes, AOL has finally released a mobile application, 'in the new definition of "late to the party."'"
So what would you do if you were running AOL?
--someone with a friend there
The CDs often came in very nice cases. I painted some and used them whenever I wanted to hide a burned CD in a geocache.
There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.
If they went under, what would happen to the millions of aol email accounts still in use? Oh, the humanity! The only time I am ever aware that aol still exists is when my 79 year-old father forwards email to me that was sent to him from one of his elderly, aol-using friends.
Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.
AOL own a lot of websites. For example, AOL owns the blogs Engadget and Joystiq which are both quite popular.
I just noticed that AOL has appeared on my credit card bill yet again. I have not used the service since the 90s, but I am still forced to call and cancel every two years are so. I have downloaded my transactions for years, and can call up all payments. It's bizarre, after two years, all of sudden a charge will start appearing again. I wonder how many of their subscribers have been repeated scammed like this.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
Brings back memories. People would call up, wait on hold for half an hour or more and end up on a call with me or any other SAVES rep:
*ping* (female phone voice) AOL. Saves. [connect]
Me: Thank you for calling America Online, this is Pezbian. How can I help you have an even better online experience today?
Luser: Cancel my account. (yeah. So original.)
What I'd say while playing Solitaire on the computer: I'm sorry to hear things aren't going well for you. Let's get started.
What I'd be thinking: Okay so what are you? Computer-stupid, no longer in need of training wheels, sick of overpaying or just trying to make a stand?
From there, it was a matter of talking them into staying. I probably gave away a lifetime worth of free service months in two month blocks during the few months I was there. Did it matter? No, and I'll explain why later. If you were a jerk, you got transferred or hung up on. We were taught never to hang up on lusers, but disconnecting the cord from the back of the phone didn't count as a hangup. I did it a couple dozen times when I'd get cursed at. There were often logs from previous support reps in the Merlin system regarding customer behavior so I pretty well knew who was going to be trouble and who was going to get free stuff.
At the end of the call, there were sometimes these "Special Member Benefits" where lusers would hear a speil for something else. I got $1.25 if they would just listen to it. Some people were wise. "Do you get a bonus if I just listen to it?" "Yes I do." "Well since you've helped me so much, you're going to get that bonus." Schweet. While I was there, the SMB was a Sprint long distance deal. Yeah, for a landline. Remember those? I probably got $200 a month just off of those transfers.
Pay: $8 an hour plus bonuses. Bonuses... boy howdy... 80+% of your income. I didn't believe it until I got my first 90-day long-term retention check. That's correct. Your long-term retention bonus was on a 90 day scale. Not a year. Why? Ultimately, it was because the revenue generated by each user for AOL was $125 a month. That's on top of the $23.90 a month they were charging for you to be their lab rat.
I wasn't delusional enough to expect the crazy bonus checks to last forever since the dollars for banner ads (no matter how attention-whoring/seizure-inducing) boom was already crashing hard and popups/pop-unders were starting to become the norm.
The funniest thing about working there was the special event days they'd have where Warner Bros movies that were still in theaters were screened in the call center during work hours. The techs and everyone but SAVES would be watching while SAVES saw it as a distraction from the big money. Some reps were making six figures a year. I kid you not. You were on a tiered scale where you were paid for saves per month and the more you got, the more each one paid you. Those who were making that kind of money had little time for anything else, however. 12-16 hour days non-stop. One lady hadn't had a day off in three months and slept at work sometimes, but she did make $125,000 a year this way.
In the middle of my time there, an "All Hands" meeting was called where everyone in the callcenter went to a big reception center and got put through a big dog and pony show. It was mostly about a new SAVES pay scale change that was more focused on quantity than quality. This wasn't beneficial to my style. I was all about long term. I didn't care about the average $1.50 24-hour or pissant $.50 30-day retention bonuses. I was all about the 90-day kind that paid like $9 each if I remember correctly. I was going to take a big hit on my paychecks to the extent that it just wasn't worth keeping that job.
It's worth mentioning that, during the Q&A portion, a butthurt tech dared ask when the tech support people were going to be paid like Saves reps. The suit on stage snickered slightly while the question was met with groans and laughter from Saves goons like myself. The
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
On the other hand, why not design a business to be like that from the start? When you find or create a new market, design your business to ride it all the way up, and watch for new technologies that eliminate its usefulness, and ride it down while maintaining your operations economically. If done right, long term investors could still make a lot of money by holding their stock through to when the business dismantles.
This idea that a company has to last forever by doing things so far away from their original purpose is a bit ridiculous. They had an original inspiration and then they try to force subsequent, tangentially related ones. Do one thing, do it well, make your money, and close up shop at the proper time. Seems like the simplest and most natural thing in the world, and no corporation ever does it. They'd much rather fail spectacularly and leave the last stockholders screwed over.
I just realized I'm entirely dependent on AIM. My favorite gadget blog is Engadget. Owned by AOL.
I don't want AOL to die. :(.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
In-N-Out Burger is another one you've probably never heard of if you haven't been to the southwest. Easily the most popular fast food joint in several large cities, yet there are only a handful of them because it isn't just privately owned, it's family owned. No franchising, and probably never will be any.
They treat their employees like gold too. Have you ever heard of a fast food place that pays its managers $100,000 a year to start? Assistant managers start at a little under $60,000. Part-time workers start at $10 an hour.
If you've never been, and you happen to be in Arizon, California, or Nevada, you should definitely hit up an In-N-Out Burger.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
I'd switch over to Compuserve if they still used PDP-10s
Advice: on VPS providers
It was pretty cool, actually.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
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In-N-Out Burger is what McDonalds was originally. A simple burger joint that excelled at their small menu.
here in northern California, you will often see the street backed up with cars waiting to get to the drive through. Very popular.