AOL Spent a Fortune on Trial CDs
PrintRemember when AOL used to distribute those trial CDs back in the 1990s? You probably still have half a dozen packed away with your other tech remnants from yesteryear, and maybe you're still using one as a coaster. The rest ended up in the garbage bin, but what you may not have realized at the time was how much AOL was actually spending to get those CDs into your hands.
AOL co-founder and former chief executive Steve Case, along with a few other execs from AOL's heyday, revealed some interesting numbers in a sit down with Quora.com.
"I don't remember the total spending but do recall in the early 1990s our target was to spend 10 percent of lifetime revenue to get a new subscribers," explains Steve Case, co-founder and former chief executive. "At the time I believe the average subscriber life was about 25 months and revenue was about $350 so we spent about $35 to acquire new subscribers."
Jan Brandt, another former chief, had a better recollection of the exact figures, saying AOL spent "over $300 million. At one point, 50 percent of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo on it. We were logging in new subscribers at the rate of one every six seconds."
Image Credit: usna.edu
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Jesterace
December 29, 2010 at 7:40am
I remember receiving an AOL cd in the mail, living in Canada thought it was kind of wierd. It was going to let us subscribe however it wanted us to call a long distance number to use the dial up. No toll free number. Quickly cancelled that idea.
smashingpumpin
December 28, 2010 at 1:20pm
Nostalgia indeed! I've actually seen more than a couple of cars with AOL discs for a frickin rear-view mirror ornament lol.
I still recall a beautiful dream I had back then were most of those disc were cd-rw instead. sigh....
whathuhitwasntme
December 28, 2010 at 12:44pm
I used to grab every one of the ones with floppies back in the day.
THEY WERE FREE FLOPPIES
erase an reused 100s of them in the day of floppy discs, I never purchased a floppy back then, just find a 7-11 with an AOL display an clean it out
and I have seen some amazing art projects made up from 1000's of the cd's
livebriand
December 28, 2010 at 5:39pm
LOL! Nice idea! But isn't there a write tab on the floppies though that's probably locked in place on those? It's too bad that a CD can't be rewritten.
Caboose
December 28, 2010 at 6:09pm
It's soo easy to create one. A small piece of duct tape or something to "enable" writing to the disc.
perryra1968
December 28, 2010 at 12:25pm
AOL was my introduction to the internet, my first email account, building computers and the lovely world of INTERNET PORN. America Online, baby!
praetor_alpha
December 28, 2010 at 11:52am
I remember when they sent out floppies. Looking back now, I could imagine that most folks would open one up with a floppy and wonder "WTF is this?"
Never had AOL, and even mom knew to stay away from it.
violian
December 28, 2010 at 11:52am
It's amazing how fast things have changed. Less than 10 years ago, we were getting these AOL cd's in the mail every week - offers for super slow dial-up internet. And now, everyone has blazingly fast internet on their smartphones. I remembered having a drawerful of these AOL cd's because I used to be a hoarder - keeping everything - even ad-circulars that were received in the mail.
ShyLinuxGuy
December 28, 2010 at 11:29am
That was ANNOYING to find, amidst all the other junk mail, an AOL tin laid out on the kitchen table every so often...
What they didn't realize is that we had DSL. Why would we decide to switch to dial-up???
Caboose
December 28, 2010 at 6:07pm
It was junkmail, so you'd get the CD regardless if you had cable, DSL, T1 line or whatever. Just like I get adverts for Rogers when I have a Bell cell phone, and Telus adverts when I have Shaw.
aviaggio
December 28, 2010 at 10:45am
Hmm... all of a sudden I'm feeling a bit of nostalgia for AOL, kinda like one does for an old video game from their youth.
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