Techcrunch had a very interesting article today about those annoying AOL installation discs that every American received in the mail, usually once per month. On the popular Q&A site Quora, the question was recently asked: "How much did it cost AOL to distribute all those CDs back in the 1990′s?" Former AOL CEO Steve Case joined the site to answer the question, responding: A lot. ...
Read full articleQuote:I guess that explains why they try so hard to get rid of customers...if they stay around too long the average would go up...before long AOL would have to start sending hundreds of dollars worth of garbage to everyone on earth.
Case noted that the goal of AOL was to spend 10 percent of lifetime revenue on acquiring a new subscriber, and because average subscriber life was 25 months, the company likely spent $35 per user (on discs, other marketing.)
Originally posted by KillerBug:actually i think that would be 19,841,400 LBS of recyclable material.the way things are millions of people waste things and polute the earth try not to worry about.
So...15 grams per disk...
$300 million spent on disks, at around $0.50 each (including shipping & packaging)
That is 19,841,400LBS of plastic in land fills, not counting the packaging...all from a single marketing campaign.
Quote:I guess that explains why they try so hard to get rid of customers...if they stay around too long the average would go up...before long AOL would have to start sending hundreds of dollars worth of garbage to everyone on earth.
Case noted that the goal of AOL was to spend 10 percent of lifetime revenue on acquiring a new subscriber, and because average subscriber life was 25 months, the company likely spent $35 per user (on discs, other marketing.)
Originally posted by NHS2008:LOL...Yeah a relative of mine fgured out how to make cool reflecters for his christmas lights with em...I used to throw a piece of tape on the diskettes and reuse them. AOL itself was always a joke...no better way to say you had no clue about the net than to say you were on AOL!
dude....I live in India and I could see pile of AOL marked disks in streetside shops in 90s..mostly purchased by poor people to hang/stick on their bicycles/cars! I feel nostalgic!
Originally posted by pudly1:America Off-Line.
AOL? Absolutely Obsolete Loonies?
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