Aol Anaysis

The key changes that are taking place are the emergence of Internet; World Wide Web and the entrance of Microsoft Network into the commercial online industry. These key changes threatened the future prospects of AOL.

The Internet World Wide Web limited the role of online consumer services companies, including industry leaders such as AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy, as middlemen between content providers and customers. On the Internet, every person that has a computer was his/her own publisher.

Microsoft acted as a bookstore which means one in which every content provider was his/her own publisher. It kept only 30 percent of the commission fees and passed the rest of commission to the content providers as well as offering them greater control over their own products. AOL only offers 20 percent of commission fees to the content providers. Therefore, the arrival of Microsoft and the emergence of the Internet will potentially expect to cause AOL's market share and customer base to go down.

•Entry of new competitors like Microsoft Network (MSN) provided even more competition to the original oligopoly of three. MSN had a different approach to presenting internet content to subscribers. They also gave content providers a larger portion of subscriber revenues and more choice in the creation of their product offerings.

•Implication to AOL’s future prospects- greater shift in marketing efforts to content providers

•Emergence of the World Wide Web presented even greater challenges to AOL’s bottomline

•Implication- customers can directly communicate their needs to content providers directly without having to go through a middlemen like AOL. AOL might face decrease in market presence because demand for its services may decline.

AOL production

The broad range of features offered by the America Online service was designed to meet the varied needs of its four million members. A key feature of the online service was the ease with which members with related...