swilliams
join:1999-09-07
Mount Prospect, IL
 ·AT&T Midwest
| How can a business grossing $550 million
plus a month lose money as badly as they are?
According to a Newsweek article here: »www.msnbc.com/news/841749.asp - AOL has 37 million subscribers.
Assume say, $15 a month from each subscriber, that's $555 million a month for gross revenues, excluding any money derived from advertising or any other partnerships they have.
How can a company gross at least $6,660,000,000 a year yet lose money year after year? It just boggles my mind. |
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Tropix
@optonline.net | $6,650,000,000 of the $6,660,000,000 is used on making AOL coasters. |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY
Host:
IPv6
Business Connectiv..
Home/Office setup ..
Console/Handheld g..
Console Tech
| They spent a lot of money on these.. |
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swilliams
join:1999-09-07
Mount Prospect, IL | TELL me those aren't ALL AOL CD's.. Can't be...
Can it? |
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SanFrancisco
Premium
join:2002-05-04
San Francisco, CA
| reply to swilliams
said by swilliams  :
How can a company gross at least $6,660,000,000 a year yet lose money year after year? It just boggles my mind.
Merging with another company costs big bucks. Most of their money probably went towards the merger.
--
"The Final Frontier is not Space it is the Human Imagination." - Boeing |
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wwdubbia
join:2002-06-03
Clinton, NY | reply to swilliams
Sure can, look at this site that was mentioned on dslreports not too long ago: »www.nomoreaolcds.com |
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anonymous coward
@mindspring.n
| reply to justin
> They spent a lot of money on these..
Not really. Figure $0.50 - $1.00 per CD mailed, depending on how fancy the packaging is. That includes manufacturing, packaging, and mailing costs. I see from the site they've collected 100k CD's to date. The $50k - $100k AOL spent on them isn't even a rounding error in their marketing budget. |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY
Host:
IPv6
Business Connectiv..
Home/Office setup ..
Console/Handheld g..
Console Tech
| said by anonymous coward:
> They spent a lot of money on these..
Not really. Figure $0.50 - $1.00 per CD mailed, depending on how fancy the packaging is. That includes manufacturing, packaging, and mailing costs. I see from the site they've collected 100k CD's to date. The $50k - $100k AOL spent on them isn't even a rounding error in their marketing budget.
the site only collects a fraction of whats out there. I believe there have been more AOL discs produced and mailed than there are people in america. |
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anonymous coward
@mindspring.com
| > I believe there have been more AOL discs produced and mailed than there are people in america.
Well, that wasn't really the point. Sure, if you count every CD AOL ever produced, they spent a lot of money. My point was that money AOL spent on the CD's collected at www.nomoreaolcds.com doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
And look at all the customers AOL signed up with all those CD's. If direct mail wasn't an effective marketing channel, you can be sure they would have stopped the carpet bombing long ago. |
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xrobertcmx
Premium
join:2001-06-18
Sterling, VA
clubs:  | reply to swilliams
Part of the problem is that a lot of those 37 million customers are not paying customers...they are either using the coasters, or they are volunteering. |
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rchdjellis
join:2001-01-14
Narberth, PA
| reply to justin
I think you are right on the number produced being greater than the U.S. population, but I think this is a gross understatement. I receive 4-6 a year and so do other members of my family. Let's not forget the copies bound into various magazines.
I can only pity the company which produces the CD's if they finally figure out that their distribution mechanism is flawed or they fold (NOT LIKELY!) |
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