The Rise And Fall Of AOL

At its peak in December 1999, AOL had a market capitalization of $222 billion dollars. Since then, the influx of broadband internet and the burst of the dot-com bubble reduced the one- time internet behemoth to a shadow of its former self.

AOL once dominated email, internet connectivity, online news, and chat. AOL couldn't maintain its superior position as subscription and advertising revenue dried up with the shift from dial-up modems to cable broadband. A disastrous merger with Time Warner in 2000 was unwound in 2009. Along the way, AOL tried but failed to buy Facebook, YouTube and a minority stake in Chinese Internet company Tencent, Eventually, AOL to sold to Verizon in 2015 for just $4.4 billion.

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The Rise And Fall Of AOL

[SaltySparrow]

You've got mail is the ultimate snapshot of pre 9/11 America.

[jxsilicon]

I remember we use to throw those AOL discs around like frisbees. They use to mail you a thousand of those things.

[Applefanatic]

Shout out to the summer interns at CNBC for pumping out some high quality content this summer

[andreas.]

The merger made no sense. Time Warner never needed AOL. It was as if Henry Ford bought horse and carriage companies.

[PokeyBessie]

AOL was my childhood. "Get off that dang computer" since I was on AOL dialup. Older millennials know the struggle.
This company use to be big enough to buy some of its competitors. It probably could have originally bought Amazon when it came out when you look back.

[kimberlybjrc]

Before texting, you rushed home from school to get on AIM with your friends. Screen names, away messages, buddy icons. Can’t think of my pre-teen/early teen years without AIM

[michaelbergman]

Shout-out to the minds in the production staff who are behind the influx of these videos recently. Big fan 👌

[kei]

part of their decline came from their neglect and active refusal to support and grow AIM. They could've been the facebook.

[jrwheeler]

My husband and I met on AOL. It will be 22 years in June. Without AOL, we never would have met since we lived in different states over 3 hours away from each other, so AOL was obviously a huge part of my life. I remember when my parents bought our first family PC in the fall of 1995 and the first thing we did was sign up for AOL. I had just turned 14 years old and was in the 8th grade. Every night was an endless battle over the phone line from thereon out until my parents finally caved for a second phone line for the computer in 1997. I remember getting so annoyed whenever the call waiting would kick me offline. Of course, it would always happen right in the middle of instant messaging with somebody. Then, there were the nights when all of the access numbers were busy and you had to keep trying over and over to get a connection. Kids today will never understand the struggle of trying to use the internet in the 90s!

[Blackwlff]

1. It was too slow
2. You couldnt use your phone while being online
3. They charged per minute
4. Shitty software
5. Better options came along

[followmyrule]

Netflix as a DVD rental service at 4:22. Little did it know what it would become 😂

[GamerbyDesign]

Let me save you about 13 minutes. AOL was last to broadband. That killed it. End of story.

[MynameIsnotforsell]

As for the game idea, aol was ahead of their time. Should have came back to the original idea, they would have made a fortune.

[ericpa]

This is what happens when people lacking a futuristic vision run a company.

[Neftegna]

Y'all remember the awful sound of the modem? 😂😂😂

[Discotraxx]

I loved AOL chat rooms I would stay up past 2 am just talking to strangers funny thing I was 12 when we first got internet at home and access to chat rooms I remember posting A/S/L lol

[IQFungNet]

AOL is still charging seniors for free email. Reason they are being charges are to protect and scan your emails for virus. I told them can't catch new virus or zip attachment.

[johnl.]

It was smart of AOL to purchase Time Warner with over valued stock.

[ShawZam]

I missed the chat rooms...they should of kept that part of aol..

[mrbear]

Interesting how all of the CEO's kept complaining that if I had only gotten support I could have made it dude you are the support system as CEO. Stop blaming others for your faults!