Humans of a certain age will remember the brief period when accessing the internet meant shelling out a monthly fee to AOL. For most of us, this gave way to better business models well over a decade ago. But as Recode points out today, 2.3 million souls never got the memo. Not only that; their rates have somehow gone up.
AOL’s earnings report was largely boring unless you’re an AOL investor, which I certainly hope you’re not. But every quarter the company reports its remaining subscription service suckers, a delightful yet depressing nugget of intel. AOL took home $US143 million of operating income from that division — more than the rest of the company combined did — meaning those unfortunates pay out, on average, $US20.86 per month for a service that’s at best redundant and at worst utterly useless. That’s up over a dollar from a few years ago.
There’s some good news though; the rate of decline in subscribers appears to be strong, down about a third since the beginning of 2011. Hopefully, the remaining 2.3 million have people in their lives who love them enough to intervene. [AOL via Recode]