America Online (AOL) is one of many online companies that have emerged as a result of the growing capabilities, and decreasing size, of computers and communications technology. Over the past few years AOL has become one of the more popular on-line services available to the public. In 1992 the company had 219,000 subscribers, which was a 40 percent increase over the previous year, and now has over one million subscribers and continues to grow. This places AOL as the third largest on-line service after CompuServe and Prodigy.
Some of the features that have contributed to the growing success of AOL are its sharp graphics, ease of use, wide variety of services, information available, and heavy promotion. The main draw for subscribers seems to be high level of interactivity that users have with each other. There are a number of bulletin-boards and chat areas where subscribers who share similar interests can communicate.
Some of AOL's competitors offer similar services. However, AOL has also worked to secure its growing market position through acquisitions of computer- and information-related companies, and alliances with a number of other companies such as NBC, Knight-Ridder, and IBM.
These acquisitions and alliances have been so successful, in fact, that AOL's growth in subscribers temporarily exceeded the capacity of the network. This forced the company to temporarily ration user time during peak hours. At one point, the company also found that it needed to reduce the level of service for a short time, as customers were having difficulty logging into the system.
In spite of such difficulties, AOL managed to keep the majority of their subscribers and also to gain more. There are a number of reasons for this continued growth in the face of trouble. For instance, AOL always provided access to a wealth of current and relevant information -- the Tribune Company which owns 10.3 percent of AOL provides much of
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