Since its 2001 acquisition of Time Warner, AOL has struggled to maintain its brand on the Internet with the rise of first Yahoo and then Google. Now the company has a new strategy to get their traffic numbers up: build more sites.
AOL plans to launch at least a dozen new sites in the next six months according to Bloomberg. While no specifics were given as to the content of these sites, one could assume they will follow the trend of the Asylum and Spinner sites AOL launched last year for men’s lifestyle and music respectively.
The important point here, of course, is advertising. More sites mean more pageviews — which means more prospective eyeballs for advertisers to reach.
While certainly there is a logic to that strategy, it’s hard to feel excited about a company that hopes to succeed simply by putting more of its product on the web rather than focusing on improving the sites they already have. It’s the old quantity versus quality argument.
Still, in a world where AOL has slipped to fourth in visitors per month behind Yahoo, Google and Microsoft in January according to comScore, they must do something to try and stem the tide. As recently as March of 2006, AOL was in 2nd place among U.S. web properties, trailing only Yahoo while besting Microsoft and being far ahead of Google.
This latest strategic push could determine the fate of AOL. Pressure has been mounting for Time Warner to spin off the company into its own brand once more. Then of course there are the merger rumors with Yahoo to consider (our coverage).
Tags: co:aol
12 Trackbacks
7:09 pm
AOL: Upto 30 New Sites By The End Of 2008 said:
[...] Siegler at VentureBeat does ask an important question though: is this a strategy of quantity over quality? While [...]
9:36 pm
AOL to launch 20+ new sites - Lost Remote TV Blog said:
[...] VentureBeat has this to say about AOL’s strategy: “It’s hard to feel excited about a company that hopes to [...]
9:59 pm
TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » AOL：2008年末までに30もの新しいサイトを開設 said:
[...] しかし、VentureBeatのMGのSieglerは「これは質より量の戦略なのか？」という重要な問い掛けをしている。 確かにその戦略は論理的ですが、現在すでに持っているサイトの向上に重点を置くよりも、単に自社製品をより多くウェブに出すことで成功したい、と考えている企業に対して興奮を覚えることは難しいものです。 [...]
12:33 am
unitedBIT’s RoundUp » Blog Archive » AOL to Launch 12 Sites in 6 Months of total 30 Sites in 2008 said:
[...] Today, Bill Wilson, AOL’s executive vice president of programming has announced that AOL plans on launching twelve new sites over the next six months. There haven’t been any more details released in regards to Wilson’s statement, but surely the niche market has regained a bit of its appeal with improved efforts for behavioral targeting and integrated social media. Kristen Nicole of Mashable! predicts that these sites may have some involvement with AOL’s open mobile platform and MG Siegler of VentureBeat assumes they will follow the trend of the Asylum and Spinner sites AOL launched last year for men’s lifestyle and music respectively. And Allen Stern may sure that they will hit the areas where online advertising provides the most return — gaming, women’s, health and fitness, etc.. Doug Caverly at WebProNews uses traffic data in January to say that AOL may not in as bad a shape as pessimists might imagine. However, MG Siegler at VentureBeat does ask an important question though: is this a strategy of quantity over quality? He writes: “it’s hard to feel excited about a company that hopes to succeed simply by putting more of its product on the web rather than focusing on improving the sites they already have. It’s the old quantity versus quality argument. Source/See more at: CenterNetworks, TechCrunch, Mashable!, WebProNews, VentureBeat [...]
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[...] in 10th place:NAFTA-Gate, Take TwoWedding Band Gatecrashes Celeb PartyAOL’s new strategy: Quantity over quality?Teaching Boys and Girls SeparatelyGerman jet wing scrapes runway; all safe .adHeadline {font: [...]
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Between the Lines mobile edition said:
[...] VentureBeat: AOL’s new strategy: Quantity over quality [...]
4:26 am
AOL: Up To 30 New Sites By The End Of 2008 |THE PEOPLE VOICE said:
[...] Siegler at VentureBeat does ask an important question though: is this a strategy of quantity over quality? While certainly [...]
8:36 am
AOL Thinks More is More « MyMediaMusings said:
[...] VentureBeat has this to say about AOL’s strategy: “It’s hard to feel excited about a company that hopes to succeed simply [...]
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AOL opens AIM, for real this time, with Open AIM 2.0 » VentureBeat said:
[...] as with news that AOL will be launching a dozen new sites this year to bolster their advertising (our coverage), they could soon utilize AIM as an ad platform for developers as well. Tagged co:aol [...]
9:28 am
Last year’s rumor was true. Bebo bought — for $850 million, by AOL » VentureBeat said:
[...] a strategy of building a lot more sites, which we thought sounded like quantity over quality (our coverage). For example, AOL is planning to launch 17 international web sites, and has plans to expand to 30 [...]
7:31 am
Amid “reinvention”, AOL snaps up Sphere » VentureBeat said:
[...] may seem to be a rather generous assessment given that some of that reinvention is little more than pumping out more niche sites to pull in the advertising dollars, comScore’s newest data shows AOL’s Platform A was [...]
11:40 am
Is AOL heading for a comeback? » VentureBeat said:
[...] is continuing to expand its web properties, rolling out new sites at a rapid pace this year. We’ve questioned this strategy of seemingly quantity over quality, [...]