AOL comes to Poland

AOL, an American giant in internet services, will launch the Polish versions of its most popular services at the beginning of 2008. The Time Warner-owned company is already present in almost 20 countries around the world including France, the UK, Canada, Australia and India, where it started this April. In the US it boasts the third-most popular website, with 123.8 million visits in July, according to Time Warner Data.

The company, which enjoyed its greatest popularity in the 1990s with as many as 30 million subscribers around the world, has lost a number of users, acquiring the image of an outdated service and raising controversies for the fees it imposed. Experts say getting rid of such an image may be a difficult task.

"Although this may not be a problem for potential users, it may deter the advertisers," said Agnieszka Klepacka, director of the key-account department of Idmnet media house.

"While this image will not change overnight, AOL needs to act fast and put a lot of effort into interactive advertising or creating web communities," she stressed. She added that the time for general-theme portals has passed, and more and more advertisers prefer thematic sites. AOL will need to develop such an offer as well, Klepacka explained.

To get a decent share in the Polish market AOL also has to offer a level of audiovisual services higher than what has been available up to now, and concentrate on interactive communities, opined Robert Kroplewski, an IT expert from the Sobieski Institute, adding that thanks to its cooperation with Time Warner, AOL has the potential to do just that.