AOL Introduces New Open AIM Strategy
Puts the Power of Real Time Communications and Access to More Than 63 Million Active Worldwide Users into the Hands of Developers, Online Communities and Sites and Services of Every Kind — Dulles, VA - March 6, 2005 - AOL today announced the creation …
Context & Ripple Effects
AOL had already positioned AIM as a social-networking service while expanding free, advertising-supported web offerings. Opening AIM’s real-time communications access turns that positioning into a developer-distribution strategy rather than keeping the service confined to AOL’s own properties.
The move also follows AOL’s push for broadband subscription alliances, making the company’s communication services more central to how partners and outside sites can attract and retain connected users.
First-order effects
- Developers, online communities and web services gain access to AIM’s real-time communications capabilities and its stated base of more than 63 million active users.
- AOL shifts AIM from a standalone destination toward infrastructure that outside services can incorporate, extending its reach beyond AOL-controlled products.
Second-order effects
- Sites that integrate AIM gain a ready-made communications layer, raising pressure on competing messaging services to offer comparable developer access or partnership terms.
- AOL’s advertising-supported web strategy gains more potential distribution points as third-party services build experiences around AIM access.
Third-order effects
- If third-party adoption takes hold, instant messaging competition shifts from winning users only through proprietary clients to winning developers and embedded service integrations.
- AOL is testing whether a large consumer communications network can create more value as an open platform than as a closed destination.
The trend: Consumer internet companies are beginning to treat established communication networks as developer platforms that can extend audience reach across third-party services.