Going Free Works for AOL

Apparently, AOL's free services are paying off. Time Warner Inc. said this week that the company's strategy to offer most of AOL's services for free was making faster-than-expected progress in attracting new Internet users and cutting costs.

Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner's chief operating officer, told investors that its strategy had attracted new users beyond those who were once paying customers of the online service. He reported around 40 percent of new users were not former subscribers. In addition, subscribers who formerly paid for AOL services were moving to its free services at a quicker rate than originally predicted by AOL management.

"People weren't leaving AOL because they didn't like it," Bewkes said. "They were leaving because they wanted to go to [high-speed] broadband."

For more information, check out the Yahoo! News article AOL gains more new customers after going free.