America Online 2010 Annual Report Download - page 46

Table of Contents
AOL INC.
PART II—ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
utilize unique visitor numbers to evaluate the reach of our total advertising network, which includes both AOL Properties and the Third Party Network.
Unique visitor numbers provide an indication of our consumer reach. Although our consumer reach does not correlate directly to advertising revenue, we
believe that our ability to broadly reach diverse demographic and geographic audiences is attractive to brand advertisers seeking to promote their brands to a
variety of consumers without having to partner with multiple content providers. AOL's unique visitor numbers also include unique visitors attributable to co-
branded websites owned by third parties for which certain criteria have been met, including that the Internet traffic has been assigned to us through a traffic
assignment letter. As of December 31, 2010, approximately 5% of our unique visitors to AOL Properties were attributable to co-branded websites owned by
third parties where the Internet traffic was assigned to us.
The source for our unique visitor information is a third party (comScore Media Metrix, or Media Metrix). Media Metrix has historically estimated
unique visitors based on a sample of Internet users in various countries (referred to as the "panel-only methodology"). While we are familiar with the general
methodologies and processes that Media Metrix uses in estimating unique visitors, we have not performed independent testing or validation of Media Metrix's
data collection systems or proprietary statistical models, and therefore we can provide no assurance as to the accuracy of the information that Media Metrix
provides.
In 2009, Media Metrix announced the availability of an alternate methodology (currently referred to as "panel-centric unified" or "Media Metrix 360")
to estimate unique visitors, in order to provide a more accurate count of a website's audience, and has continued to refine this methodology. We adopted this
alternate methodology for our average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties and AOL Media starting in December 2009 and going forward. As a result,
our average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties and AOL Media based on Media Metrix 360 will not be comparable to the data under the previous
panel-only methodology. For comparison purposes, domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties and AOL Media are reported under both the
Media Metrix 360 and panel-only methodology for the year ended December 31, 2010.
The following table presents our unique visitor metrics for the periods presented (in millions):
Three Months Ended
December 31,
Years Ended
December 31,
2010 2009 2010 2009
Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties (Media Metrix 360) 112 NA 111 NA
Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties (Panel-only methodology) 97 100 100 104
Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Media (Media Metrix 360) 84 NA 83 NA
Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Media (Panel-only methodology) 70 75 72 74
Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Advertising Network 181 184 184 179
Subscriber Access Metrics
The primary metrics we monitor for subscription access service are monthly average churn and average paid tenure. Monthly average churn represents
on average the number of AOL-brand access subscribers that terminate or cancel our services each month, factoring in new and reactivated subscribers. The
domestic AOL-brand access subscriber monthly average churn was 2.6%, 3.4% and 3.6% for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008,
respectively. Average paid tenure represents the average period of time subscribers have paid for domestic AOL-brand internet access. The average paid
tenure of the remaining domestic AOL-brand access subscribers
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