America Online 2010 Annual Report Download - page 9

Table of Contents
On February 6, 2011, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. ("The Huffington Post"). We believe that our
acquisition of The Huffington Post will solidify our strategy of creating a global content network while providing our consumers with an array of news,
analysis, commentary and entertainment.
Local
We seek to be a leading provider of local content, platforms and services covering geographic levels ranging from neighborhoods to major metropolitan
areas. We have developed and acquired platforms that are designed to facilitate the production, aggregation, distribution and consumption of local content.
This local content includes professional editorial content, user-generated content and business listings. Our goal is to provide a compelling, accessible and
comprehensive local experience on the Internet.
Our local offerings include the following:
• Patch, which is a community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for
individual towns and communities;
• MapQuest, which is a leading online mapping and directions service; and
• City's Best, which provides local entertainment information for major metropolitan areas.
Although AOL is facing increasing competition in the local market, we believe we are well-positioned to be a leader in providing services to local
markets through our established brands—MapQuest and City's Best—and through the rapid expansion of Patch, which has grown from approximately 30 sites
in January 2010 to 790 sites as of February 18, 2011. In order to take advantage of this position we intend to continue to significantly invest in this area and
establish online destinations that provide comprehensive news, events and directories at the local level.
Consumer Applications
We offer an array of consumer applications, including a suite of communications products and services. Our e-mail and instant messaging products and
services provide us with the ability to reach millions of consumers globally. An important goal is to increase the reach and engagement of our
communications offerings on multiple platforms and digital devices, including on portable wireless devices such as smartphones and tablets (e.g., iPhone,
iPad, Android-based devices and Blackberry). Accordingly, we seek to continue to develop and enhance the value of our existing consumer applications
offerings, including through enhanced features and functionality, user interface improvements and integrations with other networks and services.
Our consumer applications offerings include the following:
• AOL Mail, which is one of the most popular e-mail services in the United States;
• AIM, which is a leading instant messaging service in the United States; and
• a suite of mobile offerings which extend our content, products and services to a range of digital devices, e.g., Moviefone, DailyFinance and Seed
applications.
We are continually looking to enhance and expand our consumer applications offerings. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2010, we launched in beta
a new AOL Mail offering which is intended to simplify, integrate and aggregate different modes of communication such as e-mail, instant messaging and text
messaging. Additionally, we seek to enable consumers to access AOL content and services on mobile devices and we intend to develop and offer other
applications designed specifically for mobile use. We believe there are long-term opportunities to distribute content, products and advertising through our
consumer applications offerings. We believe this extension of our product distribution will enable us to generate increased advertising revenue.
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