America Online 2011 Annual Report Download - page 6

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Table of Contents
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Introduction
We are a leading global web services company with a suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience. Our business spans online
content, products and services that we offer to consumers, publishers and advertisers. We are focused on attracting and engaging internet consumers by
creating high quality content, products and services at scale and providing valuable online advertising services on both our owned and operated properties and
third-party websites. We also operate one of the largest internet subscription access services in the United States, with 3.3 million domestic AOL-brand access
subscribers as of December 31, 2011. While subscribers to our access service are declining, our subscription access service remains a valuable distribution
channel for our content, product and service offerings and an important source of our total revenues and cash flows.
Our Strategic Initiatives
We are in the midst of executing a multi-year strategic plan to reinvigorate growth in our revenues and profits by taking advantage of the continuing
migration of advertising, commerce and information to the internet. Our strategy is to focus our resources on AOL's core competitive strengths in web and
local content production, advertising and paid services while expanding the distribution of our content, product and service offerings on multiple platforms
and digital devices, including on portable wireless devices such as smartphones and tablets. We continue to reinvigorate AOL's culture and brand by
prioritizing the consumer experience, making greater use of data-driven insights and encouraging innovation. We have also actively supplemented our
business strategy through targeted acquisitions and dispositions. Particular areas of strategic emphasis include:
• Expanding The Huffington Post Media Group. Through our acquisition of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. ("The Huffington Post"), we have
accelerated our strategy to deliver a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, commentary, entertainment and community
engagement. As a part of this strategy, we have created The Huffington Post Media Group ("HPMG"), which includes The Huffington Post and
its affiliated sites. Under HPMG, we have redesigned key properties and are in the process of expanding internationally to provide relevant and
engaging online consumer content produced by us and through strategic partnerships. We seek to continue to grow unique visitor growth and
engagement on our properties through our owned and operated content, products and services. We aim to continue to grow our core products and
services and increase our content production in order to facilitate this goal. In addition, social networking is becoming a more popular form of
communication for global consumers on the internet. As a result, we seek to ensure that our content, products and services are available on digital
devices as well as social networks so that our consumers can readily access and use our content, products and services.
• Enhancing Our Advertising Product Offerings. During 2010, we acquired Pictela, Inc. ("Pictela") and introduced a new advertising format,
"Project Devil," that seeks to enhance the consumer experience by improving the aesthetic quality, impact and interactivity of online advertising.
We believe premium formats can enhance our advertising product offering and we seek to launch new format enhancements and increase
advertiser adoption of these formats. Additionally, through recent acquisitions and our development of new video products, we seek to increase
the editorial use of video on multiple platforms and digital devices. We believe that video enhancements across our owned and operated
properties and third party websites can increase monetization and distribution of our content. We aim to create products that will deepen our
relationships with existing advertisers and attract new advertisers by providing them with effective and efficient means of reaching our
consumers. We seek to have an open, transparent and easy-to-use advertising system that offers unique and valuable insights to our publishers
and advertisers and we remain focused on the continued expansion of our video platform for both our properties and our partners globally.
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