Shashwat Chaturvedi

MUMBAI: One of the biggest online company in the US, AOL (formerly known as America Online), is set to enter the Indian market on November 15, sources said.

With $8 billion in revenues for the year 2005, AOL is one of the late entrants in the Indian cyber scene. Though, the company has customer service and customer analysis center in Bangalore, there was never a focus for the Indian market.

It could be due to the fact, that AOL had a subscription based revenue model till date. AOL recently launched a free service on September 12. With a downturn in its fortunes, making a foray into newer territories makes a good strategy.

"The Indian venture will take on the domestic biggies like Rediff, Indiatimes, and other international players like MSN and Yahoo. It will be a advertising-based revenue model," the source said on condition of anonymity.
According to reports, AOL's European venture has not really taken off the way it was supposed to. There are also talks doing the rounds that the European operations could be hived off and sold.

"The mandate is clear. Target newer markets like Japan, China, Korea and India," the source added.

However, it would be interesting to note, what strategy AOL adopts in India. AOL was the company that succeeded with the subscription model. For instance, one of the packages popular in the US costs around $25 per month for e-mail and other services. Indians are not too keen to pay for Web services, obvious from the low uptake of premium e-mail services.

Currently, the venture will be headed by Maneesh Dhir and the company is recruiting big time from competition. The latest high-profile appointment is Deepak Karambelkar, former content head at Yahoo! India.