They were America Online (AOL) trial discs.
The Internet Problem
In the 1990s, before the Internet became essential for businesses, socializing, and pretty much everything else, AOL was a company that provided Internet service by the hour. But at first, there was a problem—the company only had about 200,000 subscribers, mainly because most people didn't really understand what the Internet was.
This was a hard problem to solve, as the Internet wasn't like an action figure, movie, or car, where a TV commercial could make everyone understand why they should buy the product. No one knew what a good ad for the Internet would even look like.
AOL's leaders knew they needed to market their product in a way that was completely new. In 1993, the company's chief marketing officer determined that the only way to sell the Internet was to let people use the Internet. With that epiphany, the idea of the trial disc—first a data storage device called a "floppy disk," and then a compact disc (CD)—was born.
In the spring and summer of 1993, AOL sent out a wave of discs containing software to get online, along with hours of free Internet access, to mailboxes across the country. The promotion was a hit, and many of the people who got the discs became paying customers. After the success of the first mailing wave, a tsunami of discs showed up in places like frozen foods, banks, and airplane seat pockets.
From 1993 to 2006, AOL spent about 300 million U.S. dollars on the discs, producing so many of them that it's been estimated that, at one time, over half the CDs produced in the world were for AOL!
Slow But Steady
For people who used AOL, dial-up Internet of the 1990s was far different from the Internet of today. Dial-up literally meant calling into a network on a landline, so to get online, a person dialed a phone number through their computer's modem. The process was slow, and there was a cacophonous series of clicks and buzzes as the computer connected to the network.
After the computer finally connected, the entire Internet was available—but at 56k speeds (which is about 200 times slower than the Internet most people use today), making streaming video impossible. There were also a few things to watch out for. Because dial-up used the phone line, anyone trying to call a person who was online would get an interminable busy signal—a repetitive tone indicating that the line was being used—and the voicemail (or, more likely at the time, the answering machine) didn't pick up. Since landlines were the primary form of communication back then, this meant the caller was out of luck. And since early dial-up charged by the hour, the four minutes it took to download a photo didn't come cheap. Anyone who used more than the free hours AOL provided was charged—which made AOL a whole lot of money.
Eventually, AOL became a giant of the dial-up industry, going from about 5 million users in 1996 to 23 million by 2000. At its apex, the company was registering a new user every six seconds! As a result, in the 1990s, AOL was synonymous with "Internet" (just as Kleenex is used to mean "tissue") and having an AOL email address was fairly standard among Internet users.
AOL's dynasty didn't last forever. With the introduction of faster technology and other Internet providers, dial-up quickly lost its appeal. By 2006, the trial discs were no more, and in 2010, AOL's user base shrank below 5 million. Some people still use their original AOL email accounts today, but AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications in 2019. Still, because AOL was the main reason Americans first got hooked on the Web, the company played a huge role in turning the Internet into the cultural juggernaut it is today.
Video Credit: Sound courtesy and inset image Verizon Media. Photo by U.S. Army
Video Transcript: You've Got Mail
QUESTION 8
8 / 8
According to the Article, which of these happened first?
AOL executives determined that the only way to sell the Internet to people was to let them use it for free.
AOL was registering a new user every six seconds, reaching 23 million subscribers.
AOL sent out a wave of CDs that contained hours of free Internet access to mailboxes across the country.
AOL provided Internet service by the hour to approximately 200,000 subscribers.
1 answer
According to the article, the event that happened first is:
AOL provided Internet service by the hour to approximately 200,000 subscribers.
This came before the other events listed, such as AOL executives determining the best way to sell the Internet, sending out the wave of CDs, and registering users at a rapid pace.
