AOL and WebEx are exploring ways to make some of the
online meeting services they offer to business users of AOL's AIM
instant messaging network appealing to personal users as
well.
Some of the services AOL and WebEx are considering adapting for
AIM consumers include online presentations, voice over IP
communications and multiparty videoconferencing.
Brian Curry, senior director of AIM network services at AOL,
said the company planned to begin testing some of these options
next week. AOL hopes to put together a more definitive plan early
next year and possibly have some concrete AIM/WebEx services for
personal customers at some point during the first quarter.
"We're looking at the WebEx services we have on the business
side and how they might be used on the consumer side," Curry said.
"We're going to run some user testing next week, looking at ways of
bringing those kinds of functions into more of the consumer use
paradigms that are out there."
A suite of AIM services for business users, launched in June,
includes one called AIM Web Meetings, provided in conjunction with
WebEx, which specialises in the area.
"WebEx is a fairly sophisticated online tool," Curry said.
"We're trying to figure out how much of that is really the kind of
thing to put in front of consumers. Consumers may not need to share
editable documents back and forth and that sort of thing. They may
just need some ability to do presentations."
The "consumerising" of WebEx services is part of a plan that saw
AOL this week position for personal customers an AIM voice
conferencing service previously targeted at business users. To
entice personal customers to the service, AOL is offering all AIM
users 500 free minutes. Up to 15 people can participate in a
conference call. The service is currently limited to North America
but could be expanded to other countries if successful.
But analyst Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research,
was not convinced that WebEx services would entice personal
customers. "Unless I'm missing something, I don't think there's a
lot of appeal for something like WebEx directly for consumers," he
said.
Instead, he thought positioning WebEx services for AIM personal
customers might let AOL round up additional small and medium-sized
business users unfamiliar with the AIM/WebEx offerings.
"If you do this in the consumer space and you offer 500 free
minutes, then all of a sudden you're talking to a decent percentage
of business users too, who are AOL's real market for this and who
maybe will find applications for it."
Juan Carlos Perez writes for IDG News Service