The Desktop as a Revenue Growth Opportunity

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AOL is shutting down a bunch of properties. Frankly, AOL is probably not the kind of company you look to when you think of leading edge. But they’re a significant player on the web with a very high user base and they’ve got a lot of valuable properties including their AOL instant messenger stuff and AOL mail. So it was interesting to read the full text of an email about where they are planning to focus their energies:

- Toolbar: Accelerate the distribution and monetization of toolbars to drive revenue derived from search and recirculation.

- Desktop: Develop and launch desktop software promotion push to drive increased ROI through the acquisition of new free software users.

- Mail: Increase effective monetization of mail while pursuing distribution opportunities to grow audience and engagement. Drive growth though new ad inventory (Quigo, etc.), ad packaging and sales strategy development, affinity and cobranding partnerships and open services.

- Truveo: Monetize the over 50 million UVs Truveo receives monthly through our O&O site and APIs through a phased approach including banner advertising on the site and monetization of the APIs.

The web browser is great. But you know what? Most people – the people who REALLY spend money and click on internet ads – they’re still using a lot of desktop software. They still interact with data and content through a combination of desktop and web browser applications. They haven’t made the full switch to web apps because they know and understand the desktop model. There’s a big market out there for web developers who want to target those people and create a desktop app that appeals to them.

That’s the bridge I see AIR being. You can keep up with the digerati by building applications for the web browser but you can take that code and start creating a desktop experience for those users who are drawn to it. It’s really all about providing the experience users want at minimal cost. Regardless of AOL’s problems or vision, the desktop has played an important role in what they do and there is still a tremendous amount of money to be made on the desktop. AIR opens that market up to web developers in a cross-platform way.

Related posts:

  1. No The Desktop Isn’t Dead, But Why?
  2. The Desktop: Baby, I’m Back
  3. All "Offline Desktop" Solutions are not Created Equal
  4. Are They Still RIAs if They Are Desktop Applications?
  5. Adobe AIR: Web-Enabled Desktop Development
  • http://www.mattishness.com mathew

    combine desktop persistence with serving useful ads? brilliant!

    who did that before? gator?
    ;)

  • http://phillipkerman.com/blog Phillip Kerman

    AIR is cool and all, but if you wanted a really turbo desktop app you’d never do it with AIR. I shouldn’t say “never” but I mean, the advantages of using AIR (that I can see) are:
    –recycle knowledge you have in Flash player.
    –take advantage of some ready-built stuff like sql-lite and drag&drop
    –leverage the sweet distribution AIR can provide.

    So, those are big… but, again, if you want to make a really killer desktop app those things aren’t enough. You need to see AIR as the best solution technically. It may or may not be. So, to say desktop stuff is big for AOL therefore AIR should be big is a leap. You’re begging the question whether AIR solves that need.

    Not saying it sucks in all cases, but I’ve yet to see an AIR app that looks and feels like a “real” desktop app. I’ve seen more Director apps that do (not trying to say Director is the end all either!).

  • http://www.am-3.org Dave

    I think AOL internal culture is now follow instead of lead. Look at the first part of the note.

    - Toolbar: Accelerate the distribution and monetization of toolbars to drive revenue derived from search and recirculation.

    They’re looking at G’s search revenue and are wondering why they missed the boat.

    I totally agree with the fact that most users are “afraid” to start using web apps (security also a big issue).