| The company, owned by Time Warner, is set to offer a range of services, covering the entire gamut of content, email, shopping, music and will be competing head on with Yahoo!, MSN, Rediff and Sify in the domestic market. |
| AOL has a workforce of around 11,000 worldwide and maintains 18 international offices in 11 countries outside the US, including a development centre in Dublin, Ireland, and three facilities in India. |
| The ongoing efforts to spread the adoption of broadband in India is acting as a catalyst for global players such as AOL to set up India-focused operations. |
| Maneesh Dhir, executive vice-president, international operations, AOL, who is responsible the company's operations in Asia, Europe and the Americas, is spearheading the launch and overseeing the growth of portals in these areas as well as reviewing new business opportunities arising in the international arena. |
| AOL India began with the Bangalore Service Centre, which opened in 2002. In 2004, a Software Development Centre was established to develop applications for AOL clients and premium products. |
| In 2005, the company's knowledge processing site was launched, devoted to business analysis, optimising search, and network support. Industry sources say AOL is in talks with a few telecom service providers, including MTNL, to widen the scope of its reach in the Indian market. No official confirmation was available on this. |
| Said an industry analyst: "A global-scale player such as AOL coming to India with international processes will obviously help improve the internet landscape in the country. The Indian consumer will stand to benefit as it is expected that overall service levels will move up smartly and we are waiting how AOL will position itself in India." |
| According to him, some of the established practices such as understanding online consumer behaviour, data processing, measuring metrics such as click through ratios, will mature in India. |
| The move by AOL to launch its India portal comes at a time when this company is undergoing a strategic restructuring globally by moving towards an advertising-supported global web services business from primarily a subscription-based business. |
| A significant component of this transition was to permit the use of most of AOL's services, including the AOL client software and AOL email, free of charge. |
| AOL offers a variety of websites, including portals, such as AOL.com (including versions in other languages) and related applications and services, which, along with AOL and internet service provider (ISP) services, form an online network (the AOL Network). |
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