The Rise and Fall of AIM

[EvilMog]

We are fucking old.

[Josh]

I forgot to mention I squatted the AOL FTP like a motherfucker. I also had AOHELL for hacking the Gibson.

[Fe 26]

I was a bit late to AIM, I hung onto ICQ for dear life for the longest time.

I remember chatting with ip over icq once when he was like 15 and I was 19, I was convinced he was insane and blocked him. Sorry, bro.

This was a somewhat common response.

[kingoffighters]

So 90's.

[cka]

6 digit uin club member

e: icq was full of fat broads too

[Chux]

I forgot to mention I squatted the AOL FTP like a motherfucker. I also had AOHELL for hacking the Gibson.

AOICE bro.

[Rumpy]

holy shit, aohell. Crazy to think everyone was on AIM all the time and then it just fell off a cliff.

[A Robot Bit Me]

Text messaging became a thing and that was the end of that.

What's crazier is that everyone was on it and zero money was being made. Why didn't they lease out ad space or charge a buck for every 25 buddies you wanted to add or something. I know the install base was mostly made up of kids without credit cards, but still.

The inability to capitalize on AIM in all the years of its popularity is a much bigger blunder than the Time Warner thing imo.

[YellerDog]

Internet CC use was taboo at the time.

[A Robot Bit Me]

Yeah, good point. Ad space wasn't exactly what it is now, either. Nor was data-gathering and selling.

But there had to be something they could've done.