Steve Case
Steve Case
Stephen McConnell "Steve" Caseis an American entrepreneur, investor, and businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online. Since his retirement as chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003, he has gone on to invest in early and growth-stage startups through his Washington, D.C. based venture capital firm Revolution LLC...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth21 August 1958
CityHonolulu, HI
CountryUnited States of America
I think it's now clear to everybody the Internet has arrived and everybody is talking about how to reinvent their businesses to take advantage of e-commerce, ... While many companies talk about this opportunity, no company is better positioned to take advantage of this situation than AOL.
We need that same mentality in philanthropy, trying things, taking risks, recognizing the first try, maybe the second try, maybe the third try won't work. But if you stay at it and you're learning, you're talking to others, and you're learning together, eventually you'll break through and see the kind of impact you were hoping for.
We went from one million to 20 million subscribers in the past five years. That's great, but a billion people watch CNN.
We do not intend to limit content diversity on any of our systems. If we limit content, if we do not promote a diversity of voices ... then consumers will waste no time migrating to other Internet and media services.
Couple that with their distribution (OS) muscle, then Netscape clearly has an uphill battle.
And when I was 24, I think, I moved to Washington, D.C., and started focusing on interactive services, and that's really what I then did for 20 years.
Our expanding membership and surging usage confirm that consumers want the content, services, features and ease of use that are uniquely AOL,
We don't want to suddenly mess around with people's normal viewing habits and force them to do interactive things. Above all, we want to expand the viewer's experience, either through a very simple directory or by providing additional information to the program that's currently showing.
We don't want to turn the TV into a computer.
There's no question that we're on the eve of an explosion in consumers' move to wireless and how they use interactive devices.
We've learned the market functions a little differently in Europe.
I strongly believe that AOL - once the leading Internet company in the world - can return to its past greatness. Over the past few months, I have been pleased to see a renewed focus on AOL at Time Warner, and the emergence of so many strategic alternatives.
When I saw it, I really thought it could be more of a lifestyle brand, much like Nike.
From a pure technical standpoint, it does look like Microsoft may win this one,