United Online's Giveaway

In an attempt to boost the upsell of subscribers switching from free Internet to premium service at $9.95 per month, United Online will offer sample of "Platinum" service to free subscribers this weekend.

by Gretchen Hyman of siliconvalley.internet.com [October 31, 2002]

United Online, the merged Juno plus NetZero, announced plans to offer a free weekend preview of its Platinum services.

Beginning Friday, November 1 and ending on Monday, November 4, United Online's 4.8 million active users as well as prospective subscribers shopping around for a new ISP will get a free peek at NetZero and Juno's Platinum services, both of which are offered at a rate of $9.95 per month.

Both United Online Internet brands NetZero and Juno offer two plans to their users, the Pre-Plan, which provides free Internet access limited to ten hours per week, and the fee-based Platinum service that comes with all the bells and whistles of a traditional ISP.

Juno subscribers using software versions earlier than 5.0 will be required to upgrade before sampling or signing up for the service, the company said.

The lure of the Platinum offering for Internet users, according to the Westlake Village, Calif.-based ISP, is that both versions of the Platinum service will feature faster downloads and no banner advertising.

Additionally, United Online is attempting to undercut its ISP competitors by offering Internet access at half the standard monthly rate.

"Our preview weekend gives everyone the opportunity to test out their paid services for free," said Brian Woods, executive vice president and chief marketing officer. "We have found that a lot of people sign up during that weekend who have not signed up previously."

In preparation for the free preview weekend, United Online has been advertising on both Juno and NetZero and will air a 30-second television commercial on the Thursday before the Platinum preview weekend, Woods said.

United Online boosted its service offerings for NetZero users in September with the release of WebMail, which enables users to compose and send messages, and access their e-mail address books from any computer and through any ISP.

United Online has been poised since September to buy up KMart's free Internet service Bluelight.com, known as the "Bluelight Special of Internet access," after the retail giant filed for bankruptcy in January of this year. In its heyday, Bluelight maintained 170,00 Internet subscribers.

The asking price for Bluelight is an estimated $8.4 million, although the sale of the free ISP has been recently bogged down in Chapter 11 bankruptcy court. Representatives of United Online could not comment on the current status of the Bluelight purchase.

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