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BeforeAOL (America Online) was a dominant internet service provider in the 1990s and early 2000s, providing dial-up internet access, email, chat rooms, and content portals to tens of millions of U.S. subscribers before transitioning to a digital media company.
AfterAOL (America Online) was founded in 1985 and incorporated in Delaware on May 24, 1985. Its dial-up online service combined internet access with electronic mail, message boards, chat rooms and the Buddy List instant messaging feature, and reported approximately 23.2 million members worldwide as of June 30, 2000. AOL shifted its primary strategic focus away from the subscription access business in August 2006 as broadband displaced dial-up, and its access subscriber base declined from then on. The dial-up service itself was discontinued on September 30, 2025. The AOL and CompuServe brands now …