Did the majority of people paying for AOL really pay for it for access to AOL services, rather than thinking of it mostly as an Internet (and email) service provider, that just happened to offer some value-added gated-community-portal services? Were those portal services an actual selling point?
Maybe a better example is paying in phone minutes to dial into a BBS. Sure, that money isn't going to the BBS (unless it's on a 900 number)—but users are still being charged by the minute to be there, so they're constantly doing an ROI calculation and only staying if they're getting real value out of the place.
> Did the majority of people paying for AOL really pay for it for access to AOL services
Yes, they really did. Before the web grew, AOL had far more content in its services. There were discussions, communities, even early MMORPGs. They devolved into an ISP and email later.
There was a time before the web. Netscape didn't release its first versions until almost 1995. Usenet wasn't added to AOL until 1993. IIRC chat rooms, mail, and freeware downloads were big AOL features in those days. This is the same time frame as OP was referring to (eWorld was '94-'96).
Yes, they were advertising for "AOL Keywords" to simplify discovery of content, along with other value-add services like "homework help" Perhaps "AOL Keywords" were the precursor to hashtags.
Did the majority of people paying for AOL really pay for it for access to AOL services, rather than thinking of it mostly as an Internet (and email) service provider, that just happened to offer some value-added gated-community-portal services? Were those portal services an actual selling point?
Maybe a better example is paying in phone minutes to dial into a BBS. Sure, that money isn't going to the BBS (unless it's on a 900 number)—but users are still being charged by the minute to be there, so they're constantly doing an ROI calculation and only staying if they're getting real value out of the place.