If someone understands the strategy behind this tie-up, do let me know. MTNL and AOL India have launched a co-branded site – mtnl.aol.in, reports PTI…by the looks of it, it’s the same as aol.in, but with an MTNL banner where an advert is placed in the regular site, and one section in the right column pushed down, replaced with a section that links to MTNL information. The rest of page links to regular AOL content, with no apparent return path to the MTNL page. However, there’s talk of advertising revenue share from the AOL MTNL page – MTNL gets 35 percent, and AOL gets the rest. But how will users get to this page anyway – there’s no link to the MTNL page from main AOL site.
Update: Rafat informs me that it’s common for AOL to create a start page for ISPs. That works out well when, like in case of Sify Broadband and SifyMax, the site loads automatically upon login – hence contributing pageviews. Users may not like it. However, in case of MTNLs ADSL based connections that don’t require users to log in, I don’t think they will be able force the MTNL AOL page to pop up.
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