David Temkin, the head of mobile for AOL, told paidContent that mobile ads running on AOL’s 30 free apps and 20 mobile web sites do not yet pay the way for these mobile content forays. But mobile is still profitable anyway, because of AOL has a number of deals with carriers in the U.S., signed years ago, to link up its AIM instant messenger service with the carriers’ text messaging services.
I’d be curious to see exactly what percentage of AOL’s revenue is legacy based - SMS contracts, dial-up subscribers, etc…
AOL Has A Profitable Mobile Business, But It’s Not Because Of Apps Or Ads | paidContent