And aside from a direct mail campaign, the company has yet to market its service. The numbers pale in comparison to America Online Inc.'s 16 million subscribers, but that doesn't mean the world's biggest ISP shouldn't be worried. Cincinnati-based Tritium Network, which had signed up 100,000 customers last year, has suspended operations. Observers said that customers weren't willing to pay the upfront fees. But NetZero and FreeI think they've hit on a magic formula, and have the upfront funding, to make money and pile in subscribers.
Nobody really owns it.
You shouldn't have to pay for it. The key to both NetZero and FreeI is software which makes a small slice of a Web browser omnipresent on the user's desktop, flipping ads every 15 or 30 seconds. The extra window eats up about an inch of screen real estate, slightly larger than the size of a traditional Net ad banner. When free service users sign up, they fill out extensive demographic information, so ads can be targeted by specific interests and by zip code. N2K Inc. Neither would disclose advertising revenues.