"I don't remember the total spending but do recall in the early 1990s our target was to spend 10 percent of lifetime revenue to get a new subscribers," explains Steve Case, co-founder and former chief executive. "At the time I believe the average subscriber life was about 25 months and revenue was about $350 so we spent about $35 to acquire new subscribers."
Jan Brandt, another former chief, had a better recollection of the exact figures, saying AOL spent "over $300 million. At one point, 50 percent of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo on it. We were logging in new subscribers at the rate of one every six seconds
