America Online had brought tens of millions of Americans online by 2000, and it wanted to repeat the feat in Latin America. It formed a joint venture with the Cisneros Group, a Venezuelan media family, to launch AOL in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. The venture went public in August 2000, as internet stocks were already falling. It planned to spend heavily on marketing and free trial discs.

Paying What Rivals Gave Free

AOL Latin America bet that AOL's easy software and brand would win in markets where few people were online yet. It localized content and spent heavily on promotions. Local rivals offered free internet access, and many users did not want to pay a monthly fee. Phone and broadband companies began bundling their own access. Its parent companies kept funding it for years, hoping for a turnaround.

Lights Out

AOL Latin America priced its IPO at $8 a share in August 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. Subscribers grew, but the losses were large and constant, and it relied on money from its parents. Its share price sank as free and broadband services spread. In 2005 the company filed for bankruptcy and shut down its service, the end of AOL's dial-up push into Latin America.

Cover: View of Cotopaxi, Frederic Edwin Church. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a Latin American volcano.