Let the online games begin: Yahoo, America Online and Microsoft are in a cyber shootout for gamers willing to pay to play on the Internet. The portal giants are turning to fee-based services to offset slackening advertising revenue and subscriptions.
The crowded playing field underscores efforts by Web sites to convert millions of customers into paid subscribers. The sites are following cable TV's model by looking for the online equivalent of The Sopranos and Sex and the City. Over time, they say, cable households spend more on special programming — even though they'd long gotten TV free. Yahoo, Microsoft and others envision Internet services, such as online games and e-mail, becoming must-have PC.
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