1 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:14,800 Speaker 1: stuff dot com. Hey there, and welcome to text Stuff. 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,240 Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren, and today we're gonna 4 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,239 Speaker 1: talk to you about Prodigy. I don't know why we 5 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,200 Speaker 1: picked this one. I mean, I love the band, I 6 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: don't want to get internet service. Oh do you need 7 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: to do you need to go to some more now 8 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:35,240 Speaker 1: hang on one second, alright, I'm back. Okay, So Prodigy 9 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 1: online service provider. Of course, that's what we're talking about now. 10 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: Long time listeners to tech stuff know that ages ago, 11 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:45,879 Speaker 1: Chris and I did an episode about online service providers, 12 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:48,639 Speaker 1: but this time we want to specifically look at Prodigy, 13 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:51,320 Speaker 1: partly because it was one of the earliest, in fact, 14 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: depending upon whom you ask, the earliest online service provider. Now, 15 00:00:55,880 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: online service providers are different from Internet service providers. So 16 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: I'm gonna blow your minds out there, kids. So you 17 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,560 Speaker 1: young uns out there, there was a time when we 18 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: did not all have access to the internet. It was 19 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:16,119 Speaker 1: a terrifying time. Dinosaurs roamed the earth. Occasionally you would 20 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:18,680 Speaker 1: go camping and an enormous guy in a hockey mask 21 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,240 Speaker 1: would chase you around. The eighties were tough, y'all. I 22 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:25,399 Speaker 1: actually do remember that time dimly. I mean I I was, 23 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: you know, not necessarily eating all solid food yet, and 24 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:31,480 Speaker 1: I could barely read. But I do, in fact for 25 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:33,920 Speaker 1: call a time before the Internet. I grew up in 26 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: that time, and uh, I bear the scars to this day. Also, 27 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:40,920 Speaker 1: I don't read that much currently. But at any rate, 28 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,800 Speaker 1: now we're talking about a time where the computer revolution 29 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: had really taken hold of. The personal computers had already 30 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: become a rising trend. It still was kind of a 31 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: rarity to find someone who owned a personal computer. It 32 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,120 Speaker 1: wasn't like there were PCs everywhere, certainly not no, but 33 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: they were certainly getting very popular in the mid eighties, 34 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: and more and more people were adopting them as the 35 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: price was becoming more affordable for the average household rather 36 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,920 Speaker 1: than for hobbyists only. Right, right, So those those bleeding 37 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: edge technology adopters who somehow have the jobs that allow 38 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: them to to indulge their obsession with technology, they had 39 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,080 Speaker 1: already gone through the first wave, and now it was 40 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:27,839 Speaker 1: trickling down to everybody else. All right, we're talking about 41 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:29,920 Speaker 1: the kind of the two eight six sort of days. 42 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 1: Is where Prodigy started kicking out. So during those times, 43 00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:39,280 Speaker 1: your computers, you know, the early early computers were really 44 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,720 Speaker 1: especially for personal computers, were just self contained devices. Right. 45 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 1: It was whatever software you had to run on that machine, 46 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,239 Speaker 1: and that was pretty much it, which you would put 47 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:51,600 Speaker 1: on the machine with fancy fancy uh five and a 48 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 1: quarter inch floppy disks. Yeah. Yeah, you wouldn't necessarily even 49 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: have a hard drive. You might just run it directly 50 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,079 Speaker 1: from the discs. So in other words, once that disc 51 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:00,079 Speaker 1: was popped out, that was it. You didn't have that 52 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,480 Speaker 1: program anymore. You just had your basic operating system, although 53 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 1: you might not even call it that um anyway. Eventually 54 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:09,400 Speaker 1: you started seeing things like modems where you could do 55 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: things like connect to a local bulletin board system or BBS. 56 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:17,880 Speaker 1: This was usually something that was hyper local, as in 57 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 1: something that would might be run in the same city 58 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: that you live in, because in order to connect to 59 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: most bbs is, you had to dial a specific number, 60 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:29,280 Speaker 1: and usually it was a it was a er a 61 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,679 Speaker 1: local number, yeah, because you could dial into a BBS 62 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 1: that's run in a state, you know, twenty states away. 63 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: But long distance charges at the time were also such 64 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: that that that it would have been incredibly cost prohibited. Yeah, anyone, 65 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:46,320 Speaker 1: any kid who experimented with connecting to bbs IS might 66 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: find out rapidly from his parents or her parents that, uh, 67 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:52,160 Speaker 1: it was not the best idea to do that without 68 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: parental agreement beforehand, because you could rack up huge bills. 69 00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: I mean, this is the era where long distance charges 70 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: were a real thing. I know that a lot of 71 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 1: people today aren't even they that's not something they even 72 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:07,640 Speaker 1: think about because in most cases you don't have a 73 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: long distance charge anymore. About once a month, I marvel 74 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 1: at the incredible present and the fact that I can 75 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: call people all over the country without having any without 76 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:18,159 Speaker 1: worrying about, oh, you know, we've taught for five minutes, 77 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,200 Speaker 1: this is gonna cost me twenty bucks or whatever. Uh 78 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:24,600 Speaker 1: and and they have not said anything of value, so so, 79 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: at any rate, at this time, that was pretty much it. 80 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: And then there became this idea of the online service 81 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:36,359 Speaker 1: provider away for companies to create services that would open 82 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:40,600 Speaker 1: up brand new opportunities for consumers. And it was before 83 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: the Internet had rolled out to being something that the 84 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,479 Speaker 1: general public could access, so be sure, but but you know, 85 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:50,520 Speaker 1: people were looking for a way to provide service to 86 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 1: you know, to a consumers who wanted to communicate and 87 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,600 Speaker 1: be two companies who wanted to sell more stuff. Give 88 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:01,680 Speaker 1: give companies an outlet to sell more right, So this 89 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:04,680 Speaker 1: was this was the idea. Like instead of instead of 90 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: the Internet, think of the Internet. It's it's the network 91 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: of networks, right, It's all these different computers. They're connected together, 92 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:13,839 Speaker 1: and lots of different types of communication goes across the Internet, 93 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:18,279 Speaker 1: from email to file transfers to web traffic. All of 94 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,479 Speaker 1: that stuff is going on across the Internet. An online 95 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: service provider is more like a very small network. It's 96 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:27,039 Speaker 1: not a network of networks. It is a network in 97 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 1: which you use your computer to dial into a host computer, 98 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 1: and the host computer serves up all the information on 99 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:37,039 Speaker 1: it that it has. So, in other words, instead of 100 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: having access to everything in the world, you just have 101 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:43,120 Speaker 1: access to whatever the host computer has on it. Uh 102 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:46,479 Speaker 1: and online service providers did this in different ways. So 103 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:50,200 Speaker 1: let's talk specifically about Prodigy. To talk about how it 104 00:05:50,279 --> 00:05:53,599 Speaker 1: came to be, you have to look back at nine four. 105 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:59,080 Speaker 1: That's when a couple of tiny companies IBM was one 106 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:03,040 Speaker 1: of them, uh Sears was another, and CBS was a third, 107 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: formed a joint venture they called trend texts. Now, this 108 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:12,440 Speaker 1: trend text venture was specifically meant to provide something called 109 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,280 Speaker 1: video text services. And you might all wonder what the 110 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 1: heck video text is, because it's not a term that 111 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:24,039 Speaker 1: you see today really, but this was a technology that 112 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:27,599 Speaker 1: would allow you to connect a terminal. So it could 113 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 1: be a computer, or it could just be a very 114 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: specific terminal made for this purpose, or even a television 115 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 1: with special yep. Yeah, so you have one of these 116 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: things that connect to a phone line and then can 117 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: can call into a centralized computer to get content that way. Now, 118 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:49,200 Speaker 1: the this is sort of a predecessor to the kind 119 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:52,760 Speaker 1: of modems that we would see uh later on, although 120 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,920 Speaker 1: at this time in the in the early eighties, a 121 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:59,160 Speaker 1: modem was something that very few people had. It was 122 00:06:59,279 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 1: certainly something thing that was used in commercial purposes. You 123 00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:05,120 Speaker 1: had companies using it like IBM certainly had plenty of modems, 124 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: but your average computer owner did not have a modem 125 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:11,239 Speaker 1: at this time. They certain they also were not part 126 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:14,280 Speaker 1: of a standard computer. Like there was a time where 127 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 1: you would get an internal modem like a dial up modem, 128 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:20,720 Speaker 1: and you would just plug a phone cord into the 129 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 1: back of your computer. And from that to the outlet 130 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: in your wall. Before that, you had external modems that 131 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,080 Speaker 1: would connect to a port in your computer and then 132 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: you would connect your telephone connection to the external modem. 133 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 1: That's the kind I had, so sure, of course. Yeah. 134 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: I do also want to mention this is the same 135 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 1: year that UM IBM introduced the portable PC weighing a 136 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: mirror thirty pounds or what's that like fourteen kilos, Yeah, 137 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:50,160 Speaker 1: something like that. So you're talking about portable depending upon 138 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:53,840 Speaker 1: your upper body stream. Uh uh. So so that was 139 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:57,280 Speaker 1: that was kind of the life of the times. UM 140 00:07:57,360 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: the entire video text thing was doing a little bit 141 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:02,440 Speaker 1: better in Europe. There were a bunch of countries that 142 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:05,400 Speaker 1: that already had something like this, but it was really 143 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:09,280 Speaker 1: the first time this whole trend text thing was really 144 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 1: the first time that it had been rolled out for 145 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:14,200 Speaker 1: commercial use, for customer use for the United States and 146 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:18,240 Speaker 1: the US. Yeah. In fact, the the concentration in Europe 147 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: would mean that uh, companies like Prodigy in America Online 148 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: would end up sort of foregoing any kind of penetration 149 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:31,560 Speaker 1: attempts in Europe because it was already stated UM and 150 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,560 Speaker 1: CBS had did a did a trial of video texts 151 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:37,880 Speaker 1: in a three with a T and T in about 152 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,320 Speaker 1: two households somewhere in New Jersey, just to see how 153 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: much interest there would be. And there was a lot. 154 00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:46,640 Speaker 1: So that is why CBS was involved. Sears was you know, 155 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,800 Speaker 1: if you're saying why was Sears in Roebuck involved in 156 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:53,319 Speaker 1: this internet venture, it's because Sears had the complex billing 157 00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:57,880 Speaker 1: system and the customer base like the mail order customer base. Sure. Yeah, 158 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:00,720 Speaker 1: the Sears catalog is like a legacy, see when it 159 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,559 Speaker 1: comes to retail. Not only that, but Sears itself has 160 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 1: had a long history in being involved in electronics. In fact, 161 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:09,079 Speaker 1: for a while, if you wanted to buy a computer 162 00:09:09,559 --> 00:09:12,000 Speaker 1: that you would either go to a very specialized computer 163 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:14,440 Speaker 1: store or you would go to a Sears buy your 164 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: computer there. Yeah. And IBM actually, in contemporary literature, people 165 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:23,480 Speaker 1: were talking about IBM being the most surprising company of 166 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:25,679 Speaker 1: the three, which doesn't make any sense to me. But 167 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,360 Speaker 1: but their reasoning behind calling it that was that they 168 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:32,160 Speaker 1: had been really only hardware with a tiny bit of 169 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:35,880 Speaker 1: software involved up until then, and so now they're trying 170 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:38,439 Speaker 1: to create an infrastructure that would essentially be a lot 171 00:09:38,440 --> 00:09:43,640 Speaker 1: of software. So this partnership is founded, but it wasn't 172 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:47,040 Speaker 1: all smooth sailing. They did some you know, some pilot 173 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:50,560 Speaker 1: testing and and in general it just looked like it 174 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: wasn't really catch on. It might have been ahead of 175 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:54,480 Speaker 1: its time in the United States, or may have just 176 00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:57,680 Speaker 1: been the execution that didn't match people's expectations. At any rate, 177 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:01,199 Speaker 1: it didn't get adopted as quickly as all three parties 178 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:05,120 Speaker 1: were hoping. And one of those three parties, CBS, decided 179 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:08,600 Speaker 1: to say see you later, alligators and drop out of 180 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:11,960 Speaker 1: the partnership. Yeah, that was in that was did you say? Yeah? 181 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,120 Speaker 1: And so then an eight um series and IBM decided 182 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:18,720 Speaker 1: to stick with it. They doubled down. Yeah, they invested 183 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:22,520 Speaker 1: four and fifty million in startup. Yeah, so that was 184 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:24,560 Speaker 1: an eight eight. So if we are just for inflation, 185 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,080 Speaker 1: that's what eight hundred and sixty million, that's a lot 186 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:32,080 Speaker 1: of money. That's so many dollars. Yeah, so huge, huge 187 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:36,199 Speaker 1: investment here. And uh, that's when they actually created the 188 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:40,280 Speaker 1: company that's called Prodigy Services Company. Now, don't get too 189 00:10:40,360 --> 00:10:42,920 Speaker 1: used to that name, because one of the things we 190 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:45,040 Speaker 1: can talk about with Prodigy, and we will talk about, 191 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:49,479 Speaker 1: is the fact that their name changes every few years. Yeah, 192 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:53,720 Speaker 1: it usually retains the term Prodigy. That's about it, but 193 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:58,920 Speaker 1: that's it. Yeah, So Prodigy Services Company is formed to 194 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:03,920 Speaker 1: oversee the in text uh technology, and by June of 195 00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:07,240 Speaker 1: the entire project changed its name to Prodigy. So that 196 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:09,760 Speaker 1: means they no longer talked about trin techs. Trent text 197 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: was a thing of the past. It was now rolled 198 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:16,120 Speaker 1: into Prodigy and that launched in eight and it became 199 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:21,199 Speaker 1: the world's first consumer based online service provider. Now at 200 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:24,760 Speaker 1: the time, IBM had made an estimate. They looked at 201 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:27,959 Speaker 1: all the households in the United States and they estimated 202 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:31,520 Speaker 1: how many households out there would have computers that would 203 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:34,840 Speaker 1: actually be sophisticated enough to run the Prodigy software. And 204 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: when I say sophisticated enough, it's not that the project 205 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 1: software was this mind bending, amazing looking uh software, you 206 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,600 Speaker 1: it was. It was a visual interface, which was which 207 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:50,880 Speaker 1: was it was a huge improvement over local bbs is 208 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:53,360 Speaker 1: that we're all text based, right, So there were there 209 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 1: were graphics involved, but they were very simple graphics. And uh, 210 00:11:56,679 --> 00:12:00,480 Speaker 1: we'll try to infect. Lauren found a great commercial just 211 00:12:00,559 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 1: before the podcast that she shared with us, So we'll 212 00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 1: we'll try and put that up on the Facebook page 213 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:06,880 Speaker 1: and link it to Twitter as well, so that you 214 00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:10,320 Speaker 1: guys can see what Prodigy looked like when it launched, 215 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:13,679 Speaker 1: because the commercial actually comes from this era. Yeah, but 216 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:17,880 Speaker 1: you know, six machines were just coming out. They had 217 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 1: several megs of RAM, which was big and new and 218 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:25,480 Speaker 1: and three point five inch floppies were blowing people's minds, right. Yeah. 219 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,920 Speaker 1: And so IBM looks at all these households, says five 220 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,680 Speaker 1: million homes and the entire United States are probably capable 221 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:35,800 Speaker 1: of running Prodigy software. They probably have computers that can 222 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:38,800 Speaker 1: do this. So five million, that's our target audience. We 223 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:44,240 Speaker 1: want to hit those five million folks. Um yeah, that 224 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:47,640 Speaker 1: was that turned out to be an ambitious target. In fact, 225 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:51,880 Speaker 1: five million ends up being ambitious spoiler alert through the 226 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:55,880 Speaker 1: entire life of Prodigy. Um yeah, but we'll we'll get 227 00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:58,680 Speaker 1: into that as we go further. So, the first cities 228 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:03,080 Speaker 1: that received the service were San Francisco, There was Hartford, Connecticut, 229 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:08,840 Speaker 1: and there was some other city, Atlantaza for once Atlanta 230 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:13,920 Speaker 1: gets something first. Um yeah, it ended along with technological 231 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:18,240 Speaker 1: innovator Hartford, Connecticut. I Well, you know, I don't make 232 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:23,080 Speaker 1: fun of heart for Connecticut. Those people will scold you 233 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:26,120 Speaker 1: at any rate. Yeah, So Atlanta, San Francisco, and Hartford 234 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,640 Speaker 1: are the three cities that get it first. And I 235 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,880 Speaker 1: honestly don't know why those three cities were the ones chosen. 236 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 1: Perhaps that the telecommunications infrastructure was just uh the best 237 00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:41,400 Speaker 1: in those three for the for the services of Prodigy. 238 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:46,599 Speaker 1: But so the startup package for getting this service was 239 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:49,040 Speaker 1: a little bit complex because, like Jonathan was saying earlier, 240 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:52,040 Speaker 1: people didn't have modems. They certainly didn't come in computers 241 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 1: at the time. Um, it was an add on sort 242 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:57,000 Speaker 1: of thing. So the original kit cost a hundred and 243 00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:00,920 Speaker 1: forty nine dollars and cents to include that that modem, 244 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:03,880 Speaker 1: the software, and three months of initial service. Three months 245 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:07,040 Speaker 1: of service yeah. Um, you could also hypothetically if you 246 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:11,200 Speaker 1: happened to have a modem by just software for right, 247 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: and then how much was service per month with with 248 00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:18,560 Speaker 1: a yearly subscription? It was a month and a month 249 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:22,480 Speaker 1: to month it was, so there you go nine dollars 250 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:23,960 Speaker 1: per month if you if you sign up for a 251 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: full year, or twelve per month if you were going 252 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:29,480 Speaker 1: month to month basis. Uh and uh. And so they 253 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:32,640 Speaker 1: figured that with that pricing with that subscription model, if 254 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:35,800 Speaker 1: they got enough people to subscribe, that would be an 255 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,800 Speaker 1: ongoing source of revenue. Right. It's the same sort of 256 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:41,920 Speaker 1: model that we see with things like pay to play 257 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:45,800 Speaker 1: um M M O RPGs you know, which you know 258 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:47,840 Speaker 1: when now we're seeing more and more of those move 259 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 1: away from that model and go to free to play 260 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:54,880 Speaker 1: and then pay to access certain types of content. So nonetheless, 261 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,600 Speaker 1: the month to month subscription fee was a change up 262 00:14:57,600 --> 00:14:59,760 Speaker 1: at the time I think that any anyone else who 263 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: was in the business, and maybe because maybe a O 264 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,040 Speaker 1: L was starting at this it was starting around the 265 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:07,640 Speaker 1: same time. Yet and of most other services that that 266 00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:11,760 Speaker 1: would be beginning around that time, we're using um pay 267 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:15,000 Speaker 1: per usage like per per the minute or per per 268 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,320 Speaker 1: hour the data. Right. You you didn't have you didn't 269 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 1: have that many people offering or that many companies I 270 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:25,280 Speaker 1: should say, offering a a monthly fee for their service. 271 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:28,200 Speaker 1: It was almost always uh you know, maybe you get 272 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:32,400 Speaker 1: the first half hour of content at one amount, and 273 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:35,800 Speaker 1: then above that it would be more because another limitation 274 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:38,880 Speaker 1: on some of these early online service providers was that 275 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 1: they only had so many UH connections that they can 276 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 1: make at a single time. Within a particular region. So 277 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:47,520 Speaker 1: if you if you have a phone number that you're 278 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:50,160 Speaker 1: supposed to call with your computer, it may be that 279 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:53,400 Speaker 1: the computer can handle say one connections, and beyond that 280 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:55,920 Speaker 1: it can't handle more than that. And so so allowing 281 00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:00,280 Speaker 1: people continual access was potentially dangerous to your customer base 282 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,120 Speaker 1: because because everyone say like, well I got your software, 283 00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:06,400 Speaker 1: but I can never connect. So it's just busy signals 284 00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:10,240 Speaker 1: for years, right right, So but now bigger companies, the 285 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:13,080 Speaker 1: next generation is never going to have those yeah, sorry, 286 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: okay anyway, but yeah, so the larger companies at this 287 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:20,400 Speaker 1: time could actually handle lots of phone calls your local 288 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:23,040 Speaker 1: BBS is. I mean, I remember this era where I 289 00:16:23,080 --> 00:16:25,360 Speaker 1: would call into a local BBS and there would be 290 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,680 Speaker 1: maybe five lines, and if you called when those five 291 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: lines were in operation, you just had to wait and 292 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 1: try and call again, like in the half hour or 293 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,160 Speaker 1: an hour, or every ten seconds if you were someone 294 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:39,160 Speaker 1: like me. But at any rate, that's you know, this 295 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:42,480 Speaker 1: was this was a step up above those local bbs 296 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:44,960 Speaker 1: is a big step up, not just a tiny little 297 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:49,280 Speaker 1: incremental step. But but Prodigy was in fact still regionally operated. 298 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:54,200 Speaker 1: It's I mean, they were advertising in lots of other 299 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: cities that they were planning on expanding out to. Yeah. 300 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:00,120 Speaker 1: In fact, there was a pretty extensive advertising campaign, including 301 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 1: that fantastic commercial you showed me before the episode, Lawrence. 302 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,680 Speaker 1: Well that one is from all the way in Wow, 303 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:11,800 Speaker 1: so we're talking a story is so different. But yeah, no, 304 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:16,639 Speaker 1: it's they were really trying to drive adoption of this 305 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:18,399 Speaker 1: because it was a brand new thing. You know. This 306 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,000 Speaker 1: is like I said, this is before people for the 307 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:24,720 Speaker 1: most part, had any knowledge whatsoever of the Internet. You know, 308 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:28,119 Speaker 1: anyone who knew about the Internet was working on the Internet, 309 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:31,120 Speaker 1: like building the Internet, and so yeah, talking to people 310 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:33,760 Speaker 1: about you know, posting to bbs is or doing online 311 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:36,280 Speaker 1: shopping or anything like that, or you know, looking at 312 00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:39,160 Speaker 1: stocks or weather online. People were like say, why yeah, yeah, 313 00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:42,640 Speaker 1: this is on my computer, the thing that I used 314 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:46,359 Speaker 1: to play a game on and occasionally try and and 315 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:49,520 Speaker 1: create a little program that says hello world. Um. Yeah, 316 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 1: it's It was a big change, a huge change as 317 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:55,239 Speaker 1: far as computer use goes. It was really opening up 318 00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:58,560 Speaker 1: the gates to the potential for computers. And then on 319 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,199 Speaker 1: top of that we then saw by the end of 320 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:03,560 Speaker 1: eight so all of this is happening in eight eight, 321 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,160 Speaker 1: This is a huge year for Prodigy, right, it's their 322 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:08,080 Speaker 1: launch year. By the end of eighty eight, they have 323 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:12,359 Speaker 1: extended their service to three more cities. Particularly actually I 324 00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:14,639 Speaker 1: think it's for cities. I just wrote down three, but 325 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: their cities in California, and those included Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, 326 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:21,080 Speaker 1: and I think Santa Barbara was also one. I just 327 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:24,280 Speaker 1: didn't write it in my notes. Uh. And so you 328 00:18:24,359 --> 00:18:29,040 Speaker 1: had this this this cool system arguably cool. I guess 329 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:31,600 Speaker 1: for me it was cool. I was an early Prodigy 330 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:35,200 Speaker 1: user because I live in Atlanta. Uh. And they did 331 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:39,600 Speaker 1: have their rivals, not just what would become American America 332 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 1: Online on American but America Online, but also compu Serve, 333 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:48,320 Speaker 1: mind Spring, earth Link. These are all they came on 334 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:52,199 Speaker 1: the scene at different times, but they would all become rivals. Now. 335 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,880 Speaker 1: The way this would work, generally speaking, is that when 336 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,240 Speaker 1: you would use your computer to call into whatever computer 337 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,600 Speaker 1: was in charge of your region, that computer could then 338 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:06,479 Speaker 1: serve up all the information that was available on it. 339 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 1: And we'll talk more about the kind of services that 340 00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:11,119 Speaker 1: Prodigy offered towards the end of the podcast, but this 341 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:15,159 Speaker 1: also includes you know, pretty basic stuff like news items, 342 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:20,200 Speaker 1: financial stuff, bulletin boards where you can actually leave messages 343 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:23,240 Speaker 1: and retrieve messages. There was even an email, although originally 344 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: that email would only allow you to send messages to 345 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,520 Speaker 1: other people on the Prodigy service um and you could 346 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 1: get all that information. But although early ads talked about 347 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: it being updated throughout the day, originally the way these 348 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:40,600 Speaker 1: services worked is that the the regional computer would connect 349 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:43,720 Speaker 1: back to headquarters to a master computer once a day, 350 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:45,800 Speaker 1: once a day, now once every twenty four hours, they 351 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,480 Speaker 1: would get new content. So then that way, when you 352 00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:51,560 Speaker 1: log on the next day, you would get new news articles, 353 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,520 Speaker 1: new financial reports, that kind of thing. But it would 354 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,920 Speaker 1: stay like that all day long. It wouldn't get updated 355 00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:01,600 Speaker 1: throughout the day because again, these were all regional computers 356 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,800 Speaker 1: that were only intermittently connecting with a master computer. It 357 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,320 Speaker 1: wasn't like a truly integrated network at this point. So 358 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:11,080 Speaker 1: this was definitely a different kind of approach than what 359 00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:15,440 Speaker 1: we see today. By eighty nine, the estimate that IBM 360 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:18,480 Speaker 1: had made had increased. No longer did they think that 361 00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:20,800 Speaker 1: there were five million homes out there that could run 362 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:24,960 Speaker 1: Prodigy software. Now they believed there were nine million homes. 363 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,119 Speaker 1: So that shows that the adoption of the personal computer, 364 00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:32,320 Speaker 1: and not just personal computers, but more sophisticated personal computers 365 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:36,360 Speaker 1: was on the rise. Uh. This still is before the 366 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:39,399 Speaker 1: true explosion in personal computers. I mean there was a 367 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:41,240 Speaker 1: time I think we even mentioned it in one of 368 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:44,080 Speaker 1: our podcast where Bill Gates had kind of projected out 369 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:46,240 Speaker 1: how many computers he thought were going to be adopted, 370 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,320 Speaker 1: and it turned out it was like a seventy fewer 371 00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:52,800 Speaker 1: than what actually happened, and now no one could predict it. Um. 372 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,360 Speaker 1: The actual number of Prodigy of customers at the time 373 00:20:55,480 --> 00:21:00,119 Speaker 1: was Yeah. So they remember, they're aiming for a and 374 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,280 Speaker 1: customer base that they have estimated to be nine million people, 375 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:08,480 Speaker 1: and there they land sixty thousand. That is brutal. I mean, 376 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:12,440 Speaker 1: that's such a tiny percentage um. And then Prodigy launched 377 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,639 Speaker 1: in New York City, but it only had partial coverage 378 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:18,560 Speaker 1: in in the city. They had the thirteen markets in 379 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,560 Speaker 1: New York City, but that meant that they had left 380 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:26,240 Speaker 1: out about the population of New York City who had 381 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 1: the who had the technology to connect? Right, They had 382 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:31,959 Speaker 1: the ability, but they didn't have the actual support, so 383 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,399 Speaker 1: they could not be members of Prodigy at that time, 384 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:39,119 Speaker 1: so they weren't able to capitalize on that very at 385 00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:44,840 Speaker 1: least not efficiently. However, by Prodigy did become available across 386 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:48,480 Speaker 1: the United States, I believe when I got Prodigy up 387 00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:52,880 Speaker 1: near Cleveland, Dish. Yeah, see, I was already living not 388 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,320 Speaker 1: in Atlanta, but close enough to Atlanta where I got 389 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:59,040 Speaker 1: the support, And by the end of that year, their 390 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:04,360 Speaker 1: numbers had spluted almost tenfold. Really, we're talking from six 391 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:08,360 Speaker 1: thousand to six hundred thirty five thousand. So but now 392 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:11,320 Speaker 1: granted they managed to go nationwide. Now, so now you're 393 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:15,160 Speaker 1: talking about the entire US, not just these little regions 394 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:21,199 Speaker 1: that they had been hitting previously, but still only six thousand, 395 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,600 Speaker 1: and that put them in second place. The first place 396 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:29,159 Speaker 1: provider was compu serve Um, which we could also do 397 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:31,439 Speaker 1: an episode about copy serve at some point. But compu 398 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:34,640 Speaker 1: Serve would eventually be acquired from H and R Block, 399 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:37,440 Speaker 1: which they were they were the owners at the time. 400 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:42,240 Speaker 1: The new owners would be America Online, and of course 401 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:46,840 Speaker 1: America Online UH ends up being the big daddy of 402 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:50,720 Speaker 1: the online service providers and probably made I would say, 403 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,600 Speaker 1: I would argue that it made the most effective transition 404 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:58,080 Speaker 1: from online service provider to internet service provider. The two 405 00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,160 Speaker 1: things are different yeah, I have seen estimates, by the way, 406 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:05,240 Speaker 1: that about twenty five million households now held computers. Wow. 407 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:09,080 Speaker 1: So yeah, huge numbers that are jumping up here. Right, 408 00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:11,040 Speaker 1: we went from five million to nine million and nine 409 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:15,440 Speaker 1: million million, so and you might be wondering, like, how 410 00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:19,160 Speaker 1: how is this even happening? This is Moore's law in play, right. 411 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:22,240 Speaker 1: Moore's law is not just about how computers get twice 412 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,360 Speaker 1: as powerful every two years or so. It's also about how, 413 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,600 Speaker 1: because the processes get more sophisticate over time, the technology 414 00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:34,680 Speaker 1: itself decreases in price and cost, so more people can 415 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,119 Speaker 1: afford it. So not only are they becoming more powerful, 416 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: they're becoming more affordable, so you're seeing higher adoption rates. 417 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,880 Speaker 1: This in particular was it was a giant boom time. Yeah, yeah, 418 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:46,200 Speaker 1: this is and and you know this is also ten 419 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:49,920 Speaker 1: years before we see the the dot com bubble, and 420 00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:53,600 Speaker 1: uh so this is right when the just the promise 421 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:57,040 Speaker 1: of the computer age was really becoming realized. And still 422 00:23:57,119 --> 00:24:01,240 Speaker 1: before the Internet is a common household term. We don't 423 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 1: see the World Wide Web even start to emerge until 424 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:08,520 Speaker 1: two and we're just in right now. Yeah, I mean, 425 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:10,840 Speaker 1: big big news for Prodigy that year was they added 426 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:15,800 Speaker 1: an encyclopedia and zach It's guide. Yeah. Yeah. And it's 427 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:19,959 Speaker 1: interesting also that even though we're seeing this explosion at 428 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: this time of adoption uh the analysts were looking at 429 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: it and saying, well, you know, you've got more subscribers, 430 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:32,679 Speaker 1: but you spent so much money setting up this this company, 431 00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:36,119 Speaker 1: perhaps as much as a billion dollars by this time, 432 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 1: that it's going to take you years for you to 433 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:42,920 Speaker 1: become profitable. And I love I love how in my notes. 434 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:45,600 Speaker 1: I don't know what I was thinking in my notes 435 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 1: by side dramatic increase in survivors, Apparently I had some 436 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:51,280 Speaker 1: sort of horror movie going on in my brain. I meant, customers, 437 00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:53,200 Speaker 1: you are you are going to go be a zombie 438 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:57,239 Speaker 1: on stage? That is true, That's true that I do have. 439 00:24:57,320 --> 00:24:58,919 Speaker 1: I do have to be a zombie in uh AN 440 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,080 Speaker 1: approximately four hour So are you allowed to be a 441 00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: zombie on Talk Like a Pirate Day? Is that? I mean? 442 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,439 Speaker 1: We're only recording on Talk Like a Pirate Day? And 443 00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:08,840 Speaker 1: I promised Lauren that I was not going to torture 444 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,479 Speaker 1: her on Talk Like a Pirate Day, particularly since by 445 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 1: the time this publishes, Talk Like a Day will be 446 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,639 Speaker 1: long in the past. So you guys are going to 447 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:19,480 Speaker 1: be spared both the zombie and the pirate. Uh. At 448 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:23,720 Speaker 1: any rate, Uh, the survivors would be would still not 449 00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,119 Speaker 1: end up giving enough money, generating enough revenue for the 450 00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:32,600 Speaker 1: company to be profitable. For several years, in did something 451 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:37,920 Speaker 1: that was incredibly controversial within the Prodigy community. Yeah, they 452 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,959 Speaker 1: started introducing these censorship rules. Yeah, so which I mean, 453 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,280 Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's not censorship if it's not 454 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:48,320 Speaker 1: on a government. Yeah, we we use censorship as a 455 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,720 Speaker 1: sort of the kind of shorthand way of saying. Essentially, 456 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:53,760 Speaker 1: what they were saying was that they didn't want to 457 00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 1: have any sort of profanity or objectionable material on the 458 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,320 Speaker 1: Prodigy service because they wanted it to be family friend. So, 459 00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:03,600 Speaker 1: now keep in mind, some of the stuff that was 460 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 1: going on on Prodigy included these bulletin board systems where 461 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,119 Speaker 1: you could create messages, leave messages, respond to messages. They 462 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,080 Speaker 1: almost became like a message board. And I don't know 463 00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:15,680 Speaker 1: if you guys have ever been on the Internet, but 464 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 1: sometimes people on this sort of thing can get a 465 00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:23,200 Speaker 1: little bit profane. Flame wars can break out, Yeah, they can. 466 00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: They can start throwing in some personal attacks they can 467 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:33,879 Speaker 1: use some language that is, as the pirates would say, salty. 468 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,360 Speaker 1: Uh so so yeah, so for first profanity was outlawed, 469 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,639 Speaker 1: then flame wars were outlawed, then the mention of another 470 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:44,000 Speaker 1: users handle, Yeah, you weren't supposed to use any sort 471 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:46,680 Speaker 1: of member names. In fact, I read one report that 472 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 1: said that one group got very much frustrated because it 473 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:54,480 Speaker 1: was a group of coin collectors and they had a 474 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,919 Speaker 1: a thread about the Roosevelt dime then and because they 475 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:00,840 Speaker 1: were collectors who were interested in Roosevelt dimes. But but 476 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,639 Speaker 1: one member had to handle Roosevelt dime, which meant that 477 00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:06,879 Speaker 1: they could not actually write about it because it was 478 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:12,720 Speaker 1: a member handle. Yeah, so these were these relations got started. Yeah, 479 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:15,800 Speaker 1: well I handle certainly had played a role in it. 480 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,840 Speaker 1: But yeah, you see at this time that the users 481 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:23,959 Speaker 1: were really starting to get aggravated by these policies. They 482 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:27,520 Speaker 1: felt that it was unnecessary and that it was hampering 483 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: their ability to communicate. It was taking functionality away from 484 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,000 Speaker 1: the service that they were paying for, right and uh 485 00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:36,600 Speaker 1: and however it was only on those those bulletin boards, 486 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,280 Speaker 1: so a lot of traffic started shifting to email, right, 487 00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,520 Speaker 1: So people were using the email service on Prodigy, which 488 00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,920 Speaker 1: at this time was still uh still very much restricted 489 00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:49,600 Speaker 1: to Prodigy. It's not like you were emailing outside. So 490 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,280 Speaker 1: imagine that your school or your business you work at 491 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:55,919 Speaker 1: that you have email, but you are only able to 492 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,880 Speaker 1: email anyone else who is also on that particular server, right, 493 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,320 Speaker 1: So you could not email someone who works for another 494 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,640 Speaker 1: company or goes to another school. You could only only 495 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:06,200 Speaker 1: other people who were there are the ones that you 496 00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: could send messages to. That's kind of what we're talking 497 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,439 Speaker 1: about at this time. I mean, however, it wasn't like 498 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:15,160 Speaker 1: there were other services that had had it much better, right, right, 499 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,080 Speaker 1: you know, until we see the inter connectivity to the Internet, 500 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:22,920 Speaker 1: it just doesn't really you don't get the the expanded capabilities. 501 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,440 Speaker 1: Although again in commercial business that had already happened there 502 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,240 Speaker 1: were businesses that had email where you could send it 503 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:31,280 Speaker 1: to people other than the ones that were on your 504 00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:36,320 Speaker 1: email server. Consumer levels still pretty much a novelty UM. Now. 505 00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,840 Speaker 1: I will also say that this is when Prodigy changed 506 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,680 Speaker 1: one of its other email um policies, but I'll talk 507 00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,400 Speaker 1: about that when we get into the services that they provide. 508 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:49,680 Speaker 1: It was it was in response to the fact that 509 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,040 Speaker 1: everyone started using more email uh see. You also have 510 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:55,280 Speaker 1: to keep in mind that the data that is being 511 00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:57,720 Speaker 1: sent back and forth, while it's it tends to be 512 00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:00,720 Speaker 1: in small packets. Once you get up, you know, you 513 00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:05,520 Speaker 1: have those numbers increase. Data transfer wasn't free, you know, 514 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:10,000 Speaker 1: sending information across telephone company lines cost money, and it 515 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:12,760 Speaker 1: cost Prodigy money. And in fact, that was one of 516 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,520 Speaker 1: the biggest problems that Prodigy had was that their their 517 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,920 Speaker 1: costs were much greater than the revenue they were bringing in. 518 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,760 Speaker 1: So if they were to offer up something that originally 519 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,120 Speaker 1: was free, as in it was part of what your 520 00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:30,880 Speaker 1: paid service already covered, and everyone started using it, then 521 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,240 Speaker 1: they would start incurring greater costs as a result. So 522 00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,040 Speaker 1: that would end up giving them the incentive to make 523 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 1: it less free. In other words, you would have to 524 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:43,320 Speaker 1: pay an extra surcharge on top of your monthly feet 525 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:46,840 Speaker 1: in order to use certain services, because that's the only 526 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:51,080 Speaker 1: way that Prodigy could either put a little bit of 527 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:53,440 Speaker 1: a of a control on the traffic that you know, 528 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:55,360 Speaker 1: it would decrease the traffic because people didn't want to 529 00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,280 Speaker 1: pay for it, or they could recapture costs if people 530 00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:00,800 Speaker 1: really wanted it and they would pay for it anyway, right. 531 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: That was also they increased their monthly subscription fee to 532 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,960 Speaker 1: four and they also response to that they also had 533 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,800 Speaker 1: more subscribers by then too, right, yeah, one point seven 534 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: five million. Yeah, so that's you know, they're they're on 535 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,200 Speaker 1: the on the rise. And I'll keep in mind that 536 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:20,440 Speaker 1: by now we're talking about millions and millions of computers 537 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 1: capable of running Prodigy. But Prodigy was still losing money 538 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: at this time. Yeah, they still were not making a profit. 539 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:30,880 Speaker 1: In fact, Walter Mossberg and anyone who has followed technology 540 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,360 Speaker 1: for any length of time has heard that name. Walter 541 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:37,680 Speaker 1: Mossberg has written extensively about technology companies over the past 542 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,479 Speaker 1: couple of decades, criticized Prodigy, saying it lacked many features 543 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:44,520 Speaker 1: and then it was really kind of difficult to use. 544 00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:49,080 Speaker 1: It was slow, and it wasn't necessarily intuitive that you know, 545 00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:51,800 Speaker 1: while it might be easier to use than say an 546 00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 1: old Bolton board system where you had to you know, 547 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: tip through text commands to to navigate through it, it 548 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,600 Speaker 1: still didn't make a whole lot of intuitive sense, according 549 00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:04,959 Speaker 1: to Mossburg, and that didn't new Prodigy very many fingures. 550 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,920 Speaker 1: Moving on to ninety three, that's when Prodigy incorporated a 551 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:14,200 Speaker 1: new feature and its software, which was Internet connectivity. Now, 552 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:17,840 Speaker 1: they weren't giving you the next necessarily giving you the 553 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,640 Speaker 1: access to a web browser. You could get a web 554 00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:23,200 Speaker 1: browser and use Prodigy to connect to the Internet, but 555 00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:27,400 Speaker 1: there wasn't one incorporated directly into Prodigy at that time, 556 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:30,160 Speaker 1: so they're really still just an online service provider. However, 557 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:32,840 Speaker 1: what it did allow you to do is use email 558 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:37,800 Speaker 1: to send messages to people people who were not on 559 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: the Prodigy island. And that year the company we actually 560 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:43,920 Speaker 1: start having figures now for how much money the company 561 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,600 Speaker 1: was losing. Keep in mind during this time, Prodigy is 562 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:51,320 Speaker 1: a privately run business. It's not it's not its own 563 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:55,000 Speaker 1: publicly traded company. It's a partnership between IBM and Sears, 564 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,000 Speaker 1: but it's not itself a publicly trade company. So it 565 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:02,560 Speaker 1: doesn't have to uh file all of its corporate finances 566 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:05,000 Speaker 1: with the government, or well it does, but not with 567 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:07,480 Speaker 1: the public like we don't have access to it. The 568 00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:10,840 Speaker 1: government certainly did because otherwise the gets a little ansy. 569 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,760 Speaker 1: But the company that year, according to some sources, lost 570 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: about sixty million dollars. So a sixty million dollar loss 571 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,080 Speaker 1: is not only not profitable, but ouch. Yeah. This this 572 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:27,160 Speaker 1: figure comes from funding Universe, and I got to give 573 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:31,120 Speaker 1: them a shout out because they have a great uh 574 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,800 Speaker 1: summary of prodigies history and I managed to find a 575 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:39,080 Speaker 1: lot of my research from funding Universe. Uh. So that's 576 00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:43,720 Speaker 1: when Prodigy hits its customer base peak about two million. Yeah, 577 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:48,160 Speaker 1: now that's that's its peak based upon its own customers 578 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:50,720 Speaker 1: during the heyday of Prodigy. There is something that will 579 00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:55,040 Speaker 1: change dramatically change Prodigy late in its life that that 580 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,040 Speaker 1: blows that number all the water. But but you can't 581 00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:01,360 Speaker 1: really count it because it's because it's not customers that 582 00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:05,880 Speaker 1: Prodigy themselves gained, right, right. It was almost like Prodigy 583 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,640 Speaker 1: was thrust upon them as opposed to as opposed that 584 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,280 Speaker 1: they came to Prodigy, right, But we'll talk about that 585 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:14,880 Speaker 1: when we get there. So two million customers, so obviously 586 00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:18,240 Speaker 1: they never really hit that. That promised five million that 587 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,959 Speaker 1: they really wanted to get. Uh. And they also expanded 588 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:24,280 Speaker 1: UM in October. I think you're about to say they 589 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:28,920 Speaker 1: they expanded UM to let users use us net using usenet. 590 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,840 Speaker 1: That was a great phraseology that it's almost impossible to avoid. 591 00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:36,360 Speaker 1: I mean that when you're services name is used net 592 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,200 Speaker 1: it's going to happen. But yeah, use net is another 593 00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:43,680 Speaker 1: bolton board message board kind of system where anyone who's 594 00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: used us net knows that this was c I told 595 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:48,920 Speaker 1: you it's you can't get around it. Anyone who has 596 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,400 Speaker 1: taken advantage of use net services knows that this is 597 00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:58,040 Speaker 1: someplace where people where it would share lots of different things, files, pictures, 598 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,600 Speaker 1: information about different topics. A lot of message boards that 599 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,080 Speaker 1: you will find on the Internet really had their origin 600 00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,000 Speaker 1: back in the use net days, and you could find 601 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,480 Speaker 1: pretty much any interest you can imagine. There was a 602 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:14,920 Speaker 1: use net dedicated to it. There was a moore a 603 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,040 Speaker 1: thread dedicated to you. Thinking back, it reminds me a 604 00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:20,279 Speaker 1: little bit of like Reddit these days. Yeah, right right, Yeah, 605 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,239 Speaker 1: it's just or just like the idea that somewhere someone 606 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,520 Speaker 1: has made a web page about the thing you're thinking of. 607 00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:28,200 Speaker 1: The example I will give is I remember when I 608 00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:31,560 Speaker 1: was working for a consulting firm years ago. I decided 609 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:34,000 Speaker 1: to or one of the consultants I was working with 610 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:37,759 Speaker 1: wanted in a particular presentation to have a picture of 611 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,680 Speaker 1: a wammy. You know what a wammy is, No more wammy's, 612 00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:43,080 Speaker 1: no more wammies. So there's a game show in the 613 00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:46,080 Speaker 1: eighties called Press Your Luck, maybe early nineties called Press 614 00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,239 Speaker 1: Your Luck, and uh, the way the game show worked 615 00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,680 Speaker 1: was this little board would light up and uh at 616 00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:53,680 Speaker 1: the light would move from one block to the next, 617 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,280 Speaker 1: and you would press a button and that would stop 618 00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,839 Speaker 1: the light and it would either land on a great 619 00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:01,160 Speaker 1: prize or something called a amy. And you've got too 620 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:03,279 Speaker 1: many whammy's, you were out of the game. So she 621 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,760 Speaker 1: wanted a picture of a whammy and I thought, surely 622 00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:08,240 Speaker 1: someone this. Keep in mind, this is in the nineties 623 00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,279 Speaker 1: when I'm saying this, So surely someone's made a web 624 00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:12,719 Speaker 1: page about whammys. And I did the search and sure 625 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:16,080 Speaker 1: enough I found five now, which just goes to show 626 00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:17,799 Speaker 1: that if you could think about it, someone's made a 627 00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:20,880 Speaker 1: web page about it. So this was for an additional 628 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:23,000 Speaker 1: fee that was for three dollars and sixty cents per 629 00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:27,319 Speaker 1: hour because it was so information so data intensive. Well, yeah, 630 00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:30,960 Speaker 1: it took up telephone lines again, so you know the 631 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:34,800 Speaker 1: fact that it was requiring Prodigy to have these lines 632 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:36,919 Speaker 1: open and thus they had to pay for them. They 633 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:39,759 Speaker 1: ended up putting three dollars and sixty cents per hour 634 00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:44,000 Speaker 1: as the surcharge. They also introduced chat rooms that year, 635 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:46,719 Speaker 1: and they introduced them free of charge, which, as it 636 00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:50,040 Speaker 1: turns out, was a terrible idea. Yeah, from a business perspective, 637 00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,760 Speaker 1: it was a terrible idea, because every from a customer perspective, 638 00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,719 Speaker 1: it was a brilliant idea. And now I can communicate 639 00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:58,160 Speaker 1: with people in real time and chat rooms with lots 640 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:00,560 Speaker 1: of other people all the same time. But Prodigy there 641 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:04,520 Speaker 1: were two big problems. Well, that's also really data intensive. Yeah, 642 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,960 Speaker 1: and also people will say the darnedest things when they 643 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:14,080 Speaker 1: get together. Uh. And so the telecommunications charges went through 644 00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:17,359 Speaker 1: the roof, and the content was something that Prodigy could 645 00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:19,920 Speaker 1: not control. They couldn't censor that the way they could 646 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,279 Speaker 1: the bulletin board messages or the other services. In fact, 647 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:25,640 Speaker 1: there was a time where there was even a rumor 648 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,800 Speaker 1: that they were looking at emails, although they never were, 649 00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,240 Speaker 1: but the rumor broke out that they were, so uh. 650 00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 1: They ended up shutting down the chat rooms um eventually 651 00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:40,680 Speaker 1: because of the the rising cost of operating them and 652 00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,640 Speaker 1: the fact that they could not be certain that people 653 00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:47,000 Speaker 1: would behave themselves in the chat rooms. According to prodigies 654 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:51,160 Speaker 1: idea of how people should behave themselves. The company that 655 00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:54,120 Speaker 1: year lost fifty two millions, so although it lost a 656 00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,200 Speaker 1: lot of money, it was less money than it lost 657 00:36:56,239 --> 00:37:01,319 Speaker 1: the year before. I guess, um, that brings us up 658 00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:05,439 Speaker 1: to right. So, oh, ninety five, that's when that's when 659 00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:11,000 Speaker 1: Rock and Roll found Prodigy. Um the former head of 660 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,680 Speaker 1: VH one, or one of the former heads of VH one, 661 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,480 Speaker 1: Edward Bennett, who had really turned the company around. Yeah, 662 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:22,320 Speaker 1: I had really turned VH one from a struggling channel 663 00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,320 Speaker 1: into a success. I'm sure pop up video must have 664 00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,520 Speaker 1: been one of those things that was just came out 665 00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:30,440 Speaker 1: of that that era. He joined, he joined Prodigy as 666 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:33,320 Speaker 1: the new CEO. Yep. And that same year they launched 667 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:37,520 Speaker 1: a web browser, Prodigy branded web browser, so you would 668 00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:40,720 Speaker 1: go into your Prodigy account and then you could access 669 00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:43,360 Speaker 1: the World Wide Web. Uh. And in ninety five, it 670 00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:47,960 Speaker 1: was still still pretty much a Wild West kind of territory, 671 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,239 Speaker 1: although it was certainly getting larger adoption by then. The 672 00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:55,759 Speaker 1: customers also could uh, well, they now accounted for about 673 00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:58,239 Speaker 1: let's see, I think there's one million of them, so 674 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:02,320 Speaker 1: the numbers actually dropped them before but the company claimed 675 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:05,200 Speaker 1: that it was on track to becoming profitable, which it 676 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,680 Speaker 1: had been claiming for the past ten years, right, right, 677 00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:09,640 Speaker 1: but they're they're saying, no, we really mean it now, 678 00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:12,080 Speaker 1: we are we are on the road to becoming a 679 00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:16,360 Speaker 1: profitable business. They lost thirty four point six million dollars 680 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:20,440 Speaker 1: in that year, but than the previous two years, I 681 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:23,919 Speaker 1: mean half of half, like two years ago. Yeah, so 682 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:26,680 Speaker 1: so they're losing less money year over year, which means that, 683 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:28,960 Speaker 1: in a way, you could say they're on the road 684 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:34,120 Speaker 1: to being profitable, assuming they can continue that trend. However, 685 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:39,360 Speaker 1: IBM and Sears basically bailed. Yeah, they said, you know what, guys, 686 00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:43,480 Speaker 1: it's been fun, but it's also been holy heck on 687 00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:46,920 Speaker 1: our wallets, right because I mean they you know, definitely 688 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:50,440 Speaker 1: over a billion dollars in investments spent at that point 689 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:52,839 Speaker 1: and in laws and revenue. The fact that they were 690 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,120 Speaker 1: losing money year over year meant that that one billion 691 00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:57,680 Speaker 1: was just a starting point. They had to keep the 692 00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:01,000 Speaker 1: company afloat during these years too. Um so they so 693 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:05,319 Speaker 1: they wound up selling Pridecy Services Company to to a 694 00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:09,799 Speaker 1: company called International Wireless Incorporated. That the new management team 695 00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:13,960 Speaker 1: was still led by Edward Bennett. But but yeah, they 696 00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:18,279 Speaker 1: they had some they cleared some house yeah. Yeah. In 697 00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:19,799 Speaker 1: order to get it ready for the sale, I think 698 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,560 Speaker 1: that they dropped seventeen percent of their workforce. Yeah. Yeah. 699 00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,319 Speaker 1: It was one of those strategies that companies sometimes use 700 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,480 Speaker 1: in order to make them look better than than how 701 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:31,600 Speaker 1: they're operating. They lower operating costs. One way to lower 702 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:35,000 Speaker 1: operating costs get rid of some of those pesky salaries. Yeah, 703 00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:37,160 Speaker 1: I mean that, you know. Either way, the sale was 704 00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:40,560 Speaker 1: for seventy eight point two million, which is embarrassing. Yeah, 705 00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:43,120 Speaker 1: when you look at it, over a billion dollars in 706 00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:46,480 Speaker 1: investments over the years, plus however much was needed to 707 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:49,120 Speaker 1: keep the company afloat. Selling it for seventy eight point 708 00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:52,120 Speaker 1: two million is really cutting your losses whether or not. 709 00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:56,919 Speaker 1: That's the biggest uh, you know, biggest uh dump as 710 00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:59,160 Speaker 1: far as it goes. No, there are other ones that 711 00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:01,359 Speaker 1: are even worse. I mean you can argue like things 712 00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,920 Speaker 1: like MySpace and uh and there are other properties that 713 00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:09,399 Speaker 1: had really dramatic investments and then a huge drop off. 714 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:14,759 Speaker 1: But it's it's definitely up there. So uh. The new 715 00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,279 Speaker 1: strategy that the company has is to really kind of 716 00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:22,680 Speaker 1: branch out to still offer the online service provider provider 717 00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:24,920 Speaker 1: services that it had so in other words, you know, 718 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:27,000 Speaker 1: this would still be something that you would log into 719 00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:30,360 Speaker 1: and you would have your curated content. Uh. And you 720 00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:34,960 Speaker 1: could then also access some Internet functionality that was packaged 721 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:38,200 Speaker 1: under the name Prodigy Classic, right, or you could actually 722 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,879 Speaker 1: use Prodigy as an Internet service provider, and this would 723 00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: be the company that would give you the access to 724 00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:47,040 Speaker 1: the Internet, so you could browse the Internet, send email, 725 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:48,959 Speaker 1: all the kind of stuff that we do all the time. 726 00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,680 Speaker 1: And that one that that service had an interesting name. 727 00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:55,400 Speaker 1: So you had Project Classic, and then the Internet service 728 00:40:55,400 --> 00:41:02,200 Speaker 1: provider branch was called Prodigy Internet. Okay, really really creative 729 00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:04,879 Speaker 1: marketing forces here. The company that year had also changed 730 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:08,080 Speaker 1: its name to Prodigy Incorporated. Yep, yep, So now it's 731 00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:12,960 Speaker 1: Prodigy Inc. And uh, they changed the subscription package. Now 732 00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:17,640 Speaker 1: it was no longer for either service. It was now 733 00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:22,440 Speaker 1: you had to spend whether it was Prodigy Classic or 734 00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:25,360 Speaker 1: Prodigy Internet didn't matter which. Uh. And that year the 735 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:28,480 Speaker 1: company lost ninety point eight million dollars. Yeah, and so 736 00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:30,880 Speaker 1: I mean you keep in mind that the overall market 737 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,640 Speaker 1: AOL had been adding some three thousand subscribers per month 738 00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:38,920 Speaker 1: um and had in fact declined to take over Prodigy. Yeah, 739 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:42,920 Speaker 1: they they supposedly visited the premises at some point and went, 740 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:45,560 Speaker 1: you know, we're doing okay, they went, they went to 741 00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:49,120 Speaker 1: White Plains, New York, which is where Prodigy was headquartered, 742 00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:52,640 Speaker 1: and Microsoft Network, which had been online for less than 743 00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:56,080 Speaker 1: a year, had already surpassed Prodigy and subscribers. Yeah, so 744 00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:58,799 Speaker 1: this is one of the things where uh, and we'll 745 00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:00,960 Speaker 1: talk a little bit, I guess towards the end about 746 00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:03,399 Speaker 1: what we think kind of went wrong with Prodigy. I 747 00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,279 Speaker 1: I can at least speak to that a little bit, 748 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:09,759 Speaker 1: but it became pretty clear in hindsight that Prodigy made 749 00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,000 Speaker 1: some poor choices. We got more poor choices to talk about. 750 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:15,480 Speaker 1: Before we get into that, though, we want to take 751 00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:18,640 Speaker 1: a quick break and thank our sponsor. Alright, So we 752 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:22,439 Speaker 1: left off in nineteen six, so logically we should then 753 00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:27,000 Speaker 1: move on to crazy talk. That was when Prodigy split 754 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,719 Speaker 1: into three divisions. Ye. So you had two divisions that 755 00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:33,520 Speaker 1: looked at the core services. One of them were was 756 00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:36,920 Speaker 1: specifically focused on domestic and one on international. But you 757 00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,759 Speaker 1: had a third division as well, right, That one was 758 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:42,879 Speaker 1: all about software development. So that was about building a 759 00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:47,400 Speaker 1: new functionality and improving the existing functionality of the Prodigy service. 760 00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:49,359 Speaker 1: That was all that it was done, which they were doing. 761 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:54,000 Speaker 1: They had, around as the similar time, launched a supposedly 762 00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:57,280 Speaker 1: the first bulletin board archive, which was essentially a search engine, 763 00:42:57,320 --> 00:42:59,720 Speaker 1: and that was kind of a new crazy thing within 764 00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:04,880 Speaker 1: the bulletin board messaging board world. Yeah, we had some 765 00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:07,799 Speaker 1: early search engines in those nineties cash I remember things 766 00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:10,680 Speaker 1: like web crawler. But this is you know, this is 767 00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:15,080 Speaker 1: right when companies like Google are just starting to bloom. 768 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:19,040 Speaker 1: They're not even really on the the horizon yet for 769 00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:22,480 Speaker 1: most people. So it was certainly something that was still 770 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:25,880 Speaker 1: seen as very much innovative. UM. As for the international 771 00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:31,040 Speaker 1: UH efforts on part of Prodigy, we mentioned earlier that 772 00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:34,880 Speaker 1: Europe was very much saturated with online service providers and 773 00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:38,440 Speaker 1: internet service providers of their own, so Prodigy really didn't 774 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,680 Speaker 1: see like there was a great in road and basically 775 00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:43,279 Speaker 1: never even went there. They were just like, you know, 776 00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:47,680 Speaker 1: so they started looking at other markets UH, and mainly 777 00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,440 Speaker 1: at that time it was Africa and China. They also 778 00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:55,680 Speaker 1: started to make some impact in Mexico and in fact 779 00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:59,400 Speaker 1: that would become more important, very important. UM They had 780 00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:02,279 Speaker 1: around well in ninety seven, they estimated that they needed 781 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:06,680 Speaker 1: about one point five million customers in order to break even. Uh, 782 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:09,319 Speaker 1: they did not have one point five million customers in 783 00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:12,399 Speaker 1: ninety seven, they had about six d and thirteen thousand. Yeah, 784 00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:16,000 Speaker 1: compared to A O L's like eight million, right, and 785 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:19,680 Speaker 1: and that sixteen thousand. They actually had more customers than that, 786 00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:22,800 Speaker 1: but six and thirteen thousand were the billable customers because 787 00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:25,640 Speaker 1: because you know, they might have joined the service, but 788 00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:28,600 Speaker 1: they were in that free free period, so they weren't 789 00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:30,920 Speaker 1: being build for that. Actually, that was the year that 790 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:34,759 Speaker 1: FTC that the the Federal Trade Commission charged Prodigy, compu Serve, 791 00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:37,360 Speaker 1: and a o L with all having made unclear free 792 00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:40,719 Speaker 1: trial offers that didn't sufficiently warn their customers about being 793 00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:44,040 Speaker 1: automatically built at the end of the trial period. Excellent. 794 00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,080 Speaker 1: I actually saw that lawsuit, like I had the information 795 00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:49,880 Speaker 1: up on my page. I felt like I didn't have 796 00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:51,600 Speaker 1: enough time to read it. So I'm glad you did 797 00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:55,440 Speaker 1: because I was like, there's something legal happened in nine seven. 798 00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:59,040 Speaker 1: Moving on, Uh, so, how much money did the company 799 00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:05,920 Speaker 1: lose in nineteen seven and thirty two point seventy eight million? Wow? Wow, 800 00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:10,080 Speaker 1: So keep in mind just a few years earlier. It was. 801 00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:13,600 Speaker 1: It was back in when they thought that they were 802 00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:16,880 Speaker 1: on the road to profitability. That's when they lost thirty 803 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,960 Speaker 1: four million dollars back in ninety five, and then just 804 00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:23,960 Speaker 1: two years later they lose a hundred thirty two million, 805 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:27,839 Speaker 1: almost a hundred thirty three million dollars. Clearly, things were 806 00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:31,000 Speaker 1: not moving in the same direction as they had perceived 807 00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:33,239 Speaker 1: back in ninety five, and certainly not where they were 808 00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:36,319 Speaker 1: hoping now. Right. So, Grantly, there were a lot of 809 00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:38,360 Speaker 1: things going on in the market at that time, including 810 00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:42,560 Speaker 1: this increased competition from the other rivals in the space. 811 00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:46,120 Speaker 1: Uh and and so in the company decides to do 812 00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:49,160 Speaker 1: something really dramatic, something that they had only done a 813 00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:53,080 Speaker 1: couple of times before. They were their their their name changed, Yeah, 814 00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:56,799 Speaker 1: they changed to Prodigy Communications Corporation. Right. So, then they 815 00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,840 Speaker 1: also decided to lower the monthly fee so back to 816 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:04,360 Speaker 1: about fifteen fifteen bucks, and they promised a new digital 817 00:46:04,400 --> 00:46:08,480 Speaker 1: service that would be specifically geared for the brand new, 818 00:46:08,719 --> 00:46:15,000 Speaker 1: blisteringly fast fifty six K modems. Yeah, I remember having 819 00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:20,719 Speaker 1: a twenty four hundred, yeah, mottem. I think in that 820 00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:24,000 Speaker 1: time I actually did think that K was blistering lee fast. 821 00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:25,960 Speaker 1: I think I still had a fourteen four at the time, 822 00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:31,160 Speaker 1: So I had essentially two point four is what mine was. Man, Yeah, 823 00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:34,000 Speaker 1: you would. You would just hope that whatever link, whatever 824 00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:37,080 Speaker 1: thing you were looking at was just text, because if 825 00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:39,200 Speaker 1: there was anything other than text, you were going to 826 00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:41,200 Speaker 1: be there for a good couple of hours. I can 827 00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:44,200 Speaker 1: tell you my x files fan pages loaded very slowly. 828 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:47,840 Speaker 1: Um well, the truth was out there. Uh So the 829 00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:51,280 Speaker 1: news service was supposed to be much faster. The fifty 830 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:53,960 Speaker 1: six K optimized service is supposed to be faster and 831 00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:57,600 Speaker 1: have more rich content than the older services. Now remember 832 00:46:57,640 --> 00:47:00,840 Speaker 1: we said that the older services services had graphics, but 833 00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,759 Speaker 1: these graphics were akin to what you might see in 834 00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:08,120 Speaker 1: an old clip art, uh folder, Right, they weren't. They 835 00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:12,760 Speaker 1: weren't like photo realistic pictures or anything along those lines. 836 00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:15,080 Speaker 1: And when you see the commercial, you'll understand what I 837 00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:18,200 Speaker 1: what I mean, because that be feater. It's pretty gorgeous. 838 00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:22,080 Speaker 1: It's it's it's. My My favorite thing is the reaction 839 00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:24,920 Speaker 1: of the old man when he sees the page load 840 00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:27,799 Speaker 1: up about England and it's a little cartoon of a 841 00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:32,719 Speaker 1: b feeder and he's like, wow, how easily we were 842 00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,040 Speaker 1: impressed back in those days, Like you know, yeah, like 843 00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:37,760 Speaker 1: like pixel art on the level of that, like Diesel 844 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:41,440 Speaker 1: Sweeties makes fun of these days, right. Yeah. So at 845 00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:44,560 Speaker 1: this time, the company was still maintaining two different services, 846 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:49,160 Speaker 1: Prodigy Classic and Prodigy Internet uh, and combined those two 847 00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:52,800 Speaker 1: services had eight hundred thirty thousand customers, only six hundred 848 00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:57,040 Speaker 1: seventy one thousand of which were considered billable customers. So 849 00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:59,799 Speaker 1: the company lost money yet again, but less than they 850 00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:02,560 Speaker 1: had the year previous, less than half. Only sixty five 851 00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:06,400 Speaker 1: point eight million point eight millions. Yeah, it's tiny compared 852 00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:12,160 Speaker 1: to the two so yeah, good, at least at least 853 00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:14,520 Speaker 1: it was a reverse in the trend because they had 854 00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:17,759 Speaker 1: been losing more and more money each year. Yes. Um, 855 00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:21,200 Speaker 1: So the next year they launched an I p O 856 00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:25,000 Speaker 1: because why wouldn't you You've been losing money year over year, 857 00:48:25,280 --> 00:48:27,040 Speaker 1: And I think I think that was one of those 858 00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:30,000 Speaker 1: desperate bids to avoid bankruptcy kind of kind of I 859 00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:32,200 Speaker 1: p O s. Because there's two kinds of IPOs. There's 860 00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:34,120 Speaker 1: the kind that we're like, Wow, we're so excited and 861 00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:35,640 Speaker 1: we think that everyone's going to give us even more 862 00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:38,240 Speaker 1: money to do these wonderful things, and there's oh, crap, 863 00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:41,840 Speaker 1: oh crap, my car, don't take my car. Please please 864 00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:44,720 Speaker 1: put money in us, because we promise we are going 865 00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,680 Speaker 1: to be much more profitable very very soon. We promised 866 00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:50,799 Speaker 1: we're going to sell it to a sucker. Right, that 867 00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:53,000 Speaker 1: may also be the case, like, well, we'll we'll only 868 00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:57,239 Speaker 1: be publicly tradeable shortly, and then we'll we'll endure a 869 00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:00,000 Speaker 1: hostile takeover, which will actually be just a takeover because 870 00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:02,640 Speaker 1: will be like, please take over. But they raised about 871 00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:04,759 Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty million out of that. Yeah, so 872 00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:08,440 Speaker 1: they did raise money. The stocks share price originally was 873 00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:11,920 Speaker 1: fifteen dollars from what I understand, ac Corey to Funding Universe, 874 00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:15,719 Speaker 1: the highest point of the stock price in ended up 875 00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:18,920 Speaker 1: being about fifty dollars per share. But that was a 876 00:49:18,960 --> 00:49:23,800 Speaker 1: time where the investment companies were very much excited about 877 00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:28,239 Speaker 1: technology companies we're talking about. This is also another Yeah, 878 00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:30,439 Speaker 1: this is the cusp. This is before. This is while 879 00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:34,000 Speaker 1: the dot com bubble is inflating. Right, So this is 880 00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,880 Speaker 1: when we were all believing that the Internet was going 881 00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:39,600 Speaker 1: to be the way everyone was going to do business 882 00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:42,160 Speaker 1: from that point forward, that that the brick and mortar 883 00:49:42,200 --> 00:49:45,400 Speaker 1: stores were going to die out almost immediately. This is 884 00:49:45,400 --> 00:49:47,640 Speaker 1: how everything's gonna work. We just have to make sure 885 00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:50,600 Speaker 1: that we've got the business plan in place that makes 886 00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:54,720 Speaker 1: it all magically happen. And I apologize for this age reference, Jonathan, 887 00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:57,400 Speaker 1: but but this was right before I graduated from high school, 888 00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:01,680 Speaker 1: and I've been married for two years, and and it 889 00:50:01,719 --> 00:50:03,760 Speaker 1: was right about that time that all of my friends 890 00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:06,520 Speaker 1: were going, like, we are going to make our fortunes 891 00:50:06,600 --> 00:50:09,920 Speaker 1: doing this internet thing. Yeah. So obviously that's one of 892 00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:13,279 Speaker 1: those if you're a company that offers access to this 893 00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:16,520 Speaker 1: magical world called the Internet, you're in a good position. 894 00:50:16,640 --> 00:50:18,680 Speaker 1: So they did do pretty well with that I p 895 00:50:18,800 --> 00:50:23,040 Speaker 1: O and the subsequent year of investment, but not so 896 00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:25,120 Speaker 1: well that they were actually able to generate a lot 897 00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:29,800 Speaker 1: of revenue from this um. They would eventually, by the 898 00:50:29,880 --> 00:50:33,840 Speaker 1: end of ninety nine lose eighty point four nine millions. 899 00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:37,080 Speaker 1: So again it's gone up since the last time. But 900 00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:40,399 Speaker 1: they also would undergo kind of a change as well 901 00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:44,360 Speaker 1: because with this I p O it allowed a company 902 00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:48,840 Speaker 1: called Carso Global Telecom Essay de c V. It's a 903 00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:53,759 Speaker 1: Mexican company, to end up with sixty percent ownership of Prodigy. 904 00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:57,440 Speaker 1: Uh so, this was one of those companies that ended 905 00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:00,600 Speaker 1: up investing in Prodigy. When they started making those in 906 00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:04,279 Speaker 1: roads into Mexico, and in fact, Prodigy to this day 907 00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:06,719 Speaker 1: is very important in Mexico. But we'll get into that. 908 00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:10,560 Speaker 1: So Prodigy launched a bilingual I SP service in the 909 00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:14,239 Speaker 1: United States and also entered a joint venture into Mexico's 910 00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:17,359 Speaker 1: largest I s P, which was called telmex Ye. And 911 00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:20,239 Speaker 1: at that time the company also went ahead sold off 912 00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:23,840 Speaker 1: its African assets, those those regional areas in Africa that 913 00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:27,440 Speaker 1: had been supporting for only two point eight one million dollars. 914 00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:33,000 Speaker 1: But later in Prodigy acquired a company called flash Net Communications, 915 00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:35,800 Speaker 1: which was a rival I s P and OSP for 916 00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:40,560 Speaker 1: a hundred thirteen million dollars. That did add two hundred 917 00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:43,160 Speaker 1: and fifty thousand customers to their base. Yep. So now 918 00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:47,359 Speaker 1: they've they've almost artificially added more customers in a way, 919 00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:49,960 Speaker 1: because they ended up acquiring all the ones that had 920 00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:54,560 Speaker 1: belonged to flash Net. And then Prodigy and SBC Communications Incorporated, 921 00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:58,480 Speaker 1: which is a telephone company, announced plans for a limited partnership, 922 00:51:59,040 --> 00:52:02,160 Speaker 1: and that partnership would make Prodigy the exclusive I s 923 00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:04,399 Speaker 1: P for SBC consumers. So you know when I said 924 00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:07,120 Speaker 1: earlier about how two million was kind of the peak 925 00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:10,560 Speaker 1: for Prodigy, This is where the caveat comes in because 926 00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:14,000 Speaker 1: because SPC had something like seventy millions, seventy seven million 927 00:52:14,040 --> 00:52:18,440 Speaker 1: high speed Internet customers, which meant that because this agreement 928 00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:24,240 Speaker 1: made Prodigy the the exclusive provider, it it boosted Prodigies 929 00:52:24,280 --> 00:52:26,520 Speaker 1: numbers to an insane amount. But that's the thing is 930 00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,719 Speaker 1: that these were not people who were subscribing directly to Prodigy. 931 00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:32,080 Speaker 1: Well they you know, it's they were because they had to, 932 00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,239 Speaker 1: but they were subscribing to SPC R and so it 933 00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:39,000 Speaker 1: wasn't generating the revenue directly through Prodigy the way. The way, 934 00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:42,640 Speaker 1: because Prodigy also made money through advertising. They would put 935 00:52:42,680 --> 00:52:46,520 Speaker 1: ads on their pages, usually one ad per page, so 936 00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:48,960 Speaker 1: it's not like you would have tons of ads on everything. 937 00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:51,799 Speaker 1: So they would generate some revenue that way, so that 938 00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:54,120 Speaker 1: there was also, you know, a method of making some 939 00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:59,279 Speaker 1: money besides just direct subscriptions. Anyway. Uh, that was also 940 00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:03,800 Speaker 1: the year where probably was shut down temporarily on purpose. Internally, 941 00:53:03,800 --> 00:53:06,440 Speaker 1: they shut down they or they turned off the lights, 942 00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:09,120 Speaker 1: as some people have said, because there was something going 943 00:53:09,160 --> 00:53:11,279 Speaker 1: on in ninety nine that a lot of people just 944 00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:13,760 Speaker 1: I mean, you've heard the phrase, but you've probably forgotten 945 00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:16,279 Speaker 1: all about it. The whole two k things. Yeah, back 946 00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:18,839 Speaker 1: when we thought the world was gonna end, because all 947 00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:23,439 Speaker 1: computers had only been programmed to run up through through through, 948 00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:28,359 Speaker 1: no one had bothered too well they had used they 949 00:53:28,360 --> 00:53:32,759 Speaker 1: had only programmed the date for the year as two digits, right, 950 00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:36,359 Speaker 1: so computers would read ninety nine as nine. And then 951 00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:38,239 Speaker 1: everyone thought, wait a minute, what happens when they hit 952 00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:40,880 Speaker 1: zero zero for two thousand? Uh? Does that mean the 953 00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:43,640 Speaker 1: computers are just going to assume it's nineteen hundred because 954 00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:47,160 Speaker 1: it's going to reset to that value. It doesn't understand 955 00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:50,480 Speaker 1: that there is another year here, and if that happens, 956 00:53:50,600 --> 00:53:53,080 Speaker 1: how is this going to affect everything else? And so 957 00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:55,080 Speaker 1: you had people saying, well, you're probably gonna have some 958 00:53:55,120 --> 00:53:57,480 Speaker 1: interruptions and services, but that's about as bad as it's 959 00:53:57,520 --> 00:53:58,799 Speaker 1: going to be. And then you had the other side 960 00:53:58,800 --> 00:54:00,920 Speaker 1: of the spectrum where they said all of the world 961 00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:05,880 Speaker 1: shall end, the financial markets shall crash. Basically, be I 962 00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:08,080 Speaker 1: know that fight Club hasn't did fight Club come out 963 00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:10,160 Speaker 1: that year? I know that fight Club wasn't a big 964 00:54:10,239 --> 00:54:13,000 Speaker 1: thing at that point, but but but like basically the 965 00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:15,160 Speaker 1: end of fight Club, I would just say, like dogs 966 00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:18,640 Speaker 1: and cats living together, mass hysteria. Yeah, so that that's 967 00:54:18,719 --> 00:54:21,640 Speaker 1: essentially what we're looking at in fact, and and it 968 00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:23,480 Speaker 1: was one of those things where even I at the time, 969 00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:25,279 Speaker 1: I was not working at how stuff works at the time, 970 00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:27,440 Speaker 1: but even at the time, I was thinking, where do 971 00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:32,640 Speaker 1: I want to be when becomes two thousand and I 972 00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:35,240 Speaker 1: decided to go to a very flamboyant club in Athens 973 00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:38,000 Speaker 1: and it was fabulous because I figured, if if the 974 00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:39,799 Speaker 1: world is going to end, I wanted to end with 975 00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:43,879 Speaker 1: some amazing music. That's that's entirely fair. Um. Why two 976 00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:47,000 Speaker 1: K was also the they retired Prodigy Classic that year 977 00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:49,160 Speaker 1: and they started why twok is one of the reasons, 978 00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:51,920 Speaker 1: along with other architecture problems that you know, it was 979 00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:55,000 Speaker 1: not really a system that was intended to go along 980 00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:58,480 Speaker 1: with all of these new crazy innovations, right, so they 981 00:54:58,480 --> 00:55:03,320 Speaker 1: were really taking taking a similar model to America Online, 982 00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:07,040 Speaker 1: where where the Prodigy service would launch you into a 983 00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:10,239 Speaker 1: portal page where there then you could go and do 984 00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:12,919 Speaker 1: whatever it was you wanted to do. But uh, yeah, 985 00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:15,319 Speaker 1: they wanted to kind of get away from having to 986 00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:19,400 Speaker 1: support this this legacy system of Prodigy Classic because it 987 00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:22,520 Speaker 1: was becoming less and less relevant and it required a 988 00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:25,840 Speaker 1: diversion of revenue. It required a diversion of assets, I 989 00:55:25,840 --> 00:55:29,120 Speaker 1: should say, right, sure, it's still affected some two hundred 990 00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:32,600 Speaker 1: and eight thousand subscribers which Prodigy tried to move to 991 00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:37,400 Speaker 1: um to their Internet service with with middling success. Yeah. 992 00:55:37,560 --> 00:55:40,239 Speaker 1: If you've ever worked with someone who was very much 993 00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:43,560 Speaker 1: used to a particular type of system and then watched 994 00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:46,279 Speaker 1: as they tried to navigate a new system, you can 995 00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:49,640 Speaker 1: see how quickly they can become frustrated and disenchanted. They 996 00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:53,239 Speaker 1: actually they actually provided a new homepage like at like 997 00:55:53,280 --> 00:55:56,600 Speaker 1: a different port for the Classic customers who were moving 998 00:55:56,600 --> 00:55:59,160 Speaker 1: to Internet that looked more like the original Classic port 999 00:55:59,239 --> 00:56:03,600 Speaker 1: to help less transitioning. I think about every time anyone 1000 00:56:03,719 --> 00:56:07,239 Speaker 1: upgrades their operating system, or even when Facebook changes, I mean, 1001 00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:11,280 Speaker 1: you know the Internet riots. Yeah, no, not my favorite 1002 00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,000 Speaker 1: thing to post at that is uh, the new Facebook 1003 00:56:14,080 --> 00:56:16,160 Speaker 1: changes are the worst thing to happen since the last 1004 00:56:16,239 --> 00:56:19,600 Speaker 1: Facebook changes, because that's how it always seems like. At 1005 00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:24,000 Speaker 1: any rate. Getting back onto Prodigy. In two thousand, SBC, 1006 00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:27,200 Speaker 1: the company we talked about, the telephone company, purchased at 1007 00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:31,799 Speaker 1: interest in Prodigy, and earlier Prodigy had been looking at 1008 00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:35,520 Speaker 1: possibly merging with earth Link and mind Spring, which would 1009 00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:37,960 Speaker 1: have been a very interesting outcome because all of these 1010 00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:42,360 Speaker 1: companies had sort of been suffering against the onslaught that 1011 00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:47,759 Speaker 1: was America Online. UM and SPC would essentially end up 1012 00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:51,120 Speaker 1: with controlling interest in Prodigy within the next year, so 1013 00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:54,920 Speaker 1: they bought controlling interests. Right. So moving ahead to two 1014 00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:58,640 Speaker 1: thousand two, SBC formed another strategic alliance, this time with 1015 00:56:58,960 --> 00:57:03,719 Speaker 1: a little company called Yahoo. Yahoo. Yeah, so two thousand two, 1016 00:57:03,719 --> 00:57:06,000 Speaker 1: this is this is back when Yahoo was was doing 1017 00:57:06,040 --> 00:57:08,640 Speaker 1: some serious business, right, I mean, this was not the 1018 00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:11,640 Speaker 1: era where we all were wondering what Yahoo was going 1019 00:57:11,640 --> 00:57:13,239 Speaker 1: to be able to do to turn things around. This 1020 00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:16,160 Speaker 1: is when Yah who is really on the rise and uh. 1021 00:57:16,240 --> 00:57:19,600 Speaker 1: The alliance ended up creating a new kind of Yahoo portal. 1022 00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:22,160 Speaker 1: So if you've been to, like if you ever visited 1023 00:57:22,240 --> 00:57:24,400 Speaker 1: Yahoo back in this time, you remember that there was 1024 00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:26,920 Speaker 1: one of these things where you would get news and sports, 1025 00:57:26,920 --> 00:57:29,040 Speaker 1: and it's very similar to what you see today, although 1026 00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:31,520 Speaker 1: today it's much more of a sophisticated layout than it 1027 00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:33,760 Speaker 1: was back in the day. But this was sort of 1028 00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:37,520 Speaker 1: taking taking a queue off those old online service providers 1029 00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:41,000 Speaker 1: which had this curated content that everyone likes so much. 1030 00:57:41,560 --> 00:57:45,640 Speaker 1: So that's when we see uh, Prodigy sort of start 1031 00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:48,480 Speaker 1: to fade away, and in fact, SPC stopped allowing new 1032 00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:51,400 Speaker 1: Prodigy accounts in two thousand two. They did let people 1033 00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:55,600 Speaker 1: who were hardcore fans of Prodigy retain their Prodigy dot 1034 00:57:55,600 --> 00:57:59,400 Speaker 1: Net email addresses, which people still retain today. Yeah. Yeah, 1035 00:57:59,440 --> 00:58:01,120 Speaker 1: It's one of those things where it's almost like a 1036 00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:04,520 Speaker 1: badge of honor. It's like I was there a concert 1037 00:58:04,520 --> 00:58:08,080 Speaker 1: t shirt? Yeah yeah, yeah. But eventually it would get 1038 00:58:08,120 --> 00:58:09,600 Speaker 1: to a point where if you were to try to 1039 00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:13,280 Speaker 1: go to prodg dot net, it would lead to uh 1040 00:58:13,320 --> 00:58:17,240 Speaker 1: my A T A T T dot net page until 1041 00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:19,560 Speaker 1: around two thousand nine, and after that you'd just get 1042 00:58:19,560 --> 00:58:21,640 Speaker 1: an error. Yeah. So now these days, if you go 1043 00:58:21,680 --> 00:58:24,400 Speaker 1: to project dotnet, at least as of the recording of 1044 00:58:24,400 --> 00:58:26,360 Speaker 1: this podcast, if you go to prodect dot net, you 1045 00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:28,520 Speaker 1: get an error message. By the time this comes out, 1046 00:58:28,600 --> 00:58:31,600 Speaker 1: maybe they've actually figured out some way of resuscitating the brand. 1047 00:58:32,160 --> 00:58:36,560 Speaker 1: So really a few years later it becomes rumor, uh 1048 00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:39,760 Speaker 1: that that SPC was looking at actually selling the brand 1049 00:58:39,840 --> 00:58:42,760 Speaker 1: name Prodigy to someone else who would want to whoever 1050 00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:44,760 Speaker 1: would want to use it. Right around two thousand five, 1051 00:58:44,760 --> 00:58:47,400 Speaker 1: there is a big push um they were. There were 1052 00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:49,840 Speaker 1: a lot of rumors floating around that they were trying. Yeah, 1053 00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:52,439 Speaker 1: but no one. No one's purchased it. Now we will 1054 00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:55,320 Speaker 1: say that prod Internet still is a thing. There is 1055 00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:57,760 Speaker 1: a prod Internet. It is in Mexico, and it's the 1056 00:58:57,840 --> 00:59:00,560 Speaker 1: largest I s P in Mexico. So it's not that 1057 00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:03,360 Speaker 1: Prodigy has completely disappeared. But in the United States it's 1058 00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:06,280 Speaker 1: pretty much a non factor these days. UM. So let's 1059 00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:08,000 Speaker 1: talk a little bit about some of the services they 1060 00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:10,640 Speaker 1: would provide. We've mentioned a few of them already in 1061 00:59:10,680 --> 00:59:13,080 Speaker 1: that this this idea of curated content, we talked about 1062 00:59:13,080 --> 00:59:16,160 Speaker 1: the bulletin boards. Um. Also, early on they did not 1063 00:59:16,200 --> 00:59:19,440 Speaker 1: allow ful downloads. It was really the idea was that 1064 00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:24,400 Speaker 1: you were consuming content but not producing it or sharing it. Yeah, 1065 00:59:24,440 --> 00:59:28,080 Speaker 1: but but later they would allow file downloads, although they 1066 00:59:28,120 --> 00:59:30,680 Speaker 1: would look at those as well to make sure that 1067 00:59:30,720 --> 00:59:33,920 Speaker 1: they've met the standards that they had set for everywhere 1068 00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:37,600 Speaker 1: else on Prodigy. Uh An electronic mail. Back in ninety one, 1069 00:59:37,640 --> 00:59:41,880 Speaker 1: we talked about how UH they ended up seeing a 1070 00:59:41,960 --> 00:59:46,680 Speaker 1: big surge in electronic mail use because the censorship boards, 1071 00:59:47,160 --> 00:59:49,840 Speaker 1: and so in response, what did they do? They decided 1072 00:59:49,920 --> 00:59:52,640 Speaker 1: that well, you know this huge amount of electronic mail 1073 00:59:52,760 --> 00:59:57,880 Speaker 1: is putting a taxation upon our our transaction fees with 1074 00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:00,920 Speaker 1: the telephone company. So let's pass that along to the consumer. 1075 01:00:01,640 --> 01:00:04,680 Speaker 1: Every month, you'll get thirty messages for free, and if 1076 01:00:04,680 --> 01:00:06,280 Speaker 1: you want to send more than that, you need to 1077 01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:10,120 Speaker 1: spend money. It costs money to have more than thirty 1078 01:00:10,120 --> 01:00:12,680 Speaker 1: messages in a month. And so that was sort of 1079 01:00:12,680 --> 01:00:15,200 Speaker 1: the response to this surge and email use. And again 1080 01:00:15,200 --> 01:00:17,720 Speaker 1: that did not make users happy because first they since 1081 01:00:17,720 --> 01:00:21,200 Speaker 1: censored the bulletin boards and other messaging systems, and then 1082 01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:24,800 Speaker 1: they made it harder to send email. Yes, that that 1083 01:00:25,240 --> 01:00:27,520 Speaker 1: some people would argue. That ended up being a major 1084 01:00:27,600 --> 01:00:31,280 Speaker 1: reason why Prodigy ended up failing was because they had 1085 01:00:31,320 --> 01:00:36,880 Speaker 1: a lot of consumer unfriendly practices. Even though their original model, 1086 01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:39,320 Speaker 1: this idea of a flat fee and you get access 1087 01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:42,520 Speaker 1: to almost everything was very attractive, the way that they 1088 01:00:42,600 --> 01:00:47,520 Speaker 1: were creating policies was so against what the average consumer 1089 01:00:47,600 --> 01:00:50,760 Speaker 1: wanted that it ended up making it ended up alienating 1090 01:00:50,760 --> 01:00:55,320 Speaker 1: their their customer base. So then you get to UH 1091 01:00:55,400 --> 01:00:58,720 Speaker 1: the news again, the curated news. You get to travel. 1092 01:00:58,760 --> 01:01:01,919 Speaker 1: You can make travel arrangements on Prodigy UH. They had 1093 01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:06,440 Speaker 1: specific partnership with American Airlines so you could make a 1094 01:01:06,560 --> 01:01:10,680 Speaker 1: reservation on American Airlines through Prodigy. This again before the Internet, 1095 01:01:10,720 --> 01:01:13,160 Speaker 1: this or before we had access to the internet. This 1096 01:01:13,520 --> 01:01:15,440 Speaker 1: online service provider stuff. That's not like you could just 1097 01:01:15,480 --> 01:01:18,040 Speaker 1: go to American Airlines dot com and do whatever you 1098 01:01:18,080 --> 01:01:21,880 Speaker 1: want to do. This this precedes that Trivelocity did not exist. 1099 01:01:22,040 --> 01:01:23,880 Speaker 1: They could also you could also make hotel and car 1100 01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:27,320 Speaker 1: rental reservations through that same system. Although keep in mind 1101 01:01:27,360 --> 01:01:30,520 Speaker 1: again this is through partnerships that they Prodigy had made 1102 01:01:30,520 --> 01:01:33,520 Speaker 1: with specific companies. It's not like you had access to everybody, 1103 01:01:33,600 --> 01:01:35,479 Speaker 1: all right, right, you wrote in your in your notes 1104 01:01:35,560 --> 01:01:37,160 Speaker 1: that it was like going to a mall, Like, not 1105 01:01:37,240 --> 01:01:39,959 Speaker 1: every mall is going to have the stories that you want. 1106 01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:42,480 Speaker 1: It's going to be you know whatever, Yeah, exactly, Yeah, 1107 01:01:42,480 --> 01:01:44,520 Speaker 1: so you knows just what you deal with exactly right. 1108 01:01:44,560 --> 01:01:46,320 Speaker 1: If if that store wasn't in that mall, you had 1109 01:01:46,360 --> 01:01:47,760 Speaker 1: to go to a different mall, well, the same sort 1110 01:01:47,760 --> 01:01:50,000 Speaker 1: of thing. If if you could not get access to 1111 01:01:50,080 --> 01:01:54,040 Speaker 1: a particular vendor through Prodigy, then that meant that, well, 1112 01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:57,320 Speaker 1: you have the wrong online service provider for your needs. 1113 01:01:57,680 --> 01:02:00,720 Speaker 1: The same same thing applies to the shopping obvious Sears 1114 01:02:00,760 --> 01:02:06,640 Speaker 1: clearly being a founding partner Sears Merchandise had heavy representation 1115 01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:10,920 Speaker 1: in online shopping on Prodigy and around were more than 1116 01:02:10,960 --> 01:02:15,919 Speaker 1: forty other direct mail marketing kind of vendors, like any 1117 01:02:15,960 --> 01:02:19,960 Speaker 1: company that would there are other places that had large catalog. Yeah, 1118 01:02:20,040 --> 01:02:22,200 Speaker 1: that whole, the whole, like we will mail you our stuff. 1119 01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:24,480 Speaker 1: Because this is still you know, this isn't a time 1120 01:02:24,480 --> 01:02:27,840 Speaker 1: where this that was not the most common method of 1121 01:02:27,920 --> 01:02:31,560 Speaker 1: delivering stuff, right, Usually you would have this retail experience 1122 01:02:31,560 --> 01:02:34,360 Speaker 1: where we go into a store, so direct to customer 1123 01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:38,160 Speaker 1: was something that only a few vendors offered at that point. 1124 01:02:38,840 --> 01:02:42,200 Speaker 1: You could also do banking. The banking was through New 1125 01:02:42,280 --> 01:02:46,120 Speaker 1: York's manufacturers Hanover Trust Bank, so if you weren't with 1126 01:02:46,160 --> 01:02:49,680 Speaker 1: that one too bad. And stocks yep yep. That was 1127 01:02:49,720 --> 01:02:53,320 Speaker 1: through Donaldson, Lufkin Engine Rhett, which is a Wall Street 1128 01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:56,440 Speaker 1: company that would handle the stock purchases, so you could 1129 01:02:56,480 --> 01:02:59,760 Speaker 1: become a day trader if you wanted to. Early early on, 1130 01:02:59,800 --> 01:03:02,840 Speaker 1: they did groceries, They did online groceries, but I think 1131 01:03:02,880 --> 01:03:08,240 Speaker 1: that the price and availability of service was just so yeah, 1132 01:03:08,240 --> 01:03:11,240 Speaker 1: there was very low adoption and also it just costs 1133 01:03:11,240 --> 01:03:13,200 Speaker 1: a lot of money to run that kind of operation. Now, 1134 01:03:13,200 --> 01:03:16,200 Speaker 1: I will say I never used Prodigies grocery shopping service, 1135 01:03:16,280 --> 01:03:18,880 Speaker 1: but I've used other online grocery shopping services back when 1136 01:03:18,880 --> 01:03:21,520 Speaker 1: they were more common, like web van would be the 1137 01:03:21,640 --> 01:03:23,600 Speaker 1: I think that's even Webvan was the one I used, 1138 01:03:24,320 --> 01:03:26,680 Speaker 1: and I loved it, but it again was one of 1139 01:03:26,680 --> 01:03:29,560 Speaker 1: those things where I just could imagine exactly it had 1140 01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:33,280 Speaker 1: to be phenomenally expensive to operate, and unless you have 1141 01:03:33,560 --> 01:03:35,960 Speaker 1: a huge customer base right out of the gate, you're 1142 01:03:35,960 --> 01:03:39,400 Speaker 1: going to be operating at a loss for several years, 1143 01:03:39,480 --> 01:03:42,400 Speaker 1: kind of like Prodigy. And then later on when it 1144 01:03:42,440 --> 01:03:45,760 Speaker 1: became when it started to do the prodec internet services, 1145 01:03:46,040 --> 01:03:49,880 Speaker 1: it began to offer things like curated content online, so 1146 01:03:49,920 --> 01:03:51,760 Speaker 1: you would go to your little online portal and that's 1147 01:03:51,760 --> 01:03:54,760 Speaker 1: where you'd see things like sports, business news, world news, 1148 01:03:54,800 --> 01:03:57,320 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, kind of like, yeah, who does um. 1149 01:03:57,400 --> 01:03:59,880 Speaker 1: They also did have have news writers. They have they 1150 01:04:00,280 --> 01:04:03,840 Speaker 1: had an editorial team, the dedicated editorial staff that worked 1151 01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:06,280 Speaker 1: out a White Plains, New York. So they had editors 1152 01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:11,920 Speaker 1: and writers working specifically to write content just for Prodigy users. 1153 01:04:11,920 --> 01:04:14,360 Speaker 1: So it's the same sort of stories you would see 1154 01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:16,440 Speaker 1: in other sources, like if you were to get a newspaper, 1155 01:04:16,480 --> 01:04:19,960 Speaker 1: but it was written specifically for the prog Yeah. And 1156 01:04:19,960 --> 01:04:23,240 Speaker 1: then they also had instant messaging, like they said, they 1157 01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:25,560 Speaker 1: had chat rooms for a little while, and then they 1158 01:04:25,680 --> 01:04:29,120 Speaker 1: had things like financial tools like portfolio management and personal 1159 01:04:29,160 --> 01:04:32,720 Speaker 1: finance tracking, so you could follow how your your finances 1160 01:04:32,760 --> 01:04:35,920 Speaker 1: were doing over time. Like when you see all your 1161 01:04:35,960 --> 01:04:39,080 Speaker 1: dot com stocks on like a meteoric rise and you think, 1162 01:04:39,120 --> 01:04:40,960 Speaker 1: I am going to be in the world's next multi 1163 01:04:41,000 --> 01:04:45,480 Speaker 1: billionaire and two thousand one, when you think where where's 1164 01:04:45,520 --> 01:04:49,959 Speaker 1: my change? Jar? I want to go to McDonald's. Yeah, yeah, 1165 01:04:50,160 --> 01:04:52,680 Speaker 1: they I you know, I do think that in a 1166 01:04:52,760 --> 01:04:55,160 Speaker 1: lot of ways it was ahead of its time. I 1167 01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:58,640 Speaker 1: think that if Prodigy had come out in that wave 1168 01:04:58,840 --> 01:05:02,080 Speaker 1: that A. O. L did just a couple of years later, um, 1169 01:05:02,120 --> 01:05:04,720 Speaker 1: that the technology would have been such that they would 1170 01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:07,640 Speaker 1: have had greater adoption. But but some of those I mean, 1171 01:05:07,680 --> 01:05:10,320 Speaker 1: I hate to use the word draconian for an Internet 1172 01:05:10,360 --> 01:05:13,680 Speaker 1: service provider, but who but who reads their bulletin board 1173 01:05:13,720 --> 01:05:18,040 Speaker 1: content and make sure that I mean that's that's right. Yeah, Yeah, 1174 01:05:18,080 --> 01:05:21,720 Speaker 1: I would say that those decisions were what stood in 1175 01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:26,520 Speaker 1: Prodigies away from becoming like the dominant osp was that 1176 01:05:26,600 --> 01:05:29,000 Speaker 1: it wasn't that the service they provided was bad. A 1177 01:05:29,000 --> 01:05:32,240 Speaker 1: lot of it was good, but they were not prepared 1178 01:05:32,560 --> 01:05:36,400 Speaker 1: for the initial costs that they incurred as they began um. 1179 01:05:36,440 --> 01:05:38,400 Speaker 1: They weren't prepared to endure that for as long as 1180 01:05:38,440 --> 01:05:40,760 Speaker 1: it was necessary for them to build up the customer base. 1181 01:05:41,040 --> 01:05:44,560 Speaker 1: They made decisions that upset customers, including not just the 1182 01:05:45,560 --> 01:05:47,560 Speaker 1: censorship or however you want a word it, not just 1183 01:05:47,640 --> 01:05:50,640 Speaker 1: that policy, and not just the policy of charging more 1184 01:05:50,640 --> 01:05:53,000 Speaker 1: for email, but they started to do surcharges on other 1185 01:05:53,240 --> 01:05:56,400 Speaker 1: features as well. So not all features were not free 1186 01:05:56,560 --> 01:05:59,240 Speaker 1: but free with with subscription, right, Not all of them 1187 01:05:59,240 --> 01:06:00,919 Speaker 1: were free with subscrib and some of them you would 1188 01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:03,480 Speaker 1: have to pay on top of your subscription fee. And 1189 01:06:03,520 --> 01:06:05,760 Speaker 1: these were things where people were saying, well, yeah, you 1190 01:06:05,760 --> 01:06:09,160 Speaker 1: you build this as I pay one monthly fee and 1191 01:06:09,160 --> 01:06:11,000 Speaker 1: then I have access to all these amazing things. But 1192 01:06:11,040 --> 01:06:13,360 Speaker 1: in truth, I pay one monthly fee and then I 1193 01:06:13,360 --> 01:06:16,200 Speaker 1: have the opportunity to buy more stuff all of these 1194 01:06:16,200 --> 01:06:20,280 Speaker 1: services that I kind of want to use. And so 1195 01:06:20,400 --> 01:06:22,880 Speaker 1: it may very well be that their business plan, perhaps 1196 01:06:22,960 --> 01:06:25,720 Speaker 1: they had just priced themselves too low at the very beginning, 1197 01:06:25,760 --> 01:06:27,640 Speaker 1: and they maybe if they had gone with a slightly 1198 01:06:27,720 --> 01:06:30,760 Speaker 1: higher subscription fee at the very beginning. Uh, it could 1199 01:06:30,760 --> 01:06:32,920 Speaker 1: have offset some of the costs they incurred when they 1200 01:06:32,920 --> 01:06:35,400 Speaker 1: started offering up these services. And maybe then they could 1201 01:06:35,440 --> 01:06:39,320 Speaker 1: have kept those services free with the subscription, and then 1202 01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:42,000 Speaker 1: they might it might be a totally different story today. 1203 01:06:42,120 --> 01:06:44,960 Speaker 1: Maybe today we wouldn't be talking about A O. L. 1204 01:06:45,360 --> 01:06:47,640 Speaker 1: You know, like we wouldn't say that A O. L 1205 01:06:47,880 --> 01:06:50,320 Speaker 1: was had become the you know this this name that 1206 01:06:50,360 --> 01:06:52,960 Speaker 1: we still know. Maybe we'd be talking about Prodigy. Maybe 1207 01:06:53,000 --> 01:06:55,240 Speaker 1: all of us would be talking about how many c 1208 01:06:55,440 --> 01:06:58,080 Speaker 1: D s we have that we accumulated over the years 1209 01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:01,600 Speaker 1: as Prodigy, c D after c D after CE of 1210 01:07:01,600 --> 01:07:04,080 Speaker 1: of the basic kits so as you can install it. Yeah. 1211 01:07:04,120 --> 01:07:06,640 Speaker 1: An analysts named Richard Adler I found this quote and 1212 01:07:06,760 --> 01:07:10,080 Speaker 1: I believe in New York Times piece from said, somebody 1213 01:07:10,160 --> 01:07:11,480 Speaker 1: is going to make a lot of money in this 1214 01:07:11,520 --> 01:07:13,880 Speaker 1: business someday. I just don't know if it's going to 1215 01:07:13,920 --> 01:07:17,000 Speaker 1: be Prodigy. Yeah, and he was right. Some lots of 1216 01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:19,040 Speaker 1: people made lots of money in this It's just that 1217 01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:22,120 Speaker 1: this was this was unfortunately not the story for that, 1218 01:07:22,680 --> 01:07:24,840 Speaker 1: but I thought was an interesting one. Lauren and I 1219 01:07:24,880 --> 01:07:28,160 Speaker 1: both used Prodigy, so we're both Prodigy kids. Uh, we're 1220 01:07:28,160 --> 01:07:31,160 Speaker 1: both Prodigies. Really we don't want to tut our own 1221 01:07:31,160 --> 01:07:33,560 Speaker 1: horn or anything. It's just true. Uh. So you know, 1222 01:07:33,680 --> 01:07:37,080 Speaker 1: no false modesty on this show at any rate. Uh. 1223 01:07:37,120 --> 01:07:39,040 Speaker 1: It's an interesting story. And like I said, we'll probably 1224 01:07:39,040 --> 01:07:41,560 Speaker 1: talk about other ones in the future. Maybe we'll have 1225 01:07:41,600 --> 01:07:43,680 Speaker 1: an episode where we talk about copy Server, or maybe 1226 01:07:43,720 --> 01:07:47,760 Speaker 1: one about mind Spring. U. These are other interesting internet 1227 01:07:47,760 --> 01:07:50,680 Speaker 1: companies and kind of see what formed the basis of 1228 01:07:50,720 --> 01:07:53,760 Speaker 1: how we think of the Internet today and which ones 1229 01:07:53,840 --> 01:07:56,840 Speaker 1: are still around and which ones are just a name 1230 01:07:57,120 --> 01:08:00,240 Speaker 1: that we associate with in history. Yeah, Times gun By 1231 01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:02,280 Speaker 1: Stuff you missed in history class would probably cover these 1232 01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:05,440 Speaker 1: two if they looked at more recent history. There's not 1233 01:08:05,480 --> 01:08:07,560 Speaker 1: a whole lot of online service providers in the days 1234 01:08:07,560 --> 01:08:09,720 Speaker 1: of the Vikings. All right, guys, So that wraps up 1235 01:08:09,760 --> 01:08:12,600 Speaker 1: this discussion. If you would like to chime in, maybe 1236 01:08:12,640 --> 01:08:14,920 Speaker 1: tell us about your experiences if you were someone who 1237 01:08:15,000 --> 01:08:17,759 Speaker 1: used online service providers, let's know whether it was Prodigy 1238 01:08:17,880 --> 01:08:21,040 Speaker 1: or something else. UM, if you have your own like Prodigy, 1239 01:08:21,080 --> 01:08:23,559 Speaker 1: horror story or success story, want to hear that too, 1240 01:08:24,600 --> 01:08:27,080 Speaker 1: like Vikings. If you like Vikings, Stuff you Missed in 1241 01:08:27,120 --> 01:08:29,720 Speaker 1: History class is a great podcast you should listen to. 1242 01:08:30,240 --> 01:08:32,400 Speaker 1: UM Also, I've got a great Viking story. I'll tell 1243 01:08:32,400 --> 01:08:34,960 Speaker 1: it to you sometime. If you have any suggestions for 1244 01:08:35,040 --> 01:08:37,800 Speaker 1: future episode, let's know, you can drop us an email, 1245 01:08:37,800 --> 01:08:40,679 Speaker 1: our addresses tech stuff at Discovery dot com, or let's 1246 01:08:40,680 --> 01:08:44,160 Speaker 1: know on Facebook, Board, Twitter or Tumbler. You can find 1247 01:08:44,200 --> 01:08:46,839 Speaker 1: or handle it all three of those text stuff hs 1248 01:08:47,120 --> 01:08:49,360 Speaker 1: W and Lauren and I will talk to you again. Really, 1249 01:08:49,360 --> 01:08:54,599 Speaker 1: sim for more on this and thousands of other topics. 1250 01:08:54,720 --> 01:09:00,000 Speaker 1: Does it has to works dot Com