An America Online (AOL) spokesperson has told ITWeb that, contrary to a report by the Bloomberg news service last week, the world`s number one online service has "no plans at this time to launch an AOL service in South Africa".
The original Bloomberg story appeared in the local press last week. However, America Online and Bloomberg have corrected the misstatement by Eric Brandon, VP for AOL`s Studios unit. AOL will expand its service into South America later this year - and not South Africa as previously reported.
The company is on track to start its Latin American service this year, said Brandon, speaking at Harvard Business School`s "Cyberposium" technology conference held in Boston on 20 February.
America Online has been expanding its online service internationally through joint ventures with other partners. AOL said in December that it had created a partnership with Cisneros Group, one of Latin America`s largest media groups, to start an online service in the region.
AOL has more than 2.8 million subscribers outside the US and has services in countries such as England, Japan, Canada and Australia. It`s set to start an English and Chinese language service based in Hong Kong sometime this year. Worldwide, America Online has more than 16 million subscribers.
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