CompuServe was the first major consumer online service in the world. Started in 1969 as a corporate time-sharing business in Columbus, Ohio, it turned to consumers when it launched its information service in 1979. Through the 1980s it offered email, chat, file downloads, stock quotes and forums — capabilities that would define the internet two decades before most people had heard the word. By 1995 it had around 3 million subscribers and was the dominant service for business and professional users.
AOL undercut it on price, then moved to flat-rate unlimited access in 1996, a model CompuServe could not match without restructuring. The open World Wide Web, where anyone could publish and browse without a proprietary gatekeeper, made the walled-garden model obsolete. AOL acquired CompuServe’s consumer information service in 1998. New development tailed off, and the original CompuServe Classic service was finally shut down in 2009.
Worth remembering
- CompuServe introduced the GIF image format in 1987, a file standard still in everyday use long after the company was gone.
- Its 1980s CB Simulator was one of the first real-time online chat services, drawing people who had never before interacted through a computer.
Sources
- CompuServe was founded in 1969, launched its consumer service in 1979, was acquired by AOL in 1998, and shut down CompuServe Classic in 2009. Wikipedia
- CompuServe reached about 3 million subscribers in 1995 and introduced email, forums and stock quotes to consumers years before the web. WOSU Public Media
- AOL undercut CompuServe on price and moved to flat-rate unlimited access, a shift CompuServe could not match competitively. Wikipedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.