Time Warner's AOL is set to launch an internet portal in Poland, it has been reported.The move is said to be part of the company's strategy to expand further into European markets.
Details of the service are due to be revealed next Wednesday (December 12th), although it is understood that, as well as offering localised content, AOL will provide users in the country with a Polish version of AIM - its instant messaging service - and Winamp, Rzeczpospolita reports.
According to the publication, AOL has said it intends to spend in excess of $250 billion on furthering its operations in Europe, where the market is expanding at a rate of 20 per cent a year, as opposed to two per cent in the US.
Traditionally, the internet advertising market in Poland has been dominated by local firms, including Onet, Wirtualna Polska, Interia and Gazeta, which each have a customer base of between six and 9.5 million people, it adds.
Michal Bonarowski, editor-in-chief of Onet, stated: "We are not surprised [by AOL's plans] because we followed closely [its] earlier forays into other European markets.
"We are not complacent, but with the market growing by several tens of per cent a year, there is little danger AOL will win a substantial market share at our expense."
Last month, AOL launched in Switzerland, offering users in the country email, instant messaging and localised news in both French and German.
Announcing the move, Dana Dunne, chief executive officer of AOL Europe, stated that the company expects to "cover 95 per cent of the [European] online advertising market within the next 17 months".
