Internet company, America Online, has announced details of an international technology centre in Dublin which will create 300 new jobs over the next three years.
This is in addition to the 350 jobs announced earlier this month in Waterford as a result of a joint venture between AOL Europe and Bertelsmann of Germany, the world's third largest media company.
AOL's Dublin office, with sites at CityWest and Eastpoint, is its only major development site outside the US. It will develop and localise AOL, CompuServe and Netscape branded Internet services for the European market, including client, host, business systems, e-commerce and infrastructure products.
The Dublin office, which currently employs 82 workers, was set up after the acquisition of Netscape Communications Corporation - by combining the existing Netscape and AOL organisations in Ireland into a single entity.
"We chose Dublin as our first international development site because of the proximity to our rapidly growing European customer base and the availability of good and qualified software professionals," said Mr Ray Oglethorpe, president of AOL Technologies. "We're very excited about our plans for the Dublin international development office."
AOL already has a "mature infrastructure" in Dublin to support the company's expansion plans, added Mr Manus Hanratty, general manager of AOL Technologies.
The Waterford-based joint venture between AOL and Bertelsmann, announced on November 2nd, was welcomed by that city's business leaders as an indication that the south-east region was capable of attracting household names in the field of high-technology that provided international services.
AOL Europe started its Waterford operation just more than a year ago and currently employs 150 workers.
AOL, following its acquisition of Netscape for $4.2 billion last November, shook up the global Internet industry by creating the biggest provider of online services in the world. The company is understood to have 18 million subscribers worldwide, with its instant messaging service among its most interesting and successful offerings.
By clicking on a friend's name on a "buddy list", users can send an instant message to friends which appears on the recipient's screen as the sender is writing the message. AOL says it has 30 million instant message users.
According to Mr Oglethorpe, the company's focus is on making AOL products as central to people's lives as the telephone or television ever were. He said there are no current plans to shed the Netscape and Compuserve brands.
AOL is exploring wireless applications for delivery to mobile phones and palm top devices.
Most of AOL's current revenues of $2.6 billion are subscription based, but last year $1 billion worth came from non-subscription sources, in particular advertising and commerce. This shift is likely to continue as AOL may move away from the subscription-based model to charging for new services, including customised delivery of information to mobile phones.
