BlueLight.com plans to begin a reward system that it hopes will turn its free Internet subscribers into online Kmart shoppers.
In the meantime, the dot-com arm of the Troy, Mich.-based Kmart Corp. has limited its free Internet access service to 25 hours per month, as of Jan. 1.
“We want to focus it to the people who are shopping,” said Dave Karraker, BlueLight’s spokesman.
The San Francisco-based BlueLight.com, a popular online retailer, is caught in a market shift that has forced many companies offering free Internet service to fold. Dot-com advertising, which once covered the cost for free Internet service, has dried up. Companies are now paying the bills for everyone, including the small percentage of heavy users who stay connected but don’t buy products or services.
The shift has already brought an end to free Internet service providers 1stUp.com, Freewwweb and WorldSpy.
BlueLight.com, New York-based Juno Online Services and Westlake Village, Calif.-based NetZero Inc. are among the handful of free ISPs still operating. In early December, NetZero placed a 40-hour-a-month cap on its free Internet access.
Karraker said the free subscribers dominating BlueLight.com’s time are small businesses, game players, Napster fans and people surfing for pornography.
