Verizon launched a video streaming service called Go90 back in October 2015. It hyped up the service by pointing out that it was backed by “awesome content partners” and brilliant coders. The service was aimed at Millennials who continue to consume significant video content on their mobile devices. The service was launched around the same time as the acquisition of AOL and Yahoo but it never really took off. Now, it appears that Verizon may shut down Go90 in the near future.
Had Go90 become the popular video streaming service for Millennials that Verizon had dreamt up then the company could have been able to sling ads at them to make money but that didn’t happen. The app quickly fell down the charts on the App Store and the Play Store. Despite Verizon trying to relaunch and revamp the app multiple times, it just didn’t appeal to the target audience.
Go90’s future became unclear when Verizon laid off 155 Go90 employees in January last year. Tim Armstrong, the CEO of Verizon’s digital media division Oath, has now said that the service could be shut down soon.
Speaking at a conference in California recently, Armstrong said that “the brand will remain I don’t know how long,” adding that Go90 was a very ambitious project which was basically trying to develop an internet mobile video service from scratch. “It was highly likely we’re going to stub our toe a huge number of times,” he said.
Go90 won’t be the end of Verizon’s video ambitions, though, as the company is expected to come out with a new standalone TV streaming service like Sling TV later this year.