The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2015–2018
Verizon spent $1.2 billion on go90 and shut it down in three years
Launched October 2015 to chase young viewers with pricey originals, Verizon's go90 video app never found an audience and went dark on 31 July 2018.
Verizon · go90 · 2018-06
What happened
go90 launched in October 2015 as Verizon's answer to YouTube: a free, ad-supported mobile video app aimed at 18-to-34-year-olds. It was seeded by acquisitions — the video site Vessel, a stake in AwesomenessTV and distribution rights to Vice Media shows — plus stunts like Kobe Bryant's Oscar-winning short Dear Basketball. Digiday estimated Verizon spent as much as $1.2 billion on the content push.
The audience never arrived. Viewership rates were anemic across the board, and Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam conceded in 2016 that the service 'did get a little bit overhyped'. The model — free content subsidised by premium ads sold against a mobile-only youth audience — never panned out.
After Verizon merged AOL and Yahoo into its Oath media unit, go90 lost its reason to exist as a standalone bet. On 28–29 June 2018 Verizon announced the shutdown; the app went dark on 31 July 2018, rights to commissioned shows reverted to their producers, and Verizon said it would focus on building digital-first brands in sports, finance, news and entertainment.
Why it happened
- The spend was a distribution theory with no demand behind it: $1.2B of content aimed at young viewers who kept watching YouTube and Netflix instead.
- The ad model never closed: premium prices were charged against an audience that stayed anemic, so revenue could not chase the content bill.
- The reorg removed its sponsor: once AOL and Yahoo became Oath, go90 was a stranded bet rather than a strategy.
The lesson
Verizon bought $1.2B of content for an audience that kept watching somewhere else; go90 proved a carrier's balance sheet can fund originals but not a reason to watch.
Aftermath
Verizon pivoted toward sports rights pitched at the coming 5G era. go90 remains the textbook case of a telecom trying to buy a video audience.
Sources
- TechCrunch, 29 June 2018 — Verizon is shutting down go90 (launched October 2015; Digiday estimate up to $1.2B spent on content; acquired Vessel, stake in AwesomenessTV, Vice distribution rights; distributed Kobe Bryant's Dear Basketball; never found its audience; folded into Oath to focus on digital-first brands in sports, finance, news and entertainment)
- The Verge, 28 June 2018 — Verizon is shutting down its original video app Go90 (app shut down July 31, 2018; more than $1.2B invested per Digiday; anemic viewership; CEO Lowell McAdam admitted in 2016 it 'did get a little bit overhyped'; commissioned show rights returned to producers including Vice, Complex, AwesomenessTV)
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