
Verizon go90 burned over $200M trying to catch the eye of millennials - obituary_latte
http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-verizon-go90-an-video-app-mix-between-youtube-and-netflix-2017-3
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27182818284
The Verizon brand is toxic enough that even without hearing what this has to
offer I have a negative opinion on it. For example, I've been so soured on the
Verizon apps that get installed to my phone without my permission (pre-
installed apps on Android) it makes me incredibly hesitant to even look at
adding another app to watch TV offerings I don't know about.

~~~
67726e
Similarly, Verizon has the best coverage in my area and has begun unlimited
plans. Regardless, I have such a negative impression of the company from all
the stories I've heard over the years that I'd really only switch if I had no
other option. Even then I'd be hesitant.

~~~
JauntTrooper
Honest question - why is their reputation so toxic?

Comcast, I get. Their business model inspires hatred. They lure you with
teaser rates on internet/cable then jack up the price 100%+ after the first
year, banking on their local monopoly and their customers' unwillingness to
sit on the phone for an hour to jump through hoops and reduce that price to
"just" a 20% increase.

I've never had a problem with Verizon, though. In fact my experience has been
modestly positive. Their cell coverage is good and consistent (no unwanted
apps on my iPhone). When I lived back East, we were quite happy Verizon FIOS
came to our neighborhood and gave us a superior alternative to Comcast. Are
they behaving like Comcast in other areas without alternative internet
providers?

~~~
mikestew
_Honest question - why is their reputation so toxic?_

For me it goes back to when they'd disable some Bluetooth functionality on the
phones they sold (and you _had_ to buy their phones to use them on the Verizon
network) so that they could sell you more services. Transfer those photos off
your phone? The Verizon Photos Transfer Service will be an additional
$5/month. People with, for example, the exact same phone only with an "AT&T"
logo had the full functionality. And other stuff that I've forgotten.

That was such a blatant example of rent seeking that I've been content to do
without Verizon's services since.

~~~
mrpippy
Agreed, it's easy to forget (~10 years ago) how anti-consumer and rent-seeking
Verizon's behavior consistently was.

Their phones didn't use J2ME apps, only the proprietary Qualcomm BREW, and
apps could only come from their own app store (Get It Now). On
WinMo/BlackBerry smartphones with GPS, only Verizon's own $5/month
map/navigation app could use the GPS hardware. The list went on and on

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chasing
I remember seeing ads for this around my neighborhood that were essentially
baffling. Very trendy, but with zero communication about what go90 actually
purported to do.

Google "go90 ads" and you'll see what I mean. Bright colors and slogans like
"To watch, cut & share all the awesome" and "Brace yourself, entertainment is
coming" which mean, effectively, nothing.

("Ooh, I love entertainment. Along with content it's one of my favorite things
to experience.")

Also, "go90" is a terrible name.

~~~
niftich
If I recall the first TV ad they did was
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLYPMmZfwY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLYPMmZfwY),
which is the only one I saw -- but I saw it a lot on late-night television;
probably Comedy Central or Adult Swim.

The ads were problematic in the sense that they were essentially context-free,
and while "us millennials" are enticed by shows we want to stream, we're also
very cautious and skeptical of heavily advertised services at a late hour.

In me, the garish palette of the ads and the name evoked MTV-style advertising
of the mid-1990s, when I was much younger, and bombarded with sketchy ads for
polyphonic ringtones, J2ME games, and other services for brick cellphones on
late-night television: an association that made me more wary than anything
else, especially since the offered content appeared decidedly second-tier.

~~~
chasing
I don't generally think Hacker News is the place to post memes, but this ad is
the marketing embodiment of this "30 Rock" clip:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ele_dj3ud38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ele_dj3ud38)

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ballenf
> Beyond the operation's length, its nature was haphazard and confusing,
> according to members of the team. Partway through the metadata project, all
> the team's contracts were supposed to end, but it was clear the job wasn't
> complete. Management asked part of the team to stay on but pretended
> everyone was getting the ax.

> "We all had to act like we were all leaving," one former contractor said.
> "They asked us not to say anything."

Sounds like someone _very_ inexperienced calling the shots. Also asleep at the
wheel. I really don't think version 3.0 is going to solve the root problems
with this project.

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rdtsc
What the don't realize is not only do they have to create something
interesting and useful, they have to overcome the negative associations people
have with Verizon as a brand.

Instead of a making it a Verizon thing, it should have been a separate entity
owned by Verizon but not visibly associated with it. Make a faux-startup
thing, with a separate app name which skips every other vowel and such and
start from there.

I distrust and dislike Verizon. Had their pricey FIOS service for a year and
despite having a high bandwidth they kept throttling Youtube videos. So I
switched to a regular cable provide, pays half as much, have less advertised
bandwidth but much better experience. Their billing was a mess. They took a
deposit initially to avoid running a credit check on me with the idea of
returning it back. It was a pain to get that deposit back. Now they are
sending a salesperson to my door every 3 or 4 months with "special deals"
trying to convince me to go back to them (since they already installed their
on-premises equipment).

~~~
justinsaccount
> Had their pricey FIOS service for a year and despite having a high bandwidth
> they kept throttling Youtube videos.

They weren't directly throttling things, they just let their peering
connections max out until things broke.

[https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2013/06/veriz...](https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2013/06/verizon-bandwidth-provider-blame-each-other-for-slow-
netflix-streaming/)

> He said he believes that Verizon's decision to limit Netflix bandwidth is
> due to Verizon wanting customers to use its own streaming video services,
> such as Redbox Instant.

I'm not sure if anything has really changed in 4 years.

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PaulHoule
I remember the Go90 ads that looked exactly like the MTV "M" ad that ran in
1981. It was cool at the time but now it just looks dated.

As a Generation X-er I remember that as a betrayal, when a few years later the
60+ Sumner Redstone decided that we couldn't watch music videos anymore, MTV
stopped showing music videos and became yet another whistlestop in a vast
wasteland of reality television.

~~~
oxide
My grandparents tend to watch _a lot_ of reality TV. On the History Channel,
Discovery Channel, all the channels that used to have interesting, educational
content like documentaries.

I've noticed it's the same kind of show (mostly): someone lives in a harsh
environment or otherwise away from civilization.

I think they're...living vicariously through it? They love the outdoors,
hunting and fishing, etc. They are a bit too old and tired day-to-day to go
and do the things they always have loved, but they get something out of
watching others brave the elements.

~~~
TheAdamAndChe
This has always been the case, popular shows and movies always tend to reflect
the culture at the time. During the 50's and 60's, the bad guy in every movie
was Russian. Vampire and plague movies became popular during the recession to
ride the general feeling of unease and lack of control. Now with only a
specific demographic watching TV nowadays, of course shows will reflect that
group more than others.

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quantumhobbit
This sounds like something out of SiliconValley the tv show. Specifically the
aquihiring of startups and churning through the tech teams and hoping the next
aquihired team builds better tech, when the problem is likely not tech in the
first place.

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smitherfield
I'm a millennial and this is the first I've even heard of it, which doesn't
bode well for them.

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ocschwar
If they keep assuming that millennials are frivolous consumers, they're going
to keep losing money.

~~~
alpeb
Given the popularity of frivolous media, ain't most people just frivolous
consumers?

~~~
ocschwar
Totally. It's just that the notion that millenials are more frivolous because
they don't buy cars and big houses seems so predominant in people's minds.

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vwcx
Sometimes you have to spend $200 million to get a 2000 word "news story" about
your product.

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dmix
Strange, I'm from Canada and I've never heard of go90. Is it another American
only service?

Edit: yep, "US only", two years after launching... we're one of the best
consumers of Netflix like services because of silly licensing deals. Netflix
made a big deal about launching their streaming service in Canada and did it
promptly.

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bertlequant
I remember applying to Verizon when I was still in school. I had to give up
because their application kept throwing readable database errors and wouldn't
let me continue to the subsequent pages. Weeks later, one of their recruiters
contacted me and asked if I wanted to finish my application. I said no.

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fl0wenol
I don't understand the logic of the original vision at all. You have Netflix
for Hollywood and TV, Youtube for more independent stuff, Crunchyroll for
anime, Amazon maybe for stragglers, and Twitch for livestreams. And Hulu was
there. And so on.

There isn't room for another general purpose video platform icon on someone's
home screen. That's not a great strategy.

It was a mistake to not find the niche like live sports from the very
beginning and building the campaign/strategy around that. Then drive that
wedge open.

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everdev
As a soccer fan, the service is great as it has live La Liga games for free.
They have some Mythbusters episodes too. The original content they try to push
looks awful though.

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irq-1
Why didn't they make a video calling app and go after Skype? They're a phone
company making a video centric, mobile app. Make it open and everywhere with
easy no/low cost usage... oh, right, it's Verizon. They have to own it all and
monopolize it from hardware to software to network to content to...

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Shivetya
Success is simple Verizon. Deliver me good phone, text, and data, at
reasonable rates. You are not doing that now. Extra services are meaningless
if your not competitive on your core offerings.

~~~
seanp2k2
ISPs fear being dumb pipes. They want "additional revenue channels" like
selling profiles on their subscribers to advertisers, or better yet,
vertically integrating with advertisers. Look at everything ISPs do and how
badly they don't want to be water or power or sewer companies like they should
be, especially given how few choices there are in a given physical location
(for wired ISPs). With this FCC chair and political climate, however, I doubt
we'll see change any time soon.

