On Wednesday, May 5th, 2021, Verizon announced it was ceasing operations for its videoconferencing app, BlueJeans. The now-defunct app was acquired back in April of 2019 in a $400 million deal, part of Verizon’s efforts to become a major player in the growing videoconferencing industry.
BlueJeans was designed to be a comprehensive video conferencing platform for businesses. It promised features like secure call encryption, real-time meetings, and automatic transcription from spoken conversation. While these features initially drew interest, Verizon’s decision to shut down the app came after issues with reliability and customer service.
Verizon’s decision to cease operations of the BlueJeans app highlights the increased competitive landscape of videoconferencing apps. Many of the major players in this space have had trouble dealing with the larger companies, with competitors like Zoom and Microsoft Teams showing better performance and offer an overall better user experience for their customers.
Though Verizon has publically admitted that closing BlueJeans was an issue of market forces, the loss of the app nonetheless represents a major financial setback for the company. Driving away from BlueJeans cost Verizon a massive $334 million in operating income in 2020.
For BlueJeans customers, the news is particularly devastating. The company says it is suspending all services on May 31st, 2021 and refunding customers any unused funds from their accounts. The company has also said it will be deleting user data, though customers can request an archival of that data if need be.
It’s clear that the decision to shut down BlueJeans was not an easy one for Verizon to make. But given the current competitive landscape and financial losses associated with the videoconferencing industry, it will likely be some time before the company makes any further attempts to enter the market.
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