As Verizon Sunsets BlueJeans, Check if Your Product Has Durable Value Proposition

During the pandemic,  many business models evolved. But while some of those were pandemic-fit, most out of those models were not normal state-fit. In other words, that those businesses were doing well during the pandemic does not mean they have a chance post-pandemic.

One of those domains we witnessed was video calling service. Yes, when Zoom rose to the mountaintop, companies went and began shopping for clones where they were unable to develop such in-house. Verizon bought BlueJeans for $400 million. Today, BlueJeans has been frozen, and done. It was relevant during the pandemic, but has only limited value today because of competitions from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and others.

Verizon is officially shutting down its video calling service BlueJeans, just three years after acquiring the platform for $400 million. BlueJeans recently introduced free trials and a Basic plan in an attempt to better compete with rivals like Zoom, but a “changing market landscape” led Verizon to sunset the product, TechCrunch reports. Verizon bought BlueJeans at the peak of the pandemic, when widespread remote work fueled skyrocketing demand for virtual collaboration tools. That demand has since drastically waned as in-person work continues to pick up.

Here is the lesson: when you look at the long-term value of a product, you must check if that product has value, beyond any effervescence at the moment. In other words, can it transmute if customer preferences suddenly change.

Meanwhile, Google and Universal Music are exploring a way to license artists’ melodies and voices for AI-generated songs, notes LinkedIn News.

Google and Universal Music are discussing a potential deal to license artists’ melodies and voices for AI-generated songs, anonymous sources tell the Financial Times. Generative AI has already produced a wave of “deepfake” songs that mimic the voices of real artists, making it sound like, for example, Johnny Cash is singing “Barbie Girl.”The deepfakes are often made without the permission of the original artist; the Google-Universal deal would allow fans to create the songs legitimately, after paying the copyright owners for their use. Artists would be able to choose whether to opt in.Artist reaction to the use of AI has been mixed: rapper Drake recently called a song that mimicked his voice “the final straw,” while electronic dance artist Grimes offered to let creators use her voice and split the royalties. Warner Music is also reportedly in talks with Google to develop a similar product.

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