Sources: Verizon in advanced talks to buy Jason Kilar's mobile video startup Vessel, which is working on new Snapchat-like product
Peter Kafka / Recode :
Context & Ripple Effects
Verizon has been assembling a mobile-video business piece by piece since early 2015, when it first approached AOL about an acquisition or joint venture to strengthen its mobile-video offerings, then locked in an AwesomenessTV original-content deal for its digital video service. Buying Vessel — which launched its beta Android app as a subscription video startup last year — adds the missing layer: engineering talent and a working short-form product.
The reported target here is not Vessel's subscriber base but its technology and team, including co-founder Jason Kilar, the former Hulu chief. The report that Vessel is prototyping a Snapchat-like product signals Verizon wants a vertical-video format for its carrier-distributed app, not another subscription catalog.
First-order effects
- Jason Kilar and the Vessel team would move inside Verizon, giving the carrier an experienced consumer-video engineering group it has lacked despite the AOL and RYOT acquisitions.
Second-order effects
- Verizon's existing mobile streaming service Go90 becomes the likely landing spot for Vessel's tech, putting the carrier in direct format competition with Snapchat for the same short-form video audience.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, carriers will keep buying early-stage media startups primarily for teams and code rather than products — treating social-video formats as infrastructure to be absorbed into telco-owned apps rather than standalone services.
The trend: Telecom carriers are assembling mobile-video platforms through serial acquisitions of startups and studios rather than building the capability in-house.