Do you remember that once upon a time, there was an app named VEON Yes! You guessed right. I’m talking about the “VEON” a multimedia app ‘for free’ which was launched with collaboration of Jazz in Pakistan to become the hub of all internet activities in Pakistan.
At one time, “VEON” was trending at number one on top charts at Play Store in the third week of its launch. Moreover, the app already had 1 million installs, which was absolutely an overwhelming response.
But, with the passage of time doubling the users to 2 million, it slipped to below the ranking when 26% of the total (12,023) customers gave rating of 3 or below.
Isn’t strange that an app that was trending at number 1 with millions of installs suddenly goes out of the scene? On the other hand, the company refused to share details of engagement and what happened to its retention rate.
It seems that one year ago jazz was looking for new revenue streams for quite some time to handle stagnation in revenues and declining profitability. So, they launched VEON where users can make multiple online activities even they have zero credit on the SIM. Whether the app was ‘free’ or paid, it’s another debate right now the question is where’s the all hype gone?
With this much money spending, what was the end results?
The company had spent more than $100 million as part of the launch evident enough a money-spinning launch ceremony in Lahore. Moreover, it has run a nationwide ad campaign and lots of favors to all those downloading the VEON app.
To lure more users to its app at that time, jazz offered free nuggets pack from McDonald’s, Rs3000 worth of credit for shopping at ChenOne, a high-end chain of fashion and home accessories etc.
And in Jazz’s CEO Aamir Ibrahim’s own words, the company is not worried about how much money goes into achieving that target. Well, it doesn’t make sense, does it?
At one side we saw lots of money spending on the promotion of single app, On the other hand, company had fired many employees and the management of Jazz-Warid closed more than 200 franchises.
According to sources, some 60 to 70 people were associated with each franchise. So, a large number of people lost their jobs. And no one is there to ask the management about the issue?
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Jazz tried to make VEON a personal internet platform for users to do everything with just a few taps without ever having to leave the app. But, as we all saw the company totally failed to achieve the target.
The company claimed that it’s not a single app like WhatsApp but a personal internet platform to perform almost everything using one’s mobile phone such as cellular bill payments, news feeds and self-serving mobile top ups.
In addition, 3 million active JazzCash users can use it for peer-to-peer and business payments as a mobile wallet. They can shop, pay utility bills and make various other payments from within the app ‘for free’.
Jazz had taken big risk when it bet on creating an engagement platform since it had need much work to do in order to strike a chord with public. Hence, all claims of the company turned toward failure of the app.
What were the reasons behind VEON’s failure?
There were many reasons behind this failure and one of them VEON was not a localized app.They spent huge money and got millions of downloads, but then they faded away because they tried to replicate an app in the Pakistani market.
Moreover, the app also has some bugs and glitches, as many users reviewed it on its Facebook page and Play store.
In a nutshell, if Jazz has pulled it off, it could have radically affected more industries than one can imagine but the company failed to achieve the target.
Once upon a time there was VEON (for free) by Jazz
Jazz which is the local partner of VEON needs to understand that apart from monetize traffic; there is a lack of content on the app to engage users. Furthermore, the market is still far from ready for such an aggressive move.
