For everyone, 2020 was a year of surprises beyond measure. For the video conferencing industry, 2020 was the year of a promise realized—the promise that video would transform the way we meet, communicate, collaborate and get work done.

 

With so many organizations enabling remote work policies for their employees seemingly overnight, the use of video conferencing and collaboration tools soared at the start of the pandemic and remains strong today.

 

This is not to say video conferencing wasn’t already a staple on the CIO watchlist. But while communication and collaboration tools were being integrated into the enterprise as a part of larger digital transformation initiatives, the pandemic turbocharged the need for every organization—large and small—around the world to have a unified communication strategy in place that would enable remote work.

 

For years, we talked about widespread remote work as being the “future of work.” And while we would gladly do away with the extenuating circumstances that brought us here, we have been amazed by some of the truly remarkable ways our customers have been able to use our platform to uplift, educate, entertain, and drive real engagement—virtually. Such as this creative campaign HBO Max activated to promote their new show The Flight Attendant by staging a virtual coffee making class turned murder mystery event. Or this event the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center (MTCC) hosted as a way to safely celebrate Juneteenth—attracting 20,000 viewers from 23 different countries and 35 US states.

 

Our technology was used to stream major publicity events, such as the Virgin Hyperloop test that made history for being the inaugural manned trip in a hyperloop pod—a technology that will eventually become mainstream as a means for high-speed, mass transportation (think travelling from San Francisco to Los Angeles in approximately 30 minutes!).

 

The use cases that we saw emerge as a result of the pandemic are a testament to the power of video to bring people together to get work done. And people found they really can get work done from home—even despite ‘video fatigue’ and having to balance other roles such as stay-at-home parent and teacher.

 

In fact, many of you would like to continue working from home. When asked about preferences for future work scenarios in our recent Productivity and Culture survey, 75.4 percent of respondents agree that they would be satisfied with a full-time WFH situation. Imagine that!

 

BlueJeans by Verizon

We started off 2020 achieving the important financial milestone of profitability and our 10th year of successive revenue growth during the fiscal year that ended January 31, 2020.

 

BlueJeans customers, whether SMB, Mid-Market, or Enterprise, have one common goal when it comes to their video conferencing requirements: they want to have the most productive meetings possible. In 2020, our customers hosted more than 100 million meetings and spent more than 14 billion minutes on the platform.

 

As if 2020 wasn’t already busy enough, it was also the year we became a part of Verizon —joining the $30B Verizon Business Group in May of this year.

 

The Verizon partnership made sense for a many reasons, including the telecom giant’s emphasis on culture and strong values. Verizon’s sheer brand weight and reach will allow BlueJeans to grow into new markets, something that was immediately realized in July when Verizon announced a strategic alliance with Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest integrated telecom company, to bring BlueJeans’ secure, world-class collaboration solutions to businesses in India.

 

Furthermore, as leaders in 5G, Verizon will enable BlueJeans customers to work even more productively by enabling more flexible and interactive experiences and the ability to seamlessly collaborate on the go using high-definition low latency video outside the office or home.

 

The business use case for 5G is already being realized. Now, by combining our trusted enterprise-grade video conferencing platform with Verizon’s high-performance global network, we will be able to accelerate product development to innovate secure and immersive collaboration experiences and enhance our offering in use cases like distance learning, field service and telemedicine.

 

Speaking of product innovation, the pandemic led to us pivoting our roadmap to focus even more so on delighting users in their virtual journey through new features for Meetings and Events, as well as through partner investments with the likes of Facebook (Portal) and LinkedIn (Messaging).

 

In 2020, we also invested heavily in healthcare innovation with our new Epic integration and HIPAA program. Using BlueJeans video conferencing for telehealth services, patient-to-family communication, internal collaboration, education and patient advisory boards, hospitals, healthcare and life sciences organizations are able to provide better remote care to help improve patient outcomes.

 

To all of our brave healthcare practitioners, military and other first responders aiding in the recovery of the COVID-19 pandemic, we thank you and we are here for you.

 

As we look ahead to 2021, we are excited for what’s in store. We will continue working together with Verizon to lead the growth and innovation of the business so that we can better serve you, our customers, now and into the future.

 

Happy New Year from all of us at BlueJeans by Verizon!