Quibi Is Shutting Down (wsj.com) 60
Quibi is considering shutting itself down, WSJ reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, a move that points to a possible crash landing for a once-highflying entertainment startup that raised $1.75 billion in capital. From the report: The streaming service has been plagued with problems since it launched in April, facing lower-than-expected viewership, disappointing download numbers and a lawsuit from a well-capitalized foe. The service is aimed at mobile viewers, but the coronavirus pandemic forced would-be subscribers away from the kinds of on-the-go situations Quibi executives envisioned for its users. Quibi attracted blue-chip advertisers including Pepsi, Walmart and Anheuser-Busch, securing about $150 million in ad revenue in the run-up to its launch. Those deals came under strain earlier this year amid lower-than-expected viewership for Quibi's shows, prompting advertisers to defer their payments. In recent weeks, Quibi hired a restructuring firm to evaluate its options, the people said. The firm recommended the options to the board of directors this week, laying out a list of options that included shutting the company down. Update: 10/21 19:44 GMT: The Information is reporting that Quibi has decided to shut down. From the report: The closure is a stunning end to Katzenberg's hopes of creating a new category of video entertainment, short programs of a few minutes in length that could be watched on the go. Katzenberg, a former Disney executive who later helped start DreamWorks, raised nearly $2 billion to finance Quibi. Among the backers were most of the major Hollywood studios, Google, Alibaba and the Madrone Capital Partners. Quibi scheduled calls with investors and employees on Wednesday afternoon to deliver the news.
Such bullshit that on the go would have saved them (Score:5, Insightful)
The service is aimed at mobile viewers, but the coronavirus pandemic forced would-be subscribers away from the kinds of on-the-go situations Quibi executives envisioned for its users.
This lie keeps being repeated; I wish they would stop making excuses for a bad idea by blaming it on people being at home more.
A) If the service were compelling, why would people not want to watch at home between chores or after meals, or as a small break from work?
B) In fact people are still by and large on-the-go, or has whoever wrote this not tried to drive anywhere lately? Plenty of people are out and about. More than enough to support the company - if anyone wanted to use it, which they do not.
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Agreed. Half the time I'm streaming something, it's to a small device in the kitchen while cooking or in the shower.
The other half is to a console attached to TV.
It looks like a content problem to me.
The only thing worth watching on Quibi looks to be Reno 911. Everything else is just a bunch of garbage shows.
They need shows and movies people know and love to bring them to the platform.
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Yeah , I know someone that subscribed and the content sucked .. I lots watch lots of stuff on my phone .. much of the time it's 10-15 min at a clip .. fire up netflix watch .. pause and then next time resume where I left off .. difference is Netflix has stuff I want to watch ... The service's content sucked ... that was the problem... COVID had literally nothing to do with it. We would be having the same discussion if COVID never happened. The 'genius' CEO would have find a another scapeg
Re: Such bullshit that on the go would have saved (Score:2)
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The service's content sucked ... that was the problem...
Maybe. Reno 911 was good but I have no clue what else might have been there because the stupid mobile-only platform was one I was never going to subscribe to.
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The service's content sucked ... that was the problem...
Maybe. Reno 911 was good but I have no clue what else might have been there because the stupid mobile-only platform was one I was never going to subscribe to.
Wait, it was mobile ONLY?
That's even dumber than I thought. Why would I pay for streaming that wouldn't also let me use my TV or computer?
Re: (Score:2)
It was never about content, that is not why they invested billions. It was all about 50% content and 50% advertisements and much of that so called content, actually advertisements and that was what was sold to the psychopathically greedy and they could not resist. A near continuous advertisement service that gullible idiots would want to watch, suckers. Only very few did and it died. They tried to take the YouTube model one step further and failed, because YouTube is already suffering for trying to do the s
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I opened a video on YouTube yesterday, and it was 11 minutes long. Two ads before it started. Then two more about a minute or two in. Craziness! Then another around six minutes. I closed it.
On my machine at home, I have ads blocked. I didn't realize how bad it had gotten without ad blocking.
Re: Such bullshit that on the go would have saved (Score:2)
Re:Such bullshit that on the go would have saved t (Score:5, Insightful)
I was going to say the same thing. COVID had literally nothing to do with the failure of this service.
It was a totally stupid idea by people who have no concept of what younger people want and no idea what makes things popular. This was an exercise at throwing away money. Many, many people stated this when it was announced. The fact that they got $1.75B for an obviously stupid idea should cause everyone to reevaluate how they pick ideas to fund, since this was 100% hype and no actual hope of success. They believe their own lies, which must have been very compelling likely ending with "Profit!!"
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This was an exercise at throwing away money.
No, this was an exercise in stealing money.
Take a couple billion from investors
Skim off some for yourself
. . .
Profit!!
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No, this was money laundering.
Professor Jack Horner (Score:3)
Quibi showed up with fees preventing critical mass of subscribers from joining, lacked a disruptive feature, and could easily have been mimicked by any other p
Re:Such bullshit that on the go would have saved t (Score:5, Insightful)
The service is aimed at mobile viewers, but the coronavirus pandemic forced would-be subscribers away from the kinds of on-the-go situations Quibi executives envisioned for its users.
This lie keeps being repeated; I wish they would stop making excuses for a bad idea by blaming it on people being at home more.
A) If the service were compelling, why would people not want to watch at home between chores or after meals, or as a small break from work?
B) In fact people are still by and large on-the-go, or has whoever wrote this not tried to drive anywhere lately? Plenty of people are out and about. More than enough to support the company - if anyone wanted to use it, which they do not.
The fact that short video services like TikTok and (to a lesser extent) Youtube are still doing pretty well with the pandemic also argues that the short video format is popular. It could just be that Quibi sucks.
Perfect example (Score:1)
The fact that short video services like TikTok
I had thought of YouTube but I didn't think of TikTok in particular but that is the perfect example, since it's almost always very short form content where lots of YouTube videos can be longer than 10 min.
As you say TikTok is doing great so people being at home should be no limit to Quibi.
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The fact that short video services like TikTok
I had thought of YouTube but I didn't think of TikTok in particular but that is the perfect example, since it's almost always very short form content where lots of YouTube videos can be longer than 10 min.
As you say TikTok is doing great so people being at home should be no limit to Quibi.
Yeah, my wife'll sit at home on her phone for an hour or 2, just scrolling through tiktok, especially before bed. Seems like that would be a perfect target for a short 5-10 minute video service.
Re: Perfect example (Score:2)
Tiktok killed Quibi. As simple as that.
Why cater to a 10-minute attention span when people have less of an attention span than a goldfish?
Same thing that makes Twitter so popular.
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Quibi thought people would pay $4.99/month for something they can pretty much get for free or get better from another paid provider.
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That price point even includes ads.
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>Why cater to a 10-minute attention span when people have less of an attention span than a goldfish?
It's true. TikTok has diminished my attenti
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The fact that short video services like TikTok and (to a lesser extent) Youtube are still doing pretty well
Here's the other thing that doesn't get brought up enough: Quibi's "short form" videos are more like YouTube videos in that they're 7-10 minutes in length. TikTok's videos are pretty much all seconds to maybe a minute.
7-10 minutes is not a "short video" that you watch on your phone. 7-10 minutes is a short YouTube video you watch on your laptop. Can you imagine trying to hold your phone in front of your face for 7 minutes straight? Why would you do that? Why would you want to do that? (And if you're not doi
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We don't agree on much SuperKendall but we sure agree on this. Dumb idea from the git-go and the failure has nothing to do with the pandemic.
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Yeah, heaven forbid a capitalist should actually have to lose money when their business fails. Losing money is for peons, so we will find a way to make the peons pay. Maybe with another "bailout" that just hands cash to whoever made the biggest campaign donations. Too well-connected to fail, amiright?
Re: (Score:1)
The service is aimed at mobile viewers, but the coronavirus pandemic forced would-be subscribers away from the kinds of on-the-go situations Quibi executives envisioned for its users.
This lie keeps being repeated; I wish they would stop making excuses for a bad idea by blaming it on people being at home more.
A) If the service were compelling, why would people not want to watch at home between chores or after meals, or as a small break from work?
B) In fact people are still by and large on-the-go, or has whoever wrote this not tried to drive anywhere lately? Plenty of people are out and about. More than enough to support the company - if anyone wanted to use it, which they do not.
Sure it's a lie, noone wanted to use it, that's it !
Don't force mobile only, let people show it on tv! (Score:2)
As for content
legends of the hidden temple reboot is likely dead / not even made.
The Fugitive time format sucks for it.
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The death of this service is that it attacked its most ardent users, the ones who generated content to promote the service. They were sued and became enemies.
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I liked the fugitive remake. That said, I downloaded it and watched on a TV with a program that autostarted the next episode.
I can't imagine watching an action series like this on a phone.
Still Growing To New Platforms (Score:2)
The next step (Score:5, Insightful)
The next step is to borrow $100 million to give out as executive retention bonuses to help manage the transition.
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Yeah they already paid probably tens of millions of dollars to a consulting firm to come in and state the obvious "you are circling the drain"
Shocking outcome (Score:1)
No one could have anticipated this crash and burn. Certainly not from the initial pitch.
On the positive side-- they've outlasted the Microsoft Kin by orders of magnitude.
TV Is Dead (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
You're not sure why people would watch stuff that gets pumped out by: The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Time Warner, Viacom, eOne, Lionsgate, or MGM?
Why not just come out and say that you don't understand people in the slightest?
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You're not sure why people would watch stuff that gets pumped out by: The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Time Warner, Viacom, eOne, Lionsgate, or MGM?
Why not just come out and say that you don't understand people in the slightest?
I don't understand people in the slightest. TV shows are all pure trash now, and I have no interest in sports.
aww (Score:2)
I liked (in alphabetical order):
#FreeRayshawn
Die Hart
Don't Look Deeper
Dummy
Flipped
Hello America
Mapleworth Murders
Memory Hole
Nice One!
Thanks A Million
The Fugitive
Wireless
Each season amounts to about a single episode of normal TV, and it was a 2 week free trial. I knocked out 13 "episodes", or all of those "seasons" in that time.
Taking it at their no-ads price of $14.99, I wouldn't think it would be worth it unless there was at least 4-6 new "seasons" each month that I wanted to watch... and even
Re:revenue (Score:1)
My wife paid for one month but only because she forgot to cancel during the free trial.
I wonder what Apple TV+ numbers will look like once people actually have to pay. I was about to cancel but then they extended the trial.
Re: (Score:2)
My wife paid for one month but only because she forgot to cancel during the free trial.
I wonder if she lied, you don't have to give your credit card until you sign up for the paid plan :-P
Re: aww (Score:2)
So obvious it's not even patentable, and with prior art.
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You don't need two sensors to crop one big square into two smaller rectangles.
Chapter 11 filing be readable in portrait mode (Score:2)
Not really sure if (Score:2)
Will the content be sold to others? (Score:2)
Will the content be sold to others?
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Yep... this seems to be a cash bankruptcy with plenty of IP assets. Seems like the shows will be returned to the producers, and some other site will set up with a more viable model.
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I'm getting my information second hand, and I don't care enough to verify this, but I was told that Quibi paid for its shows under a two-year exclusivity license rather than permanent owership. And that Quibi tried to sell rights to Amazon / Netflix / etc., but were turned down. Meaning that the rights will be auctioned off in bankruptcy, and even if no one buys them then the sh
With that kind of track record... (Score:2)
understandable.. (Score:2)
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What this really means is that none of the producers made something to fit the format. They produced the same old thing and chopped it into pieces. It was a terrible format, but if Netflix picked up streaming rights I might watch a handful. A lot of money got blown on it, so there's bound to be a few good pieces.
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What this really means is that none of the producers made something to fit the format.
Actually most of them did. The only one I saw that didn't really fit was The Fugitive. They chopped that one up about the same as circa 2005 broadcast/cable TV, with commercials every 8 minutes, BUT with only 15 second commercials rather than the usual 2-5 minutes on broadcast/cable tv. Oh, and only 1 episode a season. :-P
I remember those ads (Score:2)
Their advertising was to use a bunch of random made up words and it didn't even try to pitch the product idea.
At the time I was wondering how long they can actually burn through money before they shut down. Even better, no one will actually know what they are trying to sale until after those doors are closed.
Now, I know what their product was and I'm not surprised it was doomed.
Quibi? (Score:2)
Quibi?
More like Quiti!
boomer product (Score:2, Troll)
When was the last time you heard of a kickass tech product being launched into a competitive market... by founders that are 63 and 69?
Quibi may as well have had "how do you do fellow kids" as a tagline.
Stupid idea fails (Score:2)
Which, honestly, makes a nice change.
Quibi who? (Score:2)
Good riddance, we hardly knew ye!
TOD List update (Score:2)
Crossing out "find out what Quibi is"