Quibi is Shutting down After Just Six Months

In April this year amidst the coronavirus pandemic, American film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and quondam eBay CEO Million Whitman launched short-form mobile streaming service Quibi. At present, within but half-dozen months of operation, the company has announced its plans to shut down the service.

In an open up letter to the brand'southward employees, investors, and partners, Quibi said 'it has considered and exhausted every option available'. The mail further mentions how it built a talented team and partnered with creators in Hollywood to produce original content for the platform.

Quibi believes its reason for failure is considering the 'idea itself wasn't strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service' or due to the timing in which the visitor launched the service. In addition, Quibi admits it was not able to find a style through the unprecedented challenges caused due to the pandemic.

"Nosotros have reluctantly come to the hard determination to air current down the business, return greenbacks to our shareholders, and say goodbye to our colleagues with grace. We want you to know nosotros did not give up on this thought without a fight," reads the announcement mail.

Part of the reason why Quibi failed is that it never really offered a free ad-supported tier, a strategy several companies apply when they are only starting out. Although Quibi offered a generous 90-twenty-four hours trial, the collective user retention was poor due to the premium pricing. Admission to Quibi cost $iv.99 with ads and $vii.99 without ads in the U.S., while the advertizement-free selection was priced at Rs.669 per month here in India.

Quibi did not mention when exactly its current subscribers volition lose access to the service. Meanwhile, the company is planning to sell its avails over the coming months, including the underlying engineering science platform and original content produced thus far.