RIP Quibi

[Anderton]

And you might not even know what it was. Talk about a $1.75 billion dollar flash in the pan.

 

The lesson is: Don't invest in solutions in search of a problem. If a problem doesn't exist, no one's interested in a solution.

[spokenward]

My theory on Quibi was that it was a vehicle for participating in future copyrights and development deals. That would explain the Katzenberg / Whitman executive masthead.

 

from Variety Sept 21, 2020

Notably, Quibi doesn"t own any of the content on its service: It has seven-year licenses on its short-form series (and after two years, content owners have the right to assemble the shows and distribute them elsewhere).

 

They missed on the subscriber target because they picked the wrong mobile audience. In three years they will claim that they could have been TikTok.

[Anderton]

They missed on the subscriber target because they picked the wrong mobile audience. In three years they will claim that they could have been TikTok.

 

Do you think there was any mobile audience that wanted to look at short featurettes with big stars on a mobile phone, and pay for the privilege?

[spokenward]

Can I attempt a truism? I think subscription models are all failures up until the time that they aren't. There are plenty of failures but eventually something catches on. I think the plan was to provide a lightweight showcase platform. In the same way that the music business has an oversupply of production and content, the barriers to entry in the film business are reduced by technology. The plan was to tease out invention and stories.

 

The focus on mobile only was a pretty basic mistake. I'd be curious where that started. A waiting room? A basketball game? An airport bus? A subway?

[MAJUSCULE]

Doomed from the start.

[Joe Muscara]

 

(I'm not teasing you this time, Eric!)

 

If a millennial tells you that your new tech is doomed, you're very doomed. Who else would have adopted a mobile-only video service designed to be on the go? I'm picturing a bunch of Boomers sitting around a conference table talking about how "the kids, they'll love this!!"

[Greg Mein]

invest in solutions in search of a problem.

 

 

Oooh man, this sums up corporate America!!

[Notes_Norton]

I never heard of Quibi until you mentioned it. I had to look it up.

 

I'm not a fan of subscription services anyway. I know it means constant cash flow for a corporation, but it doesn't work for me.

 

I buy music and want to keep it. I started with LPs, got a couple of cassettes for the car and decided it was better tape LPs, then CDs, now when I buy and download, I keep on a flash drive and when I have enough, burn to CD.

 

For movies, I rent DVDs in the mail from Netflix. I'm on the two-at-a-time plan because I don't watch them that often.

 

I do subscribe to the local newspaper on-line, I of course have an ISP as well as a web host and shopping cart subscription, and a few other things.

 

I have no desire to watch a movie on my phone. Something that is made for the big screen shrunk to the size of a postage stamp doesn't make it for me.

 

There is more than one right way to do this.

 

Notes

[Mike Rivers]

What's Quibi? While I"m not one to make or break a product, from the comments here I'm sure there isn't any reason for me to be interested in it at all. And odd as I am, there are a lot of others like me.

[Anderton]

I'm picturing a bunch of Boomers sitting around a conference table talking about how "the kids, they'll love this!!"

 

I bet your picture is probably correct. It's clear that more and more information/content is being "consumed" on mobile devices, and that the younger the demographic, the more it skews toward mobile. I design my eBooks so that they're compatible with viewing on phones and tablets; it's common for people to download tech-oriented eBooks, put them on a tablet, and have them "open" while they learn their way around something on a computer.

 

But I think the disconnect in the case of Quibi was thinking that the mobile-only demographic wanted the kind of content they were putting out. TikTok and YouTube should have shown them what content makes the cut for the mobile generation. If it had been free, it might have stood a chance...but I doubt it.