After six months of operations, Quibi — the shortform mobile-focused streaming service — is shutting down, breaking the record as the shortest-lived streaming service in history. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company has confirmed and said that;
“We feel that we’ve exhausted all our options. As a result, we have reluctantly come to the difficult decision to wind down the business, return cash to our shareholders, and say goodbye to our colleagues with grace,”
Quibi’s downfall was due to several factors which include:
- Their launch of a mobile-only streaming service at the height of a global pandemic when users were stuck at home
- There was no real breakout content that was compelling enough to tempt subscribers
- Shortform video content has a nearly infinite amount of free competition in the form of YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms.
But Quibi itself is attributing this demise to that fact that “the idea itself wasn’t strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service or because of our timing.” The company will be notifying current subscribers as to the final date that they’ll be able to access Quibi.
ALSO READ: Quibi wants to be Netflix for your phone.
Quibi launched with two plans: $4.99 (with ads) or UGX 30k |$7.99 (ad free). The company sought to distinguish itself by focusing exclusively on mobile devices at launch, complete with an innovative system where each show was filmed and edited in both portrait and landscape formats, allowing it to be viewed in any orientation on a smartphone. There was no free option, outside of a lengthy 3-month free trial.
According to app tracking firm Sensor Tower back in July claimed that Quibi lost over 90 percent of its subscribers after the initial three-month trial ran out, with just 72,000 of its roughly 910,000 users who had signed up at launch sticking around as paid customers.
