Why Quibi REALLY Failed - A Deep Dive into a Bizarre Story

0:00 remember quibby the streaming service that promised to revolutionize how we watch videos on our phones it was supposed to be the next big thing backed by Hollywood heavyweights and boasting bite-sized content that would fit perfectly into our busy lives but just 6 months after its launch quibby folded like a cheap suit leaving investors creators and viewers scratching their heads what happened well quibby is shutting down 6 months after launching its short form streaming service in this

0:28 video I'll reveal the my behind quibby spectacular implosion explore those very factors that led to its downfall and answer why it failed to capture the hearts and minds of consumers so stay tuned until the end and don't forget to subscribe first quibby the short form streaming platform burst into the scenes in 2020 flaunting a revolutionary idea entertainment tailored for our smartphone obsessed lives imagine highquality bite-size content that fits

0:59 neatly into our hectic daily routines with industry stalwarts Jeffrey kenberg and Meg Whitman at the helm quibby got a mission to Captivate our attention spans increasingly fractured by the chaos of modern living their unique mechanism was quick slick videos each about 10 minutes long primed for those fleeting moments in our busy schedules however despite its promising Beginnings K's trajectory sharply turned downward I'll discuss the core reasons for it shutdown later in the video before for that let's rewind a

1:31 bit to its glamorous debut history back in August 2018 Jeffrey kenberg and Meg Whitman got together to start a mobile streaming platform originally named new TV they jazzed it up and rebranded it as quibby in October 2018 this platform was all about short Snappy 10-minute episodes they called them quick bites the name quibby itself well it came from Quick bites pretty pretty clever word play right now these people weren't playing

2:03 around when it came to getting cash they hit up everyone major film studios TV networks tech companies Banks basically anyone with pockets deep enough to invest a cool billion dollars into their project Disney Fox NBC Sony you name it they were on it fast forward to 2019 quibby was prepping for its big debut in April 2020 they had their marketing game on point even securing investments from BBC Studios by the end of that year they already sold out all of their ad spots

2:34 for the first year pocketing a whopping 150 million not bad at all considering it was all just gearing up then in 2020 they hit the Consumer Electronics Show with all of their grand plans showcasing their content Tech stuff in Partnerships they even struck a deal with the Canadian Telecom giant BCE you know the people behind CTV News and TSN yeah those guys they were going to cook up some Canadian news and sports content exclusively for quibby plus b Mobility

3:06 was all set to be qu's main marketing buddy up north it was like they had the recipe for Success star studded investors bundles of cash and Partnerships Galore but as the curtains lifted for the big Premiere in April of 2020 things didn't quite go as planned a great but not so great launch quibby bursts onto the scene on April 6 2020 strutting at stuff in the United States States and Canada it spread its wings into the United Kingdom Ireland

3:33 Australia and Germany offering an adree version of the app on launch day itself people were curious it shot up the app store ranks making it to number three with about 300,000 downloads setting off some positive Buzz people were loving the shows great reviews claps and all that jazz but then here's the twist people weren't thrilled about the whole pay as you watch on your phone only situation I mean and come on when YouTube and Tik Tok are doing their

4:02 thing for free it's tough to sell a pay-per-view kind of deal right a week later quby was nowhere to be found among the top 50 most downloaded free iPhone apps in the US it had a rough Landing chilling around the 125th spot by early May censor Tower said hey 2.9 Million people installed the app well quibby was playing it cool with 3.5 million but only 1.3 million decided to stick around to to watch the show kenberg one of the

4:32 quibby bigwigs had to admit they didn't exactly set the world on fire blaming it on the pandemic he said hey the virus messed with our grand plans on the other hand Whitman another big cheese at quibby was keeping her head high seeing some Silver Linings in the cloud realizing they needed a serious makeover quibby started letting users share content on social media they also added the Nifty feature of watching shows on bigger screens not just squinting at

5:00 your phone now you could sling shows from your phone to your TV using AirPlay or chomecast giving your eyes a break from the tiny screen they even invented their own screenshotting thing ofama jig June rolled around and suddenly quibby was taking drastic measures like cutting exec paychecks voluntarily despite their struggle they were still fishing for subscribers targeting 2 million by year end way off from their dreamy 7.4 million goal after that they dished out a free ad supported version down under

5:31 in August then in October quibby leveled up joining the big leagues by landing on Apple TV Amazon Fire TV and Google TV but things started to look shaky news broke that quibby was flirting with the idea of a sugar daddy an acquirer or perhaps even going public by merging with a shell Corporation they were waving around $200 million hoping to make it rain but the future for this Snappy video platform seemed anything but but certain according to the gossip

6:01 Mill at the Wall Street Journal quibby goofed up a bit they misjudged what young people would fancy watching and burn cash on ads like it was going out of style maybe they just overdid it trying too hard to be the Talk of the Town the funniest part is that quibi's blunder became comedy material I mean seriously it became a sitcom joke in one episode of royal crackers they couldn't resist poking fun at quibi's misfortunes from Hollywood dreams to sitcom

6:28 punchlines in a FL Flash the unfortunate shutdown 6 months after its debut quibby faced the final curtain call on October 21st 20120 as the Wall Street Journal spilled the beans about its imminent closure the big wigs kattenburg and Whitman later verified the news pulling the plug on the whole shebang speaking to deadline Hollywood kenberg bluntly said let's not pour more money down this sinkhole it won't change the thing we'd just be burning cash without results he

6:58 pointed fingers at the pen mic as part of The Misfortune when word got out it was like a scene from a suspense flick the fate of all the shows in the pipeline hung in the air to the short form streaming service quibby the startup is shutting down those in the works those Half Baked and those just ideas scribbled on napkins why well quibby didn't own any of its original shows nope none the creators kept their baby shows and had the freedom to shop

7:26 them around in a few years time leaving quibby and the Lurch the shutdown news hit hard and quibby set its date with Destiny on or around December 1st it was a premature finale for a platform that aimed high but stumbled in the race facing the harsh reality of the streaming World reasons for disastrous downfall now let's investigate some shocking reasons for the horrible downfall of quibby I'll reveal the most horrible yet unbelievable one that I'm

7:56 pretty sure you'll agree with if you ever got the chance to use its subscription so stick around to learn from qu's mistakes lots of confusion at the top of qu's hierarchy there were some serious issues before it even took off whitmann and katzenberg the dynamic duo supposed to lead the charge had their own battles Brewing Whitman contemplated exiting her CEO role because she felt katzenberg was too domineering undermining her Authority and frankly not being the best office

8:27 buddy according to the Wall Street Journal things were pretty Rocky between them to add to the mess neither Whitman or kenberg quite grasped the modern phone user or understood what the streaming crowd craved they seemed oblivious to the reasons behind the Roaring success of platforms like Tik Tok and Netflix in a world where understanding your audience is everything qu's top brass appear to be scratching their heads it's like trying to steer a ship in choppy Waters when

8:58 the captain's themselves can't agree on the direction poor marketing strategies qu's marketing was as scarce as water in the desert do you remember seeing an ad for quibby while scrolling through TV channels or scrolling your Instagram or Tik Tok feeds chances are you didn't the platform's advertising game was notoriously poor there was this high-priced Super Bowl commercial that aired ages before quibby even hit the screens which ended up being more confusing than clarifying on what quibby

9:28 was and after that silence no buzz on Tik Tok Instagram Twitter or Facebook it's like they threw a party but forgot to send out invitations the struggle with qu's marketing was real they had a bunch of shows some costing a fortune but it felt like they were hiding them under a rock that's why most of the world didn't even know they existed qu's price was too high for its own good qu's price tag was never Justified for what

9:57 it delivered five bucks a month for what I can only describe as meh entertainment or a splurging $8 if you wanted to dodge the ads talk about a tough sell why pay for that when the internet is bursting with freebies on Tik Tok and YouTube and twitch and let's not forget the juicy shows and movies everyone's already binging on Netflix Amazon and Disney plus it left quibby feeling like the pricey side dish that didn't quite complement the main course they did a

10:25 last minute hustle with a free tier with ads in a aala and New Zealand but let's be real at that point it was like showing up fashionably late to a party that was already wrapping up the competition was already light years ahead people were already investing in streaming subscriptions or having a blast with free online content qu's fee was a tough sell especially when you had so much quality stuff just a click away at no extra charge quibby ignored the

10:54 power of memes do you know where quibby missed the bus in embracing the meme game seriously the only quibby clip that went viral was recorded by someone else on another phone when quibby kicked off it didn't even allow screenshots or sharing clips from its shows no share no care right without these basic sharing features it was like shouting into the void let's face it the big shots steering quibby probably missed the memo on the future of entertainment

11:22 especially on mobile devices it's not just about what you watch it's about being able to share remix and create content from what you watch throwing it out onto your Social Circles like confetti that's how stuff gets buzzing how things go viral quibby didn't quite clock that social element and in today's entertainment scene it's almost as important as the content itself quibby failed to produce quality shows quibby shows were like a bag of mixed nuts and unfortunately most were just well

11:54 terrible I mean it's basic if you want the audience to dish out cash you better serve up some quality stuff but qu's lineup felt more like they raided The Bargain Bin at a studio garage sale Kats andberg and Whitman threw in over a billion dollars for aess Hollywood names and top Studios yet the content felt more like it came straight out of a comedy sketch from 30 Rock they had these daily Essentials meant to keep you

12:19 in the loop with updates and Recaps but it was like YouTube Deja Vu you could get the same stuff and honestly better for free on YouTube that's a hard sell can you even name more than a handful of quibby Originals Wireless die heart survive hello Echo nothing exactly the only one that sticks in my head is murder unboxed which never even saw the light to day simply put nothing about quibby shows left a mark it's like they

12:48 vanished Into Thin Air what other mistakes do you think quibby made do let me know in the comment section below and don't forget to subscribe see you in the upcoming video