Update: Quibi confirms it’s shutting down. “It is with an incredibly heavy heart that today we are announcing that we are winding down the business and looking to sell its content and technology assets,” Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman chiefs wrote in a public letter Wednesday.
Back in April, a little more than six months ago, everyone at Quibi thought they had the next big thing on their hands. The infant streaming service had earned $1.75 billion in capital and promised to revolutionize how people stream content, relying mostly on the idea that people want to watch “quick bite” content on their phones. Now, half a year later, the service might actually shut down.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Quibi is reportedly considering the option of shutting down completely, after the monumental, highly-public failure to make good on its promises to be the next big streaming option. In a story that has been building since first, subpar numbers were released about the platform shortly after its launch this spring, it appears that Quibi’s executives and Board of Directors will be looking at options, including shutting down completely, in the near future.
There has been quite a bit of fingerpointing since the outlook began to appear grim for Quibi. You had executives blaming the COVID-19 pandemic (which is the same pandemic they touted as an ideal time to launch a streaming service and has been a huge boost for rivals like Netflix). Then you had folks chalk the slow start to marketing failures and the fact that people aren’t interested in only watching shows on their phones or mobile devices (which was later rectified as you can now stream to your compatible TV). Finally, what might actually be the large reason for the company’s terrible start is the fact that the content on the platform just wasn’t good. At least, it’s not as revolutionary as the service would like you to think. (Outside of the great “Wireless,” which you should still check out.)
All that to say, Quibi is struggling and it doesn’t look like there’s an easy fix. Or a fix at all. And if WSJ is correct, we could be seeing the final chapter of the Quibi story sooner than we all anticipated.