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Quibi
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American short-form mobile video platform (2018–2020)
QuibiType of businessPrivateType of site<br>OTT platformFoundedAugust 2018; 7 years ago (2018-08)DissolvedDecember 1, 2020; 5 years ago (2020-12-01)SuccessorThe Roku ChannelHeadquartersLos Angeles, California, U.S.Area servedUnited States<br>Canada<br>United Kingdom (limited)<br>Australia (limited)<br>Germany (limited)<br>Brazil (limited)FounderJeffrey KatzenbergKey peopleMeg Whitman (CEO)LaunchedApril 6, 2020; 6 years ago (2020-04-06)Current statusDefunct<br>Quibi (/ˈkwɪbi/ KWIB-ee) was an American short-form streaming platform that generated content for viewing on mobile devices. It was founded in Los Angeles in August 2018 as NewTV by Jeffrey Katzenberg, and it was led by Meg Whitman as CEO. The service raised $1.75 billion from investors.[1] It launched in April 2020, but shut down in December 2020 after falling short of its subscriber projections.[2][3][4] In January 2021, Quibi's content library was sold to Roku, Inc. for less than $100 million.[5][6][7] The platform's concepts and failure inspired widespread mockery.[1][8][9]
History<br>[edit]
Pre-launch<br>[edit]
Quibi was founded in August 2018 as NewTV by Jeffrey Katzenberg and was led by Meg Whitman as CEO.[10] In October 2018, NewTV was renamed Quibi.[11][12] The service targeted a younger demographic, with content delivered in 10-minute episodes called "quick bites" (with the name Quibi derived from "QUI-ck BI-tes").[13][14] In 2018, Quibi raised $1 billion in funding from major Hollywood film studios, TV companies, telecommunications companies, technology companies, banks, and other investors including The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, WarnerMedia, Viacom, RTL Group, FremantleMedia, eOne, Lionsgate Studios, MGM, Madrone Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Alibaba Group, Liberty Global, and ITV.[15][16]
In 2019, Quibi announced it would launch in April 2020 with two pricing tiers. On July 8, 2019, BBC Studios announced it had invested in Quibi.[17][18] By late 2019, Quibi announced it had sold out its first-year advertising inventory, which amounted to $150 million.[19]
In 2020, Quibi presented at CES on its full launch plans including details on its content, technology, and partnerships.[20][21] In March 2020, Quibi announced a partnership with Canadian telecommunications company BCE, whereby its Bell Media division would produce Canadian news and sports content for the service (via CTV News and TSN respectively), and Bell Mobility would be Quibi's exclusive Canadian telecom marketing partner.[22]
Launch<br>[edit]
Quibi launched on April 6, 2020.[23] It was available in the United States and Canada.[24] An ad-free U.S. version of the app was made available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Germany among others on April 6, 2020.[25][26][27] TechCrunch reported that Quibi saw 300,000 downloads and "hit No. 3 in the App Store" on its launch day.[28] On April 14, the company announced it had seen 1.7 million downloads of its app in its release week.[29][30] In the Google Play store, Quibi was the 11th-most-downloaded app as of April 16.[31]
Quibi's app fell out of the list of the 50 most-downloaded free iPhone apps in the United States a week after it was released. According to the analytics firm Sensor Tower, by early May the app was ranked 125th. Sensor Tower also said the app had been installed by 2.9 million customers, although Quibi said the figure was closer to 3.5 million. Of those who had installed the app, Quibi said 1.3 million were active users. Katzenberg acknowledged the performance was "not close to what we wanted," stating, "I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus"—a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic that was disrupting daily routines at the time of the launch.[32] Whitman was more positive in her assessment of the launch.[24]
Moves were made to adjust the service by allowing users to share content on social media platforms and to watch shows on televisions in addition to phones.[32] A feature was added to allow shows to be cast from phones onto TVs through AirPlay and Chromecast, with the screen orientation being set to landscape by default.[33] Quibi also developed its own screenshotting function.[34]
By early June, the company implemented voluntary executive pay cuts.[35] That same month, the service was on track for 2 million subscribers in its first year, far below its projected 7.4 million total.[36] From January to mid-June, Quibi raised an additional $750 million in funding.[14] In July 2020, Sensor Tower reported that about 8 percent of Quibi's early wave of users had converted into paying subscribers,[37] while the subscription analytics...