Just over six months after launching, Quibi is shutting down. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg informed investors that he is shutting down the service.
According to The Information, Katzenberg recently tried to sell Quibi’s programming to companies such as NBCUniversal and Facebook to no avail. This followed several weeks of trying to get companies such as Apple, Facebook and WarnerMedia to buy the service as a whole.
Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal reported that Quibi had hired a restructuring firm to determine best path forward, one option, which was ultimately chosen was to shut down the company.
Just yesterday, Quibi launched on Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV — moving away from their mobile-only model.
Quibi’s rough start may be attributed to several factors. Not only did the short-form streaming service launch right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, but because people were forced to stay at home, it’s mobile-only viewing model became a point of contention for users.
In addition, the company was in the middle of a patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets legal battle with Eko over the Turnstyle technology.
On top of that, the app also did not perform well. According to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, Quibi was the fourth ranked app based on number of downloads for iPhones at launch. However, that number tanked to 284 in June, well below Disney+, which was at 50 and HBO Max, which was at number 67, according to The Los Angeles Times.
In June, Quibi claimed to have garnered 3.5 million customers and 1.3 million active users; Sensor Tower counted 2.9 million customers, however.