Streaming service Quibi shutting down

Quibi Holdings LLC is shutting down, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday afternoon, with its demise coming just 26 months after it launched amid high expectations in August 2018.

Quibi, which billed itself as presenting “fresh content from today’s biggest stars — one quick bite at a time,” raised a whopping $1.75 billion in funding before launching.

But the company struggled to maintain a foothold in an increasingly crowded mobile video space and chaotic news cycles.

According to a New York Times report in May, Quibi fell out of the top 50 most downloaded free iPhone apps, with only 1.3 million active users, well short of expectations.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman and Hollywood film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg were Quibi’s co-founders.

Katzenberg, best known for co-founding DreamWorks, believed by recruiting A-list talent to record Hollywood-produced short form videos would justify the monthly cost of $4.99 with ads and $7.99 without ads. 

A-listers Katzenberg was able to sign for Quibi included Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lopez, Chrissy Teigen, Liam Hemsworth, Chance the Rapper and Nicole Richie.
 
But non-celebrity amateur content through free aps including the extremely popular TikTok, YouTube and Twitter proved to be too much to overcome.