Quibi launched in April, after a lot of hype. Gaining many popular celebrities for original shows on its platform. But that wasn’t enough, as now, less than six months later, Quibi is contemplating a sale.
This is according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, which says that the company is thinking about putting up a for sale sign.
But Quibi isn’t looking to go to the highest bidder. Instead, it is considering a few different ways to raise some money. One would be by going public through a merger with a specially formed company that would allow Quibi to fund deals. The other way is raising money, the crowdfunding way.
Quibi’s rough start
Quibi was launching as a new streaming service that was made for mobile devices. It launched on Android and iOS, but not on a single TV platform. And that was because Quibi was made for your smartphone and not your TV. It also did short shows, most of them being between five and ten minutes long. So you could watch an episode while you’re at the doctor’s office waiting, or on the subway. And not worry about needing to finish the episode before closing the app, because it’s only a few minutes long.
But, Quibi launched at probably the worst time. It launched in April, just a couple of weeks after most of the world began going into lockdown due to the Coronavirus.
This meant that people were watching less on their phones, and more on their TVs and laptops. Because they were at home all the time. And not being able to watch it on either of those platforms, was a major blow to Quibi.
Quibi also spent a boatload on original content, and brought in many big stars like Chrissy Teigen, Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson and many others. Which was not cheap. And considering they paid a ton for a short season of 10-minute or less episodes, it didn’t seem like money well-spent.
Quibi quickly gained a lot of subscribers, due to the three-month free trial when it launched. But around July when that free trial ended, many subscribers left. T-Mobile attempted to help out Quibi giving its subscribers a year of the service for free. But that doesn’t see to be helping either. Quibi costs $4.99 per month for the ad-supported version and $9.99 to go ad-free.
Qubi may not be going anywhere yet, but it’s clear that what it’s doing is not working. There are two main issues with Quibi which is content and then getting those subscribers on-board. There’s not much available on Quibi, so most weren’t happy about spending $5 per month for it.
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Source: ndroidheadlines.com