Streaming service Quibi to end after six months
Only six months after going live, streaming service Quibi says its shutting down.
It offered up shows in five-to-10 minute chunks meant for a smartphone.
But its on-the-go viewing model struggled to take off in 2020.
The annoucement made on Wednesday (October 22) also highlights the dominance of streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon's Prime, Disney+ and Apple TV+. elbowing out smaller streaming services that try to compete with their large budgets and vast libraries of shows.
In a statement, Qiubi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said: "The world has changed dramatically since Quibi launched and our standalone business model is no longer viable."
The service offered entertainment and news on mobile phone and boasted shows including "Chrissy's Court" and talk shows like "Around the World by BBC News".
The top executives penned a letter to employees and blamed the failure either on the idea itself not strong enough as a standalone service, or the timing of their launch which coincided with the pandemic.
It was backed by $1.8 billion from Hollywood studios and other investors.
As the world began to shelter at home analytics firm Apptopia says that besides ad sales, Quibi generated only $3.3 million in subscription revenue.
