Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg confirm Quibi is shutting down: “Our failure was not for lack of trying; we've considered and exhausted every option”

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Medium 2020-10-22

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Vox Peter Kafka on x
In defense of Quibi — Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg in January 2020. Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Quibi
@mekosoff Maya Kosoff on x
the truest proof of quibi's dedication to shortform content? its corporate lifespan https://www.wsj.com/...
@joshconstine Josh Constine -SignalFire on x
Quibi's slapdash trash shows seemed like they took longer to watch then come up with. “Quibi feels like some off-brand cable channel, with a mix of convoluted reality shows, scripted dramas and news briefs. Imagine MTV at noon in the mid-2000s. Nothing must-see.”
@travistefft Travis Tefft on x
Quibi is the Zune of streaming platforms https://twitter.com/...
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
This is from... a month ago, when Quibi was telling outsiders it was merely considering financing options, while telling potential buyers it wanted to sell the company. https://www.vox.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@pinboard @pinboard on x
The current VC ecosystem amounts to central planning—you have a small, socially incestuous coterie of people directing a fortune to pet projects and ideas, hiring their friends, and in general doing all the stuff the flames of a competitive free market are supposed to incinerate
@pinboard @pinboard on x
With regard to Quibi, we've known for ages that short-format video is really popular. But how does a company that could do it competently stand a chance against a competitor willing to burn this kind of money for nothing? Ditto so many other areas where innovation has died
@deadline Deadline Hollywood on x
Quibi's failure will put about 200 employees out of work, punctuating an already grueling time for the entertainment sector Questions will swirl around the fate of its roster of content from Stephen Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and Antoine Fuqua & more https://deadline.com/...
@daveleeft Dave Lee on x
Often overlooked that ITV and BBC Studios (not on the list) invested in this mess. https://twitter.com/...
@kirstinestewart Kirstine Stewart on x
I'm not sure investors (or creators) bought into an “experiment”.. https://twitter.com/...
@hshaban Hamza Shaban on x
Thinking about who will be punished when Quibi shuts down, who's careers will be set back and who will be given more money and opportunities to create a media venture. In May, Katzenberg blamed ALL of Quibi's problems on the virus, instead of mismanagement and strategic errors ht…
@casey Casey Neistat on x
this is wild. $1.75 Billion dollars raised. shutting down after 6 months https://twitter.com/...
@tasharobinson Tasha Robinson on x
The writing's been on the wall for Quibi since about 15 minutes after it launched, but even so, it's pretty astonishing to see a nearly $2 billion investment just evaporate like this. So much time and effort and money for something that just belly-flopped almost instantly. https:…
@brooke Brooke Hammerling on x
To this point I will never ever ever forget the founder of Clinkle pitching me on his biz and telling me that he wouldn't pay me or my firm but instead allow us to work with them which would bring us huge street cred. We passed. https://twitter.com/...
@nash076 @nash076 on x
Katzenberg keeps trying to blame the pandemic for Quibi's failure, and not the fact it was a ridiculous fucking idea no one was ever going to pay money for. The headline shows were a sex doll on a road trip and Dollar Store Bojack Horseman., you idiot. https://quibi-hq.medium.com…
@bigblackjacobin Edward Ongweso Jr on x
If someone gave me Quibi's $1.8 billion dollars I would have at least made three good shows and a movie. AT LEAST https://twitter.com/...
@ryankadro Ryan Kadro on x
Big thanks to Jeffrey & Meg, everyone ⁦@Quibi⁩, & all of our amazing partners for a terrific 18 months. I'm grateful for the opportunity and would do it all again tomorrow. Thanks for all the support from family, friends and colleagues. #grateful https://quibi-hq.medium.com/ ...
@thrasherxy Dr. Steven W. Thrasher on x
Is Meg Whitman shuttering it so she can join the Biden administration as Secretary of Labor or nah https://twitter.com/...
@hshaban Hamza Shaban on x
Striking that the two people in charge of Quibi, two veteran CEOs, fail to mention any of their mistakes, their lack of relevant experience, their failure to understand their audience, but instead pin their failure — in part and only possibly — on “timing” https://quibi-hq.medium…
@emilybest Emily Best on x
I'll be honest. This makes my blood boil. The capital that went into Quibi was chasing big personalities who were neither subject matter, audience or creator experts. This could have funded 1000 companies that knew how to survive and thrive https://www.wsj.com/...
@nickstatt Nick Statt on x
Kinda wild that go90 lasted five times longer and spent about $500 million less to come to the same conclusion as Quibi just did https://twitter.com/...
@krystalball Krystal Ball on x
Investors sunk nearly $2 billion into this heap. Behold the brilliance of our overclass! https://twitter.com/...
@ihnatko Andy Ihnatko on x
Ernest Hemingway, media reporter: For sale Streaming service Never used https://www.theverge.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
Quibi was doomed to fail from the start. The pandemic accelerated its death after a mobile only launch just as everyone went into lockdown. Either way, not everyone wants to watch things on their phone https://twitter.com/...
@hesherman Howard Sherman on x
$2 billion down the drain. Just think of what that money could have done for real arts projects across the US, especially in this pandemic field crisis for the field. https://deadline.com/...
@shahed Shahed Amanullah on x
Nearly $2 billion in funding for six months of operation. There are calculated risks, and then there's hubris. Will anyone learn the lessons of Quibi? Will anyone pay a price? https://www.theverge.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Failing fast is considered a virtue in tech. However the prerequisite for that is to make small bets and iterate with bigger bets once you see some success. You shouldn't go out with an expensive big bet without customer validation that anybody wants it. https://www.theverge.com/…
@emilybest Emily Best on x
I'll add that what happens next is a bunch of gunshy investors being like “Well, if Quibi couldn't work...” This has lasting repercussions for the funding of ACTUAL INNOVATION. Ok, rage aneurism over. https://twitter.com/...
@tconrad Tom Conrad on x
For the first time in 20 years, I'm confident that no one will ever ask me again what it was like to run engineering at https://pets.com/
@loganbartlett Logan Bartlett on x
Everyone is making jokes, but some of us have months worth of Quibi draft tweets to delete.
@efeng Eric Feng on x
“Quibi was a big idea, and no one wanted to make a success of it more than we did. Our failure was not for lack of trying.” Yes, it was a very expensive strikeout, but some products just cost a lot to even take a swing. I call these “grand canyon jumps”: https://medium.com/... ht…
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
Please someone buy the rights to Quibi's “The Golden Arm” series. We need to preserve the best-worst piece of professional entertainment I have ever seen. https://news.avclub.com/...
@esaagar Saagar Enjeti on x
This is a genuinely sad end to Katzenberg's career He was a genius in his time who literally shaped every millennials childhood from Disney animation to Dreamworks https://twitter.com/...
@mattdpearce Matt Pearce on x
Had fun with the Quibi jokes up til now, but I'm bummed for all the people who will lose their jobs. https://twitter.com/...
@nipunnyy Nipun on x
Hello Start-up/Tech Twitter! Can we, before putting our theories & stats & jokes around Quibi, put ourself in their shoes & imagine how tough it must've been to write this? -https://quibi-hq.medium.com/ ... We all are the same people who talk about how difficult it is to build, r…
@parkermolloy Parker Molloy on x
Vine announces it's shutting down: 13 days before the election, 2016 Quibi announces it's shutting down: 13 days before the election, 2020 https://twitter.com/...
@jorcru Jordan Crucchiola on x
The amount of small budget feature films you could have funded through an initiative that ACTUALLY got resources to new and emerging filmmakers that just got pissed away into Quibi is GROTESQUE and makes me SO MAD. https://twitter.com/...
@ibrahimsaninet Ibrahim Sani on x
This is unbelievable. $1.75 bil raised. $350 mil to be returned to investors following closure. That means $1.4 bil spent to build and then to shut down after 6 months?! Capitalism in its craziest moment: large amounts can be raised and spent in such a wasteful manner? https://tw…
@ajs Alyson Shontell on x
I don't think I've ever seen an example of a company raise a bunch of money pre-launch and it ended well. Color, Clinkle, Airtime, and to a much greater extent, Quibi. It's a kiss of death. https://twitter.com/...
@kateclarktweets Kate Clark on x
Jeffrey Katzenberg personally invested $5.5 million in Quibi's Series A, while Meg Whitman put in $10.5 million. They will lose millions. Later investors will lose even more: https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@eringriffith Erin Griffith on x
The Quibi pile-on begins. Raising $2 billion before launch will do that to a startup. So who's the brave soul writing the slatepitch about how actually, Quibi is everything that's GOOD about media/startups/the world today ???
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Felt it was over for Quibi the moment Meg Whitman compared journalists to sexual predators. That's often a sign the story is rotten, not the people telling it. https://variety.com/....
@timjdillon Tim Dillon on x
Quibi was content Enron. Put them in Jail. https://twitter.com/...
@bafeldman Brian Feldman on x
just subscribed to quibi!
@sherman4949 Alex Sherman on x
Quibi has projected 7.4 million subscribers after year one. It had about 500,000 as of a couple weeks ago, according to people familiar. It launched in April.
@aleksnotalex Aleksander Chan on x
congrats to meg whitman, who tanked a tv company and is being considered for a biden cabinet position in the same year!
@reckless Nilay Patel on x
Quibi was born at 85 on the go90 Scale of Doomed Streaming Services. And now, it has gone 90. https://www.theverge.com/...
@johnhenrystyle John Henry on x
Quibi funding 2020: $1.8B ALL female VC funding 2020: $2B 😒😒 https://deadline.com/...
@zck Zak Kukoff on x
In the end, Quibi itself turned out to be the quickest bite of all https://twitter.com/...
@scottlucas Scott Lucas on x
My favorite fact about Quibi is that when Meg Whitman ran for governor of CA, she had not voted in the previous 28 years. When she founded a short form video service, she said her favorite form of online content was a documentary Grant on the History Channel.
@trengriffin Tren Griffin on x
“A value hypothesis addresses both the features and business model required to entice a customer to buy your product.” Andy Rachleff. Chamath Palihapitiya: “core product value is elusive and most products don't have any.” https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@jhnterranova John Terranova on x
I know it may not be the popular take but any entertainment company failing is not something to celebrate with the entire industry suffering at the moment. A misguided venture but it's failure will mean more jobs lost https://twitter.com/...
@b_hoffman11 Spherical Earther Brian Hoffman on x
The CEO of Quibi has been rumored to be in line for a cabinet position in the event Biden is elected. Failing upward. https://twitter.com/...
@sameer_singh17 Sameer Singh on x
This is a great case study: Validate your product before investing silly money. I know of a few other companies that fell into the same trap. https://twitter.com/...
@brosandprose Cruella Dawson on x
I think often of how many people in media showed how little they understood their own industry by raving about Quibi's genius. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@nathanblawrence Nathan Lawrence on x
Quibi started at an interesting moment, being a mobile only video service while we were all trapped in front of giant television sets. And it didn't help that during its launch, TikTok and Snapchat were both growing to be bigger, sometimes better, places for very similar ideas. h…
@sokaydough_ @sokaydough_ on x
@Techmeme It's amazing that from the moment this was announced regular degular people knew it wouldn't work and yet they persisted. Feel bad for a lot of good artists who did work on this platform hopefully they'll be able to move those ideas elsewhere.
@sub8u Subrahmanyam Kvj on x
If a video streaming startup that has raised $1.75 Bn and launched in the midst of a once-in-a-century global pandemic where consumers are staying at home and consuming content like there's no tomorrow has to shut down, then, maybe, just maybe, it's the execution... https://twitt…
@can @can on x
Congratulations to world's best capital allocators https://twitter.com/...
@benmullin Ben Mullin on x
It's official: Jeffrey Katzenberg is calling investors to tell them he's shutting the company down, sources tell @JBFlint and I: https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@tonyromm Tony Romm on x
RIP Quibi, 2020-2020 A company committed to keeping things short, in a quite literal sense. https://www.wsj.com/...
@loudmouthjulia Julia Alexander on x
“Quibi is not succeeding. Likely for one of two reasons: because the idea itself wasn't strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service or because of our timing. Unfortunately, we will never know...” Katz and Whitman open letter re: Quibi. https://quibi-hq.medium.com/ ...
@joshconstine Josh Constine -SignalFire on x
Quibi is shutting down — a $1.75B crash due to 4 problems I listed upon launch: -Stodgy Hollywood directors instead of mobile-native creators -No screenshots = No memes -Slow content + weak discovery = no attention -No social or 2nd-screen features https://techcrunch.com/...
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
Thing to underscore: The big media companies that put $ into Quibi didn't put much $ into Quibi at all - $10mm here, another $25mm here. And they got paid at least that to make shows for Quibi, so it's all groovy.
@benmullin Ben Mullin on x
Scoop: Quibi has hired a restructuring firm that presented a range of recommendations to the board, including shutting down: https://www.wsj.com/...
@pierce David Pierce on x
This is ... an incredibly sad letter. So many things like this are like “failure is the great teacher” and “remember when Michael Jordan got cut from the team” but this just says, we failed and it sucks. Kinda gutting to read https://twitter.com/...
@levelsio @levelsio on x
Imagine burning $2 billion dollars of VC funding in 6 months That's $10 million per day $455,000 per hour $7,589 per minute $126 per second https://www.wsj.com/...
@alexfilho Filho on x
I worked on a couple shows that were being pitched for this hellhole of an app. Fucking nightmare the entire process internally and externally. https://twitter.com/...
@newley Newley Purnell on x
During a video call with employees, an emotional Mr. Katzenberg suggested Quibi staffers listen to the song “Get Back Up Again,” sung by actress Anna Kendrick in the animated film “Trolls,” to buoy their spirits, according to people familiar with the call https://www.wsj.com/...
@gointothestory Scott Myers on x
Imagine how many indie films this could have funded. https://twitter.com/...
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
For the record, Katzenberg still thinks launching during a pandemic was bad for Quibi. But also allows that maybe “the idea itself wasn't strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service.” https://twitter.com/...
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
Quibbi was a valiant try, but it will go down as a reminder that you can't brute force the process of finding product-market fit. A startup that hasn't launched yet is a seed-stage company, with seed-stage risk, even if raises $2B. You can't skip steps.
@pt Parker on x
People root against dumb-but-harmless startup ideas & get *so* upset at expensive craters. The vibe I get is cynics feel this is money out of their pockets. It's good people fund dumb ideas. Grow the pie by being supportive. Here's to your courage, money-burners 🥂! Respect.

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Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg confirm Quibi is shutting down: “Our failure was not for lack of trying; we've considered and exhausted every option”

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