Let Us Not Quibble over Quibi
October 14, 2020
I am not a video type. Sure, we create a short video every couple of weeks. That’s part of our learning process and a flaccid attempt to keep some of the younger members of the team semi happy. One of the future video stars called my attention to “Apple Has No Interest in Purchasing Failing Short-Form Video Streaming Service Quibi.” My reaction was, “Bad Apple.” Not Apple the fun loving app store operator; bad apple as in the phrase “one bad apple spoils the barrel.” The Quibi thing is the exact opposite of TikTok: TikTok relies on user created content within a surveillance shell. Quibi produces 1980s Hollywood content in chunks of 10 minutes or less. No surveillance, no nation state lobbying to keep the programs flowing. No international PR visibility.
The loss of the Apple dream is not surprising. I recall reading “So Here Are the Real Reasons Quibi Failed.” To refresh your memory that May 2020 write up identified these Semel Yahooesque issues:
- Name quick bites to Quibi
- No sharing in the Rona era of sharing
- Mobile sharing.
The write up also dances around the subscription angle, which remains a problem or an opportunity.
The write up does nail the Quibi management team’s explanation of failure on a billion dollar scale: The pandemic.
The reasoning seems to be that Quibi was designed for people with jobs who commute and want Hollywood 1980s style content.
Maybe.
The reality boils down to many missteps, including the odd couple of Katzenberg and Whitman or more colloquially The Meg and Jeff’s Management Review YouTube program.
Who will care? Probably the investors and at least one of the DarkCyber research team. I am not that empathetic fan. The Quibi caregiver on the DarkCyber research team is, however, lamenting what looks like the streaming equivalent of the 2004 flop “The Alamo.” Remember it?
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2020
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