Quibi- Who Had Burn $10 Billion, Went Bankrupt

High Membership Fee

Quibi has launched a 3-month free trial at the very first beginning, with 1.5 million downloads in the first week. After the free trial, users need to pay $4.99 (with ads) or $7.99 (no ads) for a monthly membership. And savvy users decisively left Quibi without hesitation. So far, Quibi has only an 8 percent conversion rate from registration to subscription.

There is almost no suspense about the user's leaving. The minimum membership fee for Netflix is $8.99, and that for Disney+ is $5.83. Compared with Quibi, the subscription fees of other streaming media platforms couldn’t say to be cheap. Still, the options of various content on these platforms are far more than Quibi, allowing 30% and 14% of users to stay willingly after the trial expires.

Elusive Marketing

While the content on Quibi is far from satisfactory and the price of its membership fee is not competitive, the marketing team could have created a buzz by a good marketing plan. Unfortunately, Quibi missed a wave of traffic.

To protect copyright, Quibi, like any other streaming platform that requires a membership fee, prohibits users taking screen-shots. When users press the screenshot button on the phone and the screen goes black. Regarding the issue of not being able to take screen-shots or sharing, Quibi's production team received a lot of relevant feedback, and finally came up with a "coup" after three months: long press on the screen to pop up a menu, and slide your finger to the screenshot button (users must authorize Quibi to access the phone album when using it for the first time).

Awkward Market Positioning

The growth of smartphone usage time and video consumption time is indeed an objective trend in recent years. However, it does not mean that the market is willing to pay for the products of "Gen Z + Fragmentation Time + Large Production Medium and Short Videos". The above-mentioned three elements here are worthy of scrutiny.

Does the content on Quibi meet the consumption habits and consumption levels of Generation Z? In today's popular culture of talent, the attention of influencer anchors may not be less than that of traditional film and television superstars. However, you can’t see the works of well-known YouTubers on Quibi.