Quibi

Quibi, the mobile streaming platform for “quick bites,” arrived in April 2020—ready for a world under lockdown to gobble it up. Except that the world didn’t, not by a long shot. The app failed spectacularly this summer —despite an extensive celebrity line-up and a unique platform designed for young users. It seems that no one cares for ten-minute instalments of mobile-only content. Quibi has nothing to offer young people —and it shows.

According to the company, within a month, active users made up only 1.3 million of a mere 3.5 million who downloaded the app, despite a lengthy three-month free trial. Conversely, in the first quarter of 2020, Netflix brought in 16 million new subscribers. Quibi founder, Jeffrey Katzenberg, blames the poor performance on COVID-19, and while our new lifestyle may have complicated matters, Quibi was always destined to fail. Netflix and Disney+ have been going strong in lockdown, so what makes Quibi different?

Quibi was designed to appeal to younger users by offering brief, on-the-go content. However, restricting viewers to mobile-only content was their biggest mistake. COVID-19 has undoubtedly disrupted outside activity, and hunching around a phone at home with your family is simply not practical. Regardless, mobile has never been the preferred way to mobile viewing; rather, it is a necessary tool for enjoying a show between locations. Not to mention that the world is already oversaturated with travel-friendly entertainment from the likes of Spotify and various social media platforms. Months after its launch, Quibi caved and added AirPlay and Chromecast support, but what they really needed to do was discard their mobile-only concept entirely.

More perplexing is how Quibi initially blocked screenshots, a limitation which they have thankfully since corrected (although they’ve made it an unnecessarily complex process). Everyone remembers the sheer force of circulating Baby Yoda memes, which resulted in free advertising for Disney+ and The Mandalorian. Did Quibi intend to pass up on free advertising, or did they just forget that people like to share the content they watch through pity screenshots?

These days more than ever, people are looking to entertainment as an escape from the world. The problem is, Quibi’s episodes aren’t long or interesting enough to draw people in. Maybe this is why they excessively flaunt their star-power, but this just comes off as gimmicky. More importantly, the celebrities and shows they have secured are better-known among older generations than the young. Most Dangerous Game features Liam Hemsworth, but the concept is frankly overdone. Their 60 Minutes spinoff makes no sense for a generation who has no familiarity with the original program and consumes the news elsewhere. Influencers or YouTubers would fit the bill much better, and it’s frankly a wonder they didn’t push this approach.

The only good news Quibi has received is that they have been nominated for ten Emmys,—but this is not an indication of popularity. It’s not that hard to get a Short Form Emmy when your only real competitor is yourself and the few others that are eligible.

With nothing better to do this summer, people should’ve flocked to the app—but they didn’t. Quibi is not an innovative platform ripe for the young to consume, but an insulting embodiment of what old executives think young people want. Quibi is fast, flashy, and mobile-only; it’s perfect for our brainless, phone-addicted generation, right? Such an offensive misfire is no surprise given that Katzenberg is in his sixties and at the head of a team that is lacking in race and gender diversity.

Quibi’s creators are out of touch with young people, and what they see as their app’s unique strengths are actually its biggest pitfalls. With our world turned upside down by COVID-19, Quibi’s failure is perhaps more stark than it would have been otherwise, but just as inevitable—and certainly more fun to watch than one of their “bites.”