Subscription mobile content streaming platform Quibi has crash landed, burning investment capital said to be as high as $US1.75 billion.
The short-form content play, which attracted mainstream investors such as Walmart and PepsiCo, decided to pull the plug just as it was raising more capital.
Founder Jeffrey Katzenberg -- a former Disney Studio boss and DreamWorks founder -- and CEO Meg Whitman say the startup failed for one of two reasons -- the idea itself wasn’t strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service or because of timing.
"Unfortunately, we will never know but we suspect it’s been a combination of the two," they say.
"The circumstances of launching during a pandemic is something we could have never imagined but other businesses have faced these unprecedented challenges and have found their way through it. We were not able to do so."
Quibi tried to tap into the rise of short-form videos, made popular through social media, by providing users with movie-quality shows for quick mobile viewing.
“While we have enough capital to continue operating for a significant period of time, we made the difficult decision to wind down the business, return cash to our shareholders, and say goodbye to our talented colleagues with grace,” the founders said.
“We continue to believe that there is an attractive market for premium, short-form content. Over the coming months we will be working hard to find buyers for these valuable assets who can leverage them to their full potential.”
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