Quibi was content Enron. Put them in Jail. https://t.co/FGIAnY6hf4
— Tim Dillon (@TimJDillon) October 21, 2020
congrats to meg whitman, who tanked a tv company and is being considered for a biden cabinet position in the same year!
— aleksander chan (@aleksnotalex) October 21, 2020
I'll add that what happens next is a bunch of gunshy investors being like "Well, if Quibi couldn't work..."
— Emily Best (@emilybest) October 21, 2020
This has lasting repercussions for the funding of ACTUAL INNOVATION.
Ok, rage aneurism over. https://t.co/e8y6NYRobS
(This is a big thing about Quibi, IMO. Its shows seemed ridiculous as “radical new mobile-centric” etc because they were just slightly wackier old-timey TV shows, completely out of place among YouTube/Insta/TikTok etc. On Netflix they’d be fine, and some would probably blow up)
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) October 22, 2020
Hello Start-up/Tech Twitter!
— Nipun (@nipunnyy) October 22, 2020
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://t.co/HNpyPiPUkX
We all are the same people who talk about how difficult it is to build, right?
This is a genuinely sad end to Katzenberg’s career
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) October 21, 2020
He was a genius in his time who literally shaped every millennials childhood from Disney animation to Dreamworks https://t.co/9Nc1RFpJZq
Everyone is making jokes, but some of us have months worth of Quibi draft tweets to delete.
— logan bartlett (@loganbartlett) October 21, 2020
$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://t.co/etA06aScKE
— Howard Sherman (@HESherman) October 21, 2020
"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."
— Eric Feng (@efeng) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/40AZgK9Hi9 https://t.co/3Z4IfTC1JO
The Quibi pile-on begins.
— erin griffith (@eringriffith) October 21, 2020
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
???
the truest proof of quibi's dedication to shortform content? its corporate lifespan https://t.co/2NzQHsST53
— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) October 21, 2020
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.
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/j3FnNeu3FU
— Sameer Singh (@sameer_singh17) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/qcFqG3wO74
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/9HyOWCpIX6
— Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) October 22, 2020
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://t.co/nJjaVymuwh
— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) October 21, 2020
One fun thing about Quibi is that the biggest investor in its $1bn round was Madrone Capital Partners, the VC firm of the Wal-Mart heirs, run by the Wal-Mart founder's son's son-in-law https://t.co/PkB1ulC46C
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) October 22, 2020
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://t.co/XD0hy0ZfWR
— ryan kadro (@RyanKadro) October 21, 2020
"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..."
— julia alexander (@loudmouthjulia) October 21, 2020
Katz and Whitman open letter re: Quibi.https://t.co/fIzP6Wh1Co
Quibi's failure will put about 200 employees out of work, punctuating an already grueling time for the entertainment sector
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) October 21, 2020
Questions will swirl around the fate of its roster of content from Stephen Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and Antoine Fuqua & morehttps://t.co/rBHN2noMg6
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://t.co/O8FzAHtFTp.
— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) October 21, 2020
I think often of how many people in media showed how little they understood their own industry by raving about Quibi's genius. https://t.co/9GanEU14Zv
— ella dawson (@brosandprose) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/iyT1DCDQDR
— Tasha Robinson (@TashaRobinson) October 21, 2020
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
— Pinboard (@Pinboard) October 21, 2020
Imagine burning $2 billion dollars of VC funding in 6 months
— (@levelsio) October 21, 2020
That's $10 million per day
$455,000 per hour
$7,589 per minute
$126 per second https://t.co/TVk7RMXuy8
Investors sunk nearly $2 billion into this heap. Behold the brilliance of our overclass! https://t.co/VAXAYshZxu
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) October 21, 2020
"A value hypothesis addresses both the features and business model required to entice a customer to buy your product.” Andy Rachleff.
— Tren Griffin (@trengriffin) October 21, 2020
Chamath Palihapitiya: “core product value is elusive and most products don’t have any.” https://t.co/vSlMnphfyb
In the end, Quibi itself turned out to be the quickest bite of all https://t.co/0rTglJNP8u
— Zak Kukoff (@zck) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/882JERrXtm
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) October 21, 2020
Imagine how many indie films this could have funded. https://t.co/6mNi7phIkV
— Scott Myers (@GoIntoTheStory) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/DePoeZg83P
— Edward Ongweso Jr #NoOnProp22 (@bigblackjacobin) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/eok69LnP4U pic.twitter.com/SnhpA471rK
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) October 21, 2020
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.
— Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) October 21, 2020
In May, Katzenberg blamed ALL of Quibi’s problems on the virus, instead of mismanagement and strategic errors pic.twitter.com/JWWYM3d1KC
Quibi started at an interesting moment, being a mobile only video service while we were all trapped in front of giant television sets.
— Nathan Lawrence ? (@NathanBLawrence) October 20, 2020
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. https://t.co/NF6tLScZEq
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://t.co/bcnkiI8MGZ
— Jordan Crucchiola (@JorCru) October 21, 2020
Here’s @pkafka with the plus argument for Quibi, which I don’t disagree with at all, really. The real problem with Quibi is that it never really understood how small its pitch was, and instead burned cash like it was already huge https://t.co/4QR8ygIVMc
— nilay patel (@reckless) October 21, 2020
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.
— Nash Across the 8th Dimension (@Nash076) October 22, 2020
The headline shows were a sex doll on a road trip and Dollar Store Bojack Horseman., you idiot.https://t.co/12PlMGEwiY
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://t.co/bqJBBxwqrN
— Shahed Amanullah (@shahed) October 21, 2020
Had fun with the Quibi jokes up til now, but I'm bummed for all the people who will lose their jobs. https://t.co/230YQ9prdH
— Matt Pearce ? (@mattdpearce) October 21, 2020
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) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/tocvFvUY9P
— Alyson Shontell (@ajs) October 21, 2020
Quibi was born at 85 on the go90 Scale of Doomed Streaming Services. And now, it has gone 90. https://t.co/gKdmKW3UwE
— nilay patel (@reckless) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/jFeUFyrb9p
— Tom Conrad (@tconrad) October 22, 2020
This is unbelievable.
— Ibrahim Sani (@ibrahimsaninet) October 22, 2020
$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://t.co/gIDOEXaBmT
The CEO of Quibi has been rumored to be in line for a cabinet position in the event Biden is elected. Failing upward. https://t.co/gbNvyQQQWX
— Spherical Earther Brian Hoffman (@b_hoffman11) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/YYERqSJ6xA
— FILHO (@alexfilho) October 21, 2020
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.
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) October 22, 2020
Is Meg Whitman shuttering it so she can join the Biden administration as Secretary of Labor or nah https://t.co/7v1QKQ96UG
— Dr. Steven W. Thrasher (@thrasherxy) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/iRJBL5o7H6
— Newley Purnell (@newley) October 22, 2020
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.
— parker (@pt) October 21, 2020
It’s good people fund dumb ideas. Grow the pie by being supportive.
Here’s to your courage, money-burners ?! Respect.
Often overlooked that ITV and BBC Studios (not on the list) invested in this mess. https://t.co/SOkU36AG6s
— Dave Lee (@DaveLeeFT) October 22, 2020
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.
— Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/O8E75USinZ
— Emily Best (@emilybest) October 21, 2020
It’s official: Jeffrey Katzenberg is calling investors to tell them he’s shutting the company down, sources tell @JBFlint and I:https://t.co/SIBb6h1OkQ https://t.co/aauafdxo3a
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/HIYKszxDKt
— Kate Clark (@KateClarkTweets) October 21, 2020
I would say what’s notable about Quibi isn’t that they tried to get people to pay for content, but that they didn’t know the difference between good and bad content, and, like MANY content startups, weren’t willing to weather their own mgmt missteps for more than a few months https://t.co/ftf4xAHdFe
— Casey Johnston (@caseyjohnston) October 21, 2020
Vine announces it’s shutting down: 13 days before the election, 2016
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) October 21, 2020
Quibi announces it’s shutting down: 13 days before the election, 2020 https://t.co/1NqVgL5MrN
just subscribed to quibi!
— brian feldman (@bafeldman) October 21, 2020
this is wild. $1.75 Billion dollars raised. shutting down after 6 months https://t.co/GKvwnRwpxs
— Casey Neistat (@Casey) October 21, 2020
Jeffrey Katzenberg: "All we can do in the end is own it... All of us expected a much better, bigger outcome..."
— Dan Primack (@danprimack) October 22, 2020
Ernest Hemingway, media reporter:
— Andy Ihnatko (@Ihnatko) October 21, 2020
For sale
Streaming service
Never usedhttps://t.co/0fVeClQ07m
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://t.co/bjqyOAdt4Y
— David Pierce (@pierce) October 21, 2020
Quibi is shutting down -- a $1.75B crash due to 4 problems I listed upon launch:
— Josh Constine -SignalFire (@JoshConstine) October 21, 2020
-Stodgy Hollywood directors instead of mobile-native creators
-No screenshots = No memes
-Slow content + weak discovery = no attention
-No social or 2nd-screen featureshttps://t.co/aS5pOLurzm
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.
— Scott Lucas (@scottlucas) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/xdwEJxSyDo
— Nick Statt (@nickstatt) October 21, 2020
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://t.co/OCB7Qpc3eY
— Brooke Hammerling (@brooke) October 21, 2020
More Quibis, please.
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) October 21, 2020
By me.https://t.co/Lwok7HkNfN
Scoop: Quibi has hired a restructuring firm that presented a range of recommendations to the board, including shutting down:https://t.co/SIBb6h1OkQ
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) October 21, 2020
Quibi funding 2020: $1.8B
— John Henry (@JohnHenryStyle) October 21, 2020
ALL female VC funding 2020: $2B
??https://t.co/4JamyPlA1g
At least https://t.co/ESmjLvqisf
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) October 22, 2020
Please someone buy the rights to Quibi's "The Golden Arm" series.
— Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide) October 21, 2020
We need to preserve the best-worst piece of professional entertainment I have ever seen. https://t.co/JKgy5w5HsL
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://t.co/cy4XlvRafz
— Subrahmanyam KVJ (@SuB8u) October 21, 2020
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.
— ? spooky ? zone ? (@sokaydough_) October 21, 2020
RIP Quibi, 2020-2020
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) October 21, 2020
A company committed to keeping things short, in a quite literal sense.https://t.co/k8KpmTzurh
Quibi is the Zune of streaming platforms https://t.co/Xq8wqt8abs
— Travis Tefft (@travistefft) October 21, 2020
Quibi, one of the most polarizing forays into the streaming world, is shutting down https://t.co/9atwjMoji3
— iMore (@iMore) October 22, 2020
Quibi burned through $1.4 billion in six months, produced over 100 shows (but doesn't own the license to any of them), and had just 72,000 subscribers after the initial three-month trial ran out.
— Harish Jonnalagadda (@chunkynerd) October 22, 2020
No wonder it's shutting down. https://t.co/mMvxEghJ81
Quibi, the Short-Form Streaming Service, Quickly Shuts Down. “Quibi is going to go down as a case study at Harvard Business School on what not to do when launching a streaming service." https://t.co/lKsPe08PFI
— Nicole Sperling (@nicsperling) October 21, 2020
Sadly, 6 months after launch it looks like #Quibi took a swing and missed, despite significant backing & investment. #Quibi failed to understand consumer behavior and consumer choice in a competitive video entertainment sector: https://t.co/86Ltlj5nPp; https://t.co/fqGcp9jkZS
— Nitesh Patel (@Nitesh_Patel_SA) October 22, 2020
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.
— Nash Across the 8th Dimension (@Nash076) October 22, 2020
The headline shows were a sex doll on a road trip and Dollar Store Bojack Horseman., you idiot.https://t.co/12PlMGEwiY
제프리 카첸버그와 메그 휘트먼은 퀴비의 자생 실패 이유를 "독자적 스트리밍 서비스를 구축할 만큼 컨셉이 튼튼하지 않았고, 코로나19로 지난 3월 이후 세상이 너무나 드라마틱하게 변했다."라 설명했습니다. https://t.co/6tfOcxkbhd
— 테일러콘텐츠 TailorContent (@tailorcontents) October 22, 2020
결국 퀴비Quibi가 문을 닫는다고 제프리 카젠버그와 메그 휘트먼이 오픈레터를 통해 밝힘 https://t.co/GH4wBvzNat 미디어업계의 거물이 스마트폰화면을 세워서 보는 5~10분짜리 숏폼 콘텐츠를 만든다며 2년전 시작, 약 2조원을 투자받아 준비. 서비스를 시작한지 반년만에 포기하고 문을 닫음.
— 에스티마 (@estima7) October 22, 2020
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://t.co/XD0hy0ZfWR
— ryan kadro (@RyanKadro) October 21, 2020
Sheesh, the official #RIPQuibi post only has 254 claps. https://t.co/40JUkGZQyF pic.twitter.com/l4UF9PEqYR
— Chris Messina (@chrismessina) October 22, 2020
Quibi is dead, reports say https://t.co/STFGzVJgXd
— Alyse Sue | Transhumanism Tech (@alysesue) October 21, 2020
Who could've possibly seen this coming? ...aside from anybody with a functional brainstem. https://t.co/fic4AbgNvU
— Greg Hahn (@ItsGregHahn) October 21, 2020
Quibi is officially shutting down. Katzenberg and Whitman will be on CNBC tomorrow with @JBoorstin. Tune in.https://t.co/8leiTaZoBB
— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) October 21, 2020
Shutting down Quibi now is a foxy move: signals all its current and future competitors that they shouldn't even dream of getting into this space…which then gives time and safe space to Katzenberg to cook up the glorious v2.0 of the product, obviously.
— Kontra (@counternotions) October 22, 2020
I edit reels for a lot of up and coming actors and one of the saddest parts about Quibi is it’s impossible to get your hands on any of that footage. For every Reese Witherspoon feminist cats shows there were a dozen homies getting big, unseen career boosts. Very not beast mode. https://t.co/ebnnucXFkT
— lets talk about beast wars (@Diet_Hellboy) October 22, 2020
Quibi’s failure wasn’t just bad for Quibi and all the Quibis inside the Quibi. It was bad for T-Mobile, too https://t.co/4JpZtAnwOt
— Karyne Levy (@karynelevy) October 22, 2020
Think bigger. I'd like to see Apple reject them this time!
— Kontra (@counternotions) October 22, 2020
Ah well I guess #AppleTV support did not help after all https://t.co/YbwKUZBiOl
— Carolina Milanesi (@caro_milanesi) October 21, 2020
The glee about Quibi's failure seems to me misguided. Startups are hard. There's no honor in applauding when they fail. To me it's impressive that people so established would undertake a project so risky. Especially considering the probable reaction if they failed.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) October 22, 2020
Quibi CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told employees to listen to Anna Kendrick’s song "Get Back Up Again" from ‘TROLLS’ to make them feel better after he announced they would be losing their jobs.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 22, 2020
(Source: https://t.co/xkiBlpxlly) pic.twitter.com/CeiZ7KcmBS
Katzenberg and Whitman in open letter on Quibi’s implosion: "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.” https://t.co/aq305hvQEd
— Lesley Goldberg (@Snoodit) October 21, 2020
I'm so grateful I was given the opportunity to be part of a team that included THE MOST talented in the industry. We built something from the ground-up while creating the most cutting-edge and innovative content. Thank you to everyone who believed in us. https://t.co/GSwoh0cO6J
— yara bishara | يارا بشارة (@yara_bishara) October 22, 2020