QUIBI

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Here lies Quibi, “Quick Bites” of premium, mobile-only video, backed by $1.75 billion, helmed by a Hollywood studio chief and a Silicon Valley legend, and launched on April 6, 2020 — six days after most of the planet was ordered to stay home.

The pitch was ten-minute episodes for people on the go. The problem was that, for the first time in modern history, almost nobody was going anywhere. Quibi shipped A-list shows from Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Lopez to an audience sitting on their couch, in front of a much bigger screen, that already had Netflix open.

You also couldn’t cast it to a TV, because mobile-only was the whole brand. Six months and roughly $1.75 billion later, Quibi shut down, becoming the fastest-fizzling major streaming launch in history — a masterclass in building the right product for a world that stopped existing the week it shipped.

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