Congrats, Meg Whitman, another multi-billion-dollar write-off for the CV: Her web vid upstart Quibi implodes

Video-streaming upstart Quibi, which tried to differentiate itself from the likes of Netflix by offering episodes that only ran for 10 minutes max, will close its doors. Quibi was founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who led Walt Disney Studios for a decade and then founded DreamWorks Animation. His CV includes hits such as The Lion …

[Anonymous Coward]

“Quick Bites, Big Stories”

The company name should have been QuibiBS.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: “Quick Bites, Big Stories”

Not QuiBS?

[TRT]

Re: “Quick Bites, Big Stories”

Short, Quick Bites, Big Stories.

SQuiBS. Damp ones.

[The Man Who Fell To Earth]

Re: “Quick Bites, Big Stories”

Nothing like aging boomers to come up with ideas the youngsters will love.

[rcxb]

Re: “Quick Bites, Big Stories”

You're of course referring to Stan Lee, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: “Quick Bites, Big Stories”

Boomers have seen many old ideas re-appear as "new" - possibly more than once. Sometimes it was just waiting for a change in technology or social mores to give it new life.

An obvious one is pr0n for public or private consumption. Victorian photography; 20th century 8mm film; Polaroid cameras; VHS video tape recorders; digital cameras; digital phones.

[Imhotep]

Money For Nothing And Your Flicks For Free

The question is: who is going to pay for a streaming service when the competition is made up of free services?

[Gordon 10]

Re: Money For Nothing And Your Flicks For Free

What are these free streaming services of which you speak? Aren't most of them paid for? Except shite-tube of course.

Or do you mean streaming Cat antics and crazy dancing as in TikTok and other drivel?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Money For Nothing And Your Flicks For Free

"Or do you mean streaming Cat antics and crazy dancing as in TikTok and other drivel?"

That seems to be what the market wants.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Money For Nothing And Your Flicks For Free

True... but surly one day they'll realise that it doesn't make money. My kids seem to find ways to skip the ads or ignore them so there doesn't appear to be any money there....

Mind you they seem to be a bit bored with it lately, I suppose there's only so much of that sort of thing you can watch, even at their age.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Money For Nothing And Your Flicks For Free

"Mind you they seem to be a bit bored with it lately, I suppose there's only so much of that sort of thing you can watch, even at their age."

That's the great thing when your target audience is kids. When this years kids grow out of it, there's always next years kids to lure in.

[Ian 3]

Re: Money For Nothing And Your Flicks For Free

What more could a discerning viewer possibly crave?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha! Never heard of it.

[Anonymous Coward]

I hadn't either, but I'm a Limey - maybe it wasn't advertised here?

It sounded a good idea, there have been times I've had a few minutes to kill but haven't the time to watch a full episode of something.

Since we've recently got rid of sky (bloody tree with a TPO that we can't touch) and bought a smart TV and started streaming stuff, I find that there is so much stuff on different apps - I spend longer try to find anything interesting to watch

[Alan Brown]

"It sounded a good idea, there have been times I've had a few minutes to kill but haven't the time to watch a full episode of something."

Look for "Dust" on youtube .

[Charlie Clark]

Timely XKCD

[tony72]

I watch Dust intermittently. It's hit-and-miss, but the good thing about a ten minute movie is you haven't wasted too much time of you don't like it.

[Anonymous Coward]

TPO

If it's a nice tree then leave it be and appreciate the view.

If it's some shonky one that got a TPO out of spite in the presence of a planning application next door to it, then could I suggest copper nails are very good for holding signs about the TPO to the tree.

Ex-tree warden, who saw the system subverted out of spite on far too many occasions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: TPO

I'm sure Bob Ross was there, he would call it something like a "big happy tree with friends!"

Not sure about the view, only other blocks of flats - definitely blocking the view for the satellite dish!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: TPO

"[...] the system subverted out of spite on far too many occasions."

The nails can be a bit obvious. My neighbour's ash tree is begging for a touch of "ash dieback" spores.

[Andy Non]

Neither had I; nor any of the so called "A listers" with the exception of the Kardasians but I can't understand why they'd be showing Star Trek episodes.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Kardasian?

Something to do with Car Dashboards?

[Insert sadsack pun here]

I'm not a TV or movie buff at all, but I know that Elba, Witherspoon, Hemsworth and Kardashian are the names of big showbiz stars. Idris Elba has been the star of numerous BBC/ITV one hour prime time dramas, as well as the best season of The Wire.

[Steve K]

Ultraviolet

There is a very young Idris Elba in the uber-cool vampire 1990's drama "Ultraviolet" with Jack Davenport.

The warehouse episode where he is waiting for dawn with the vampire containers about to open is just brilliant.

Shame they only made one series

[Mage]

Re: Kardasians

No, the ones in Star Trek are spelled with a C, though are possibly more entertaining.

[TRT]

Re: Kardasians

I didn't ask you about Minos Korva. I asked does my bum look big in this?

[Teiwaz]

Re: Kardasians

Only 'possibly'?

I'd rather have a molar donated to the Bureau of Identification than watch vapid reality types for even just the ten minutes.

[TRT]

Re: Kardasians

Pro-celebrity molar extraction. Has possibilities.

[Anonymous Coward]

Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

Finally, Dido Harding has some competition

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

No one can match the UK's 'Dido Queen of Carnage'.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

"Coronavirus: Test and trace forced to bring in untrained workers as system is overwhelmed by second wave, leaked email reveals"

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-test-and-trace-serco-untrained-tracing-b1204648.html

So, any of these "untrained workers" could do no worse than the "untrained" person at the top

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

The Independent is, sadly, no longer a news source worth quoting, unless you’re writing an article on how to run a good brand into the ground. If you want a small laugh, try reading anything in its tech section. I swear the writers there are illiterate.

(This article is about running a bad brand into the ground).

[H in The Hague]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

"No one can match the UK's 'Dido Queen of Carnage'."

Yup, another world-beating UK achievement - would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

[katrinab]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

Otherwise known as Typoid Dido.

Face mask is for protection, not for entertainment.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

Time to repeat my favourite bit from one of the HP - Autonomy documents:

"Ms Whitman ... repeatedly adopted the management approach of ... playing country music to the meeting instructing the senior executives attending to take the meaning of the country music songs and apply them to their own management methods".

Do you think the problem with Quibi was the she did this again? Or that she didn't?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

“And they took turns with Betty ... and there wuz three o them...”

Sorry.

[GreggS]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

She did it again? That would be Britney songs, not country, surely?

[vtcodger]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

"Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcqZkUvcxO0

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

Pleased to see I'm far from the only one who thought of that awful pairing!

I fear that the future of all humanity could be at risk if those two were to ever find themselves in the same room. They must be kept far apart at, damn, I nearly said "any cost", which is sadly altogether far too likely...

[J27]

Meg Whitman is a multimillionaire, she can afford to retire any time she wants. Does it matter to her that Quibi was a giant disaster? Probably not, and that's a fairly major problem for anyone who invested in Quibi.

[MoreBeerPlease]

Minor correction she's a billionaire not just a millionaire, remember your Simpsons!

[jgarbo]

You don't get it

Non Sequitur. These people don't "retire". They aren't in it for the money at their stage. It's the game, the challenge. She lost more than money. She lost face.

[Glen 1]

Re: You don't get it

"They aren't in it for the money"

To put it slightly differently:

After the first few million, its just a way of keeping score.

That doesn't mean you don't want a higher score...

[jelabarre59]

Re: You don't get it

She lost more than money. She lost face.

Hey, she backed Obama and Biden too. She's going to lose even *MORE* face.

[sanmigueelbeer]

Katzenberg hired ... Meg Whitman as CEO.

Mistake #1

blew it on a content library that included shows featuring Hollywood A-listers

Mistake #2

And then it opened for business in April 2020

Mistake #3

What can potentially go wrong?

[heyrick]

What can potentially go wrong right?

FTFY.

[don't you hate it when you lose your account]

I wish

I was as bad at my job as her. Less stress more money

[heyrick]

One downvote... Meg, is that you?

[Fat_Tony]

And then it opened for business in April 2020

Mistake #3

Probably not a terrible time to launch (although they could have planned it around a pandemic) - lots of bored people with time on their hands sounds like good fortune. Not being able to capitalise on that however...

While they did lose a big pile of money, they didn't lose much/any of their own money so they'll be back and ready to fail again no doubt

[Undergrid]

In the middle of a pandemic when people have time on their hands, they are probably going to reach for full episodes of whatever they want to watch, not cut down 10 min max clips ment to be watched when commuting or grabbing a coffee at the local coffee shop.

Especialy when a lot of that content isn't designed for the format but are larger episodes cut into 10 minute chunks.

[Robert Carnegie]

When suddenly a lot of people became home schoolteachers, there's an arguable role for including relatively short rewards between lessons in the school day. Although... breaks away from screens are highly recommended.

I got slightly too obsessed with the cartoon "Hotel Transylvania - The Series" but its episodes are 11 minutes so... (Maybe without titles and some scene-break bits it would just be inside ten minutes?)

[Anonymous Coward]

larger episodes cut into 10 minute chunks

10 minutes. The luxury!

I watch BBC America occasionally. Every 10 minute chunk of old Star Trek re-runs is augmented by at least 5 minutes of US TV ads. The painful, cringy type of US TV ads. Makes me switch channels or turn it off altogether.

Thankfully, they change the tapes only once a week, so I have no incentive to tune in more often and can eventually catch a whole episode over multiple days.

[Flywheel]

Lost in Translaton

As entrepreneurs our instinct is to always pivot, to leave no stone unturned

We shouldn't have signed the contracts over that 7th Martini, and we didn't really have a feckin' clue how it was supposed to work, but now we're without a paddle and will try anything that looks remotely like it might make a few bucks. We're desperate.. hey, turn that rock over buddy!

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Lost in Translaton

Don't forget that there was still space on their cash runway...

Now there's a phrase that ought to put terror into the hearts of VC funders. I suppose it's at least better than companies like Uber or WeWork who probably have a cash woodpile, ready to put it into their cash furnaces where they burn cash until the invisible unicorns come to make their business models actually vaible.

Then again, if you need some money to burn, there's always Softbank...

[Mage]

Re: featuring Hollywood A-listers

Only worth while if you are selling pointless underwear or make-up. These people are mostly boring mannequins, famous for being famous and some are quite good at making money. That sort of content is free or nearly free elsewhere.

So content and CEO doomed it.

[shedied]

Re: featuring Hollywood A-listers

So content and CEO doomed it

*That* was supposed to be their winning formula!

[Kevin McMurtrie]

"Our failure was not for lack of trying"

I disagree. One usually starts with market research and small scale product testing. The small scale product testing is really important when your target audience is people who are on-the-go and probably not paying attention to your research questions.

"Do you want short entertaining videos?" - Yeah!

"Would you pay for them?" - Sure

"May I have your credit card number" - (closes browser window)

[jgarbo]

Re: "Our failure was not for lack of trying"

How does one research an unexpected pandemic that will kill economies? Allowing their game started back in 2018 with fund raising, Covid19 was the "asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs"....Oh why didn't they hide. Yeah, or hold their breath -- for 20 years.

Granted, not a world shaking idea, but the pandemic has killed off everything.

[Grease Monkey]

Re: "Our failure was not for lack of trying"

Can't see how you can blame covid for this failure. In fact it should have helped massively. The likes of Netflix are in ride health because covid has ensured that people are spending more time online than before. As such they had a captive audience.

While it's possible that some folks did not sign up for a new service because they were short of cash that can't explain their falling 99% short of their target for paying subscribers.

[katrinab]

Re: "Our failure was not for lack of trying"

Their target market was people standing in the queue at Starbucks. I get that the pandemic means there wasn't anyone standing in a queue at Starbucks. But, would people standing in a queue at Starbucks want to watch a 10 minute video? They will watch 5 second video clips on Instagram, sure, but 10 minutes is probably too long.

[AdamWill]

Re: "Our failure was not for lack of trying"

For me it's not even the length; the crucial thing is that Quibi was trying to do "high quality" video, by which they mostly meant sort of "TV-lite" or "movie-lite" stuff, with some kind of structure. The problem with that is, if I'm killing a few minutes in a queue or waiting for a bus or something, I don't want to watch something that requires me to pay full attention for ten or even five minutes, and is negatively affected by me having to stop watching it after three minutes. Because that's what happens in queues. Sometimes they move faster than you expected. You have to pay attention to what's going on around you.

Structure-light stuff like Youtube and Tiktok videos are ideal for that. You can play one and half pay attention to it while also keeping an eye on the queue and deciding what you want to drink. If you get to the front in three minutes you just pause it or forget about it. You can't really do that with a ten minute mini-movie or mini-house-flipping-show or whatever that has a structure that really wants you to watch and pay attention to all of those ten minutes of Content. For me that was always the issue with this whole idea.

[fajensen]

Re: "Our failure was not for lack of trying"

No, no.no.no.and: NO!!

Mark my Words: Ruining the narrative with unwanted data will cause "Growth" to collapse!!!

Business today is all about Flow of Capital. I belive that the unstated business model here always was to flare off $1.75bn dollars (or more if they had got it) as fast as practical with management extracting a few % of the flow in fees, maybe with a sideline in shorting the corporate bonds as an extra incentive.

The "world beating, innovative and revolutionary" Product and Services allegedly offered up by these scams are just the minimalist Stalinist set-piece, wood-and-fabric, scenery required to create The Flow

They can't - yet - just give obscene amounts of money away to their friends (well, the UK Goverment can and does, but, they are somewhat of an exception in the 1'st world).

Ruder and Cruder, but perhaps in their own ways more honest people, used to call these forms of business dealings "Smash and grab", "Busting out the joint", et. cetera.

[Jonathon Green]

Re: "Our failure was not for lack of trying"

This.

Who cares what happens to the business, it’s employees, it’s creditors, and it’s investors as long as you can skim a few % off the cash flow and exit with sufficient credibility to repeat the cycle a few times. There’s always another plausible idea and a new batch of gullible punters to fleece just around the corner.

Business 2.0[1] baby!

[1] Which I see from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_2.0 0 was the title of a publication covering “The New Economy” which enjoyed impressive growth in the late ‘90s before being sold off to a large corporation and eventually closing down in 2007, never having made enough profit to justify its own existence. Quite apt really....

[Chris G]

Re: "Our failure was not for lack of trying"

Exactly what I came here t say.

A serious lack of market research, and pre-planning.

I wonder if they had thought of using a business plan?

Let's just hope she doesn't buy her way into the White House next, another failed business person would be too much.

[Pascal Monett]

Actually I would take Meg Whitman against the OHSG any day.

Obviously, I'd prefer someone of Obama's caliber, but hey, you take what you can get.

[Denarius]

Re: "Our failure was not for lack of trying"

My thoughts. With failures so magnificent, a perfect candidate for White House as USA recedes into dust of history like USSR. Both doomed to be ghosts in cultural machine like the selective memory of Roman Empire helped blind European political thinking for 1500 years and ensured the death of Eastern Empire earlier.

[Grease Monkey]

Stupid Idea

“Quibi was a big idea and there was no one who wanted to make a success of it more than we did. Our failure was not for lack of trying; we’ve considered and exhausted every option available to us,”

Big idea maybe, but this statement alone is proof that it was a stupid idea. If you couldn't make it work no matter how much money and effort you threw at it then it wasn't a good idea.

And this seems to be a modern disease. Massive amounts of money, massive launches, but nobody seems to bother to research whether they have a product that anybody will buy.

[goldcd]

I see you've never worked for a corporate..

I'm sure somebody did some research and it looked 'hopeful' - elevator pitch isn't actually that bad.

Just once you've recruited everybody and started spending - nobody's going to stop until something external stops them. Death or Glory (except it's not really death, it's just having to get a new job)

[Grease Monkey]

Re: I see you've never worked for a corporate..

I think the simple fact is that startups confuse themselves with the likes of Google.

Big companies will launch new products speculatively and will consider the budget almost as advertising. After all if you're the size of google the launch capital for this project is small change.

The "marker research" these people did was probably mostly around being sure it was a good idea and discussing the idea with a load of yes people who concurred. Of course there was probably a patronizing element to it all - "Of course little people will buy this. They have short attention spans and they are suckers who will buy into anything"

[Franco]

Re: Stupid Idea

It's alluded to in the article but the suggestion on other sites (E.g. TV specific ones) is that their core target was commuters who didn't have the time to watch a full episode of regular TV on the way to/from work, and that market is a tiny fraction of what it was when they launched.

Given Whitman's previous record though I'm pretty sure this will be someone else's fault and legal action will ensue, just hope Mike Lynch wasn't involved in this startup as he has enough on his plate right now.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Stupid Idea

"just hope Mike Lynch wasn't involved in this startup as he has enough on his plate right now."

I'm sure his lawyers will be interested in this. Evidence as to her propensity to mismanage a business into the groung.

[Anonymous Coward]

Short attention spans

This product was pitched perfectly for the generation of human-begins that by-passed the principles of evolution and went from having normal attention spans, to really short attention spans in just 10yrs. I'm amazed it didn't become a success.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Short attention spans

The thing is, a 10 min video doesn't need to be especially good, because it doesn't need to have the structure, acting, or production values to hold attention for more than 10 mins. Our kids tend to watch either random videos of other kids/immature people on their phones, or whole series on Netflix.

[YetAnotherJoeBlow]

Just call her...

I call her Teflon Meg.

There is nothing that cannot be made into a calamity. Hmm, Calamity Meg...

It is really a sad state of affairs.

[Piro]

When you first hear of a company when it fails..

... it's not a good sign.

[Winkypop]

Re: When you first hear of a company when it fails..

Its good for potential investors though...

[First Light]

A Victory for Women!

When mediocre women can fail upwards and onwards at the rate of MW and still get a seat at the table, just like many men (see: POTUS), it means equality is inching closer! What's not to like about that!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A Victory for Women!

Elizabeth Holmes and Marissa Mayer weren't enough?

[First Light]

Re: A Victory for Women!

We're not quite at full equal-opportunity manglement incompetence yet, but we're getting there!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A Victory for Women!

By percentage I'd say long surpassed.

[Steve Davies 3]

Perfect... just Perfect

qualifications for her to run a POTUS in 2024.

Blonde? Check

Made companies go bust? Check

Yep, a perfect candidate for the GOP in 2024.

Sic

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Perfect... just Perfect

Excuse me? Are you suggesting that Donald Trump is blond?

How much is he paying you to say that?

Blond and orange are not the same colour you know...

It's supposed to be orange skin, blond hair and glowingly white teeth. Just ask Paris.

[iron]

Re: Perfect... just Perfect

The dead hamster on his head is blonde.

[WolfFan]

Re: Perfect... just Perfect

It’s not a hamster, it’s a squirrel.

[zuckzuckgo]

Re: Perfect... just Perfect

It's not dead. Who do you think is pulling the levers?

[Rainer]

Apple TV app only approved the day before

and then the thing shut down...

[DS999]

Re: Apple TV app only approved the day before

Not just Apple TV, they announced availability on Amazon and Google's set tops the same day as well.

[VicMortimer]

Yeah, I've heard of it. Kept getting "sign up for free" from T-mobile, most recently two days ago. Never bothered.

I just looked at the Wikipedia article to see WTF this actually is. Yeah, what an absolutely stupid idea, no one wants this crap. "Hey, you know how people are binge-watching entire series on Netflix? Yeah, let's give them the opposite of that and break shows down into 10 minute episodes. They'll love it!"

Short media gets watched because an entire concept is handled in a short video. Whether it's LPL showing how worthless a lock is as he picks it in 10 seconds or Techmoan giving us a bit of audio gear history, the whole concept fits into a single video. There are no "episodes". Oh, and it's free. Not free trial, no signup, just free.

[Jellied Eel]

Content is king

I just looked at the Wikipedia article to see WTF this actually is. Yeah, what an absolutely stupid idea, no one wants this crap. "Hey, you know how people are binge-watching entire series on Netflix? Yeah, let's give them the opposite of that and break shows down into 10 minute episodes. They'll love it!"

Same. First I'd heard of this was the news that it'd gone titsup.com. But it kinda, sorta, could have worked. Having been binge watching old series like Alias, I've noticed shows are already broken down into chunks of 10mins or less. So in between wondering how Vaughn survived vetting, and 2 bursts to the chest at close range from an automatic weapon.. US TV shows are already chunked. So stuff happens for a bit, then fade to black, then stuff carries on happening. And done like that to make it easy to slot in ad breaks.

But then Netflix, Prime etc already do series, and they already make it easy for commuters to just hit pause & resume if/when they're ready for the next thrilling installment. And they have a large pool of existing content to hoover up and offer to punters in exchange for subs. And both spaff large piles of cash on original content, and in Prime's case, have very deep pockets.

So they idea seemed bonkers. It's sole differentiator seems to be offering content carefully commissioned for 10min episodes.. And rather than buying rights to existing content, spaff large piles of cash on commissioning mini-series, featuring big names. And then express suprise when punters aren't interested because there's already a shedload of free and subscription stuff to chose from.

(Oh, and plus thumb for LPL. It's kinda fun looking at the lock, the episode length, and realising it's probably not a 'high security' one. See also bosniabill who found an interesting door lock, complete with tear gas dispenser!)

[Thomas F Thurlow]

Leo Apotheker was the CEO of HP when the offer to purchase Autonomy Corp was made

From source TheRegister:

" In 2011, HP – under the leadership of Léo Apotheker at the time – bought Autonomy "

( https://www.theregister.com/2019/04/01/leo_apotheker_autonomy_trial/ )

[Franco]

Re: Leo Apotheker was the CEO of HP when the offer to purchase Autonomy Corp was made

That is true but doesn't tell the whole story.

A. Whitman joined HP's board in January 2011 and was named CEO in September of that year. The purchase completed in October.

B. The UK court case considered her important enough in the purchase to call her as a witness

C. She was heavily rebuked by the Judge in said case for referring to Mike Lynch as a fraudster during her testimony, given that the case she was testifying in was to determine whether or not Lynch was guilty of fraud, a verdict which has still not been announced.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Leo Apotheker was the CEO of HP when the offer to purchase Autonomy Corp was made

Meg was on the board which sanctioned the purchase, blamed Leo for their collective mistakes, and sacked Leo. And you want me to be CEO? Moi? So I can run this company into the ground .....

[Sherrie Ludwig]

Why buy a cow when the milk's so cheap?

Youtube as a paid subscription service? I watch Youtube for the lols gratis. If there is a particular content creator I love, I can drop them some dosh directly via Paypal.

[myhandler]

"Always pivot" - that's all you need to know.

[capnkirk]

What about Luke?

The one from Westworld, not the one from the Hunger Games, or the one from Thor

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything that woman touches turns to

insert missing word here

[PaulVD]

There are sites that make a lot of money out of 10-minute videos

They sell porn, or so I am told.

[David Roberts]

Re: There are sites that make a lot of money out of 10-minute videos

10 minutes?

I can dream.....

[six_tymes]

The abbreviated version: greedy Hollywood wouldn't lend a hand and give any discounts for a start up. oh well. pockets lined yet again.

[Mr Dogshit]

Don't forget the time that silly mare bought Skype for no reason when she was in charge of eBay.

[jelabarre59]

...Jeffrey Katzenberg, who led Walt Disney Studios for a decade and then founded DreamWorks Animation. His CV includes hits such as The Lion King...

I see, so the guy who STOLE/plagarized The Lion King from Osamu Tezuka. Yeah, there's a special hell for him.