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Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

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Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#71

Post by draw_down »

ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #14

8% is not a terrible conversion rate at all, and they’ve only just started. I’m not a Quibi user and have no vested interest in them either way but this is the third different article I’ve seen in the last week or 2 talking about how terrible they’re doing and now they’re about to crash and burn, because of an 8% conversion? Comparing them to Disney is ridiculous too, it’s Disney! With multiple generations obsessed w…

What's with the pollyanna stuff on HN around this obvious failure? There isn't one thing going well here, but I keep seeing HN comments acting like writing it off is some kind of moral crime. It was a bad idea and it's failing. Could they turn it around, sure I suppose, anything is possible. But right now it's not looking so hot. It's not a big deal to say that.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#72

Post by soared »

whoisjuan wrote: post #42

The problem with Quibi is thinking that they can charge for this content. People are not gonna pay for quick bite videos, even if they have a high production value. Why would anyone do that with such limited time? The problem of all these platforms is that they think they are creating a new market or expanding an existing one and they forget that people only have 24 hours a day to do things. If you create something l…

Tons and tons of people support youtubers with donations or on patron, which is in effect paying for content. I recognize the difference but I don’t think you can really make your claim so confidently.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#73

Post by bluthru »

kin wrote: post #38
Hamuko wrote: post #34

I can't imagine Apple TV+ having any better conversion rate unless people just forget to cancel their subscriptions at the end of the trial. There's just so little content there and basically nothing that people talk about.

I got a year of Apple TV+ just for getting a new Apple device. If you cancel early, you cancel for good. I put a reminder on my calendar to cancel at the end of a trial. I have yet to even attempt to watch anything because of poor reviews and klout. I remember during the Apple TV+ announcement that Tim Cook was using phrases like "the best stories" and "the best content". I thought it was so arrogant.

Apple is diluting their brand with this nonsense.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#74

Post by sosborn »

kin wrote: post #38
Hamuko wrote: post #34

I can't imagine Apple TV+ having any better conversion rate unless people just forget to cancel their subscriptions at the end of the trial. There's just so little content there and basically nothing that people talk about.

I got a year of Apple TV+ just for getting a new Apple device. If you cancel early, you cancel for good. I put a reminder on my calendar to cancel at the end of a trial. I have yet to even attempt to watch anything because of poor reviews and klout. I remember during the Apple TV+ announcement that Tim Cook was using phrases like "the best stories" and "the best content". I thought it was so arrogant.

Morning show, For All Mankind and Beasties Story are worth the time IMO.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#75

Post by jonny_eh »

KallDrexx wrote: post #64
mikeryan wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in this industry and generally agree with your assessment. However a few things, the general industry perspective went like this: 1. David Katzenberg and Meg Whitman were creating a consumer service targeting a demographic they don't fit in a field they've not worked in. (Consumer apps for a younger demographic) 2. They got 1.8 Billion in funding. For fuck's sake you should get one breakout hit piece of conten…

That's easy to say in hindsight, but I think if the pandemic wouldn't really happen there's a good chance their conversion would be even higher. Their whole business model is meant for consumers who are on the go with short time bursts, which is exactly the opposite of what we have today. It very well could be that their shortage of content wouldn't have been as big of a deal because their ideal users weren't binging…

> with short time bursts

The problem is that the short time bursts are highly variable, but they specifically target 10 minutes. That's why people scroll through twitter or instagram, it fills the void, no matter how long it is.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#76

Post by jonny_eh »

jeromegv wrote: post #62
duxup wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the user have to provide a credit card, are a lot of these 8% maybe just folks who forgot to unsubscribe? I feel like this conversion rate thing really "depends".

On iOS this was just in-app purchase, so you agree to start paying in 3 months when you sign up. So you never really have to manually type your credit card but you had to remember to unsubscribe within your iTunes subscriptions.

And unsubscribing via iOS is surprisingly challenging.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#77

Post by polytely »

pjc50 wrote: post #58
whoisjuan wrote: post #42

The problem with Quibi is thinking that they can charge for this content. People are not gonna pay for quick bite videos, even if they have a high production value. Why would anyone do that with such limited time? The problem of all these platforms is that they think they are creating a new market or expanding an existing one and they forget that people only have 24 hours a day to do things. If you create something l…

I dunno, doing short vertical videos with low production value was the huge innovation of TikTok? (Not counting its predecessor, Vine) But I accept that launching it as a paid service was extremely risky. Better to start with something free and attention-getting.

I think with both Vine and TikTok it's more about the UX of creating and publishing low production value short vertical videos.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#78

Post by whoisjuan »

soared wrote: post #72
whoisjuan wrote: post #42

The problem with Quibi is thinking that they can charge for this content. People are not gonna pay for quick bite videos, even if they have a high production value. Why would anyone do that with such limited time? The problem of all these platforms is that they think they are creating a new market or expanding an existing one and they forget that people only have 24 hours a day to do things. If you create something l…

Tons and tons of people support youtubers with donations or on patron, which is in effect paying for content. I recognize the difference but I don’t think you can really make your claim so confidently.

My claim is not that people aren't willing to pay for content. My claim is that people are not willing to pay for "this" content at that price point (5 USD) in a saturated market with dozens of competitors launching at the same time with premium content offerings (Disney+, HBO Max, etc).

Also you have staple names like NBC launching services in this space for free (Peacock).

The problem with Quibi is actually a ROI problem and that's why it doesn't work IMHO. If you raise north of 1 billion to build this you are confident that your revenue is going to be significant. I think that there's not a sizeable market for this type of content, in this current market at that price point.

As a reference point, Patreon has only paid $1 billion to creators since its inception. Granted, Patreon is still growing at an accelerated rate and the trajectory seems to indicate that there's a lot of room to keep growing for the foreseeable future, but you can see that if you were to map Patreon payouts to a potential Quibi revenue trajectory they are far from turning green.

I don't think that's a good parallel but just making that comparison since you mentioned that example.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#79

Post by pkamb »

Where is the vertical video app that lets you watch your favorite YouTube/IG/Twitch-type “content creators” on your phone in the same easy/addictive format as Stories?

That seems to be what people want, not network produced scripted tv made brief + vertical.

Re: Quibi reportedly lost 90 percent of early users after their free trials expired

#80

Post by cgriswald »

jonny_eh wrote: post #76
jeromegv wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On iOS this was just in-app purchase, so you agree to start paying in 3 months when you sign up. So you never really have to manually type your credit card but you had to remember to unsubscribe within your iTunes subscriptions.

And unsubscribing via iOS is surprisingly challenging.

I find your statement surprising. The ease of changing or removing a subscription is the largest reason I would subscribe through iOS to anything. Is there something specific to Quibi?
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