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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

#191

Post by pfranz »

throwaway43234 wrote: post #133
cleansingfire wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I find striking. With all their experience & expertise, the major studios spend a tremendous amount of money and consistently produce a surprising number of failures. Personally, I like the wider seeding creatively in general (as you describe with Netflix.)

And those are just the failures you see! Friends in the industry tell me there are many more failures behind the scenes where shows can get arbitrarily far down the production pipeline only for studio execs to come in and scrap the whole thing. We're not so different from those 1000 monkeys writing shakespeare :)

I have zero idea about Netflix, Amazon, or Disney, but I hear the high turnover in execs at the big network TV studios cause this. The story I often hear is the "new guys" are terratorial and kill off projects of their predecessors so their own projects can succeed.

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

#192

Post by Austin_Conlon »

bluthru wrote: post #73
kin wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you watched the shows?

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

#193

Post by Austin_Conlon »

verisimilidude wrote: post #122
bluthru wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is diluting their brand with this nonsense.

I think there's a place for Apple to get this right. They have a music streaming service that makes sense. They're a major player in the podcast space. They've long sold digital music, TV, and movies. Apple has been in the content game since the early days of the iPod. A properly executed Apple TV+ could fit with their brand. But you're right, they're fucking up. To me, Apple's content tends to be way too safe. It's…

> I could never see Apple releasing something like Fleabag

Take a look at Trying.

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

#194

Post by drawfloat »

freeone3000 wrote: post #104
pjc50 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Vine videos are thirty seconds, not 10 minutes. It's an entirely different proposition.

It's even more different: Vine videos were only 7 seconds long

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

#195

Post by jimmySixDOF »

hardwaregeek wrote: post #159
notahacker wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix pinning a lot on winning a bidding war for Fincher sound suspiciously like investors placing massively outsized bets on the Dreamworks/Disney guy with the startup savvy CEO being the Next Big Thing in digital media...

House of Cards was an adaptation of a widely acclaimed British TV show, directed by one of the best Hollywood directors, starring an A-list actor. Plus it probably didn't cost 1.8 billion.

Actually they are all based on the book by Michael Dobbs (1989) who was the chief of staff for Margaret Thatcher for a few years. I heard him at a book show say he wrote it almost by accident as therapy on a vacation after getting squeezed out of politics.

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

#196

Post by alkibiades »

throwawaysea wrote: post #63

I think a big problem might be marketing. I’ve not seen Quibi advertised anywhere. I don’t know anyone personally who has tried it. I only know a few who have even heard of it. Even if you consider the conversion rate good, I don’t think they’ve had many people at the top of their funnel.

i’ve seen it all over twitter. with constants ads

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

#197

Post by rdlecler1 »

johnvanommen wrote: post #173
rdlecler1 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood the fascination with Meg Whitman. The PayPal acquisition did not generate nearly as much value as it could and eBay is terrible, could have been what Amazon is today. I see Meg as greatly benefitting from a rising tide, not great leadership. Maybe her lieutenants have a different take but this is what I see from the outside.

> I see Meg as greatly benefitting from a rising tide, not great leadership. Maybe her lieutenants have a different take but this is what I see from the outside. I worked at HPE, when Whitman was CEO. The impression I got, was that she's a bit of a wizard when it comes to finance. For instance, the organization that I was a part of, we lost a pile of money. But despite that, HPE was able to sell the org off to SuSE.…

IMHO That does’t paint a picture of a tech leader and innovator — maybe a fantastic CFO.

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

#198

Post by rchaud »

throwawaysea wrote: post #63

I think a big problem might be marketing. I’ve not seen Quibi advertised anywhere. I don’t know anyone personally who has tried it. I only know a few who have even heard of it. Even if you consider the conversion rate good, I don’t think they’ve had many people at the top of their funnel.

They advertise constantly on Instagram

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

#199

Post by hakfoo »

SilasX wrote: post #101
jonny_eh wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Right, that was my intuition as well. Ten minutes is still too long for the use case that they’re targeting , of people on the go who want to fill in time looking at their phone. A ten-minute short still requires a level of concentration (and absence of interruptions) not suited for that scenario. Social media is still a lot better for that, as is tiktok’s far lower video length. And, yes, I know it sounds kind of bi…

I feel like their target demographic had to be based on public-transit commuters.

Who else has: * 10 minute+ but less than 22-30 minute "full TV show" long uninterrupted breaks * Where their phone is the primary connectivity device * Predictably available?

If I'm at home, I have the PC, the TV, any number of better ways to enjoy content. If I'm in a car I'm driving, I can't watch video. If I'm on the toilet or a lunch break, I may not have 10 uninterrupted minutes.

I wonder if in 20 years, we'll see it on self-driving cars as a similar fit. "Your estimated trip time is 17 minutes, here are some recommendations of programming for the dashboard screen."

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

#200

Post by S33V »

sulam wrote: post #123
S33V wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source with that? Based off of the majority of my family members it seems like that would be the opposite. I wouldn't be surprised that there's a correlation between tech-savvy individuals and those who cancel straight to subscription trials right away.

I work for a company with a premium service, and we have a number of employees who have worked on other premium services. It’s definitely true in the aggregate. * Worth noting, since you mention tech savvy individuals, that these are not tech savvy services (although buying a premium service from an app on your phone probably immediately skews you somewhat tech savvy).

Interesting, thanks!
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