Quibi’s Katzenberg Blames Slow Start On Coronavirus

Quibi launched as a form of entertainment on-the-go, an app to turn to when users are in line for coffee or quickly commuting to work. But since its launch during a pandemic last month, the app has struggled to retain subscribers and gain new ones — after only one week in the App Store, Quibi lost its spot on the list of top 50 most downloaded free iPhone apps in the U.S., and now, over a month later, it sits at number 125, the New York Times reports. Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg knows what’s to blame for his product’s slow start, though, and it’s a factor out of his control: the coronavirus.

In an interview with the New York Times, Katzenberg laid the blame for Quibi’s weak debut strictly on the pandemic, which has been keeping people inside and not reliant on their phones for entertainment during breaks in a busy day. “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus,” he said. “Everything. But we own it.”

More than a month after its release on April 6, Quibi claims to have 3.5 million downloads, but Sensor Tower reports a different figure at 2.9 million, according to the New York Times. The app says that out of their 3.5 million users who downloaded the app, 1.3 million are active. “Is it the avalanche of people that we wanted and were going for out of launch?” Katzenberg said. “The answer is no. It’s not up to what we wanted. It’s not close to what we wanted.”

In an effort to gain new subscribers, Quibi initially offered a free 90-day trial with any sign up. The trial period has now been reduced to 14 days, but the app is making some changes to help please unsatisfied customers. One of them is a peculiar choice for an app designed for mobile viewing, but after users stuck at home questioned why they couldn’t stream Quibi shows on TV, the company announced the launch of television casting, which starts this week.

“There are a whole bunch of things we have now seen in the product that we thought we got mostly right,” Katzenberg said. “But now that there are hundreds of people on there using it, you go, ‘Uh-oh, we didn’t see that.'” Another change coming to the app is a new function allowing users to share its content on social media, he said.

When asked if he regretted launching his app when he did, Katzenberg called the choice “regrettable.” “If we knew on March 1, which is when we had to make the call, what we know today, you would say that is not a good idea,” he said. “The answer is, it’s regrettable. But we are making enough gold out of hay here that I don’t regret it.”

While most people are still staying home indefinitely and routines remain irregular, Katzenberg says Quibi will alter its launch schedule and slow some releases down. The company plans on delaying some shows so that users will have new content to watch into 2021. And although the app didn’t receive the launch he was hoping for, Katzenberg remains optimistic. The Quibi founder said he believes with the return of normal life, people will use phones as usual in their daily schedule and find a use for his app.