Quibi reportedly lost 90% of users after the free trial ended

Quibi maybe chose the wrong year to debut a new streaming service and according to mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower, the company may have lost about 90% of the 910,000 users that signed up for the free trial.

We recently reported that Quibi added AirPlay support to its iOS app that enables users to cast their favorite shows to their AirPlay compatible TV’s. Quibi’s Android app recently received an update with Chromecast support today which enables Android devices to cast shows to their Chromecast compatible TV’s. While the apps still lacks a way to share short clips for social media purposes, Quibi is hard at work trying to get that added but TV casting support came first.

Quibi has 1.5 million subscribers as of early May, Jeffery Katzenburg attributes “everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus.”

Quibi isn’t exactly thriving during this economic downturn. With so many people being laid off, people has less disposable income. For the people who are still employed, their futures are not necessarily certain either, which could cause people to tighten their own belts and ditch the subscription services that they decide that they don’t “need.”

Something that seems under-reported is that Quibi had a deal with T-Mobile where users got a 1-year trial of Quibi, so the question is then, how many of the 72,000 users Quibi reportedly still has are on the 1-year T-Mobile trial?

Related Reading: Quibi Stories

Quibi Overview

The service is from the mind of Jeffery Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman. It was designed specifically for smartphones and the shows are like movies that you consume in small 10 minute or less portions. After spending $1 Billion on shows and their stars we will see if people really want to stare at their small screens at home during the pandemic or opt for larger ones.

Since it was designed for smartphones their are no other apps available not even a web app. If you are willing to watch video on your phone when you laptop, tablet and TV are nearby then checkout the show lineup below.

One of the neat tricks that app has up its sleeve is the ability to play the content in either landscape or portrait. It seems to handle the rotating well, it even reconfigured the credits for the orientation. The rotating of your phone can sometime reveal areas of the shot not seen in one orientation, so you might find yourself with a pop socket rotating your phone during the shows.

T-Mobile customers will be able to trial Quibi for 1 year.

There are a few glaring omissions we need to point out:

• No user profiles like Netflix
• Only one stream at a time
• Just phone apps, no TV, Laptop, Tablet apps
• AirPlay and Chromecast support for casting to TV’s

The price for the service is $4.99 (with Ads) or $7.99 (Ad-free). The price seems high considering the only way to enjoy the content is on one phone at a time. Might be worth trying for 90-days though.