<story><title>Quibi Is Shutting Down</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/quibi-weighs-shutting-down-as-problems-mount-11603301946</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>causality0</author><text>Nobody pays for Youtube Premium because they want the exclusive content. They pay because they hate ads and Youtube gatekeeps basic app functionality behind the paywall.  It&amp;#x27;s not a service it&amp;#x27;s a hostage negotiation.</text></item><item><author>adrr</author><text>YouTube premium has 20mm paying users.  Educated guess most of users consume through a mobile device.&lt;p&gt;Biggest issue with Quibi was lack of app for TV.  They cut their TAM by only focusing on Mobile.   I don’t think YouTube premium would be as popular if it was only for 1 platform.</text></item><item><author>dvt</author><text>&amp;gt; Seems like a lesson learned about raising money to solve something people don&amp;#x27;t care about... in this case a first-class mobile experience...&lt;p&gt;People &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; want a first-class mobile experience (see TikTok), they just don&amp;#x27;t want to pay a premium for it. If you charge people for something, you better make damn sure it&amp;#x27;s way better than the free alternative.</text></item><item><author>mgadams3</author><text>Wow, that honestly happened much sooner than I thought that it would.&lt;p&gt;Will be really interesting to see if anyone steps up to buy the content... but from what little I watched it was all pretty rough.&lt;p&gt;Seems like a lesson learned about raising money to solve something people don&amp;#x27;t care about... in this case a first-class mobile experience...&lt;p&gt;Who knows, maybe in 10 years we&amp;#x27;ll all be like &amp;quot;Quibi was really ahead of it&amp;#x27;s time&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dageshi</author><text>Based on the sheer volume of content consumed on youtube, some people might genuinely want to support the creators they watch without seeing ads. I&amp;#x27;m forever seeing people on HN saying &amp;quot;just let me pay for it instead of watching ads&amp;quot; well youtube gave that option.</text></comment>
<story><title>Quibi Is Shutting Down</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/quibi-weighs-shutting-down-as-problems-mount-11603301946</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>causality0</author><text>Nobody pays for Youtube Premium because they want the exclusive content. They pay because they hate ads and Youtube gatekeeps basic app functionality behind the paywall.  It&amp;#x27;s not a service it&amp;#x27;s a hostage negotiation.</text></item><item><author>adrr</author><text>YouTube premium has 20mm paying users.  Educated guess most of users consume through a mobile device.&lt;p&gt;Biggest issue with Quibi was lack of app for TV.  They cut their TAM by only focusing on Mobile.   I don’t think YouTube premium would be as popular if it was only for 1 platform.</text></item><item><author>dvt</author><text>&amp;gt; Seems like a lesson learned about raising money to solve something people don&amp;#x27;t care about... in this case a first-class mobile experience...&lt;p&gt;People &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; want a first-class mobile experience (see TikTok), they just don&amp;#x27;t want to pay a premium for it. If you charge people for something, you better make damn sure it&amp;#x27;s way better than the free alternative.</text></item><item><author>mgadams3</author><text>Wow, that honestly happened much sooner than I thought that it would.&lt;p&gt;Will be really interesting to see if anyone steps up to buy the content... but from what little I watched it was all pretty rough.&lt;p&gt;Seems like a lesson learned about raising money to solve something people don&amp;#x27;t care about... in this case a first-class mobile experience...&lt;p&gt;Who knows, maybe in 10 years we&amp;#x27;ll all be like &amp;quot;Quibi was really ahead of it&amp;#x27;s time&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>CydeWeys</author><text>Why would you be entitled to any level of service for a product that you aren&amp;#x27;t paying any money for?  YouTube isn&amp;#x27;t free to run.  All that bandwidth, engineering work, and creator compensation don&amp;#x27;t pay for themselves.  You either pay with ad views or you pay with cash.  YouTube doesn&amp;#x27;t owe anyone a free experience.  They could lock the entire site behind a paywall to paid subscribers only tomorrow, and thus be exactly like Netflix, Disney+, HBO, etc., and they&amp;#x27;d be entirely within their rights to do so.</text></comment>