The estimated number of Quibi paid subscribers is being disputed by the streaming video service, which says it is doing massively better than a leading analytics firm suggests …
Background
Quibi picked exactly the wrong time to launch.
The company’s marketing was all about short videos you could watch, on mobile devices only, while you were out and about.
A big promo spend and a 90-day free trial still saw good take-up, but the coronavirus crisis forced the company to not only rethink its marketing message, but do a U-turn on its mobile-only policy.
Quibi paid subscriber dispute
Analytics company Sensor Tower estimated that Quibi managed to sign up around 4.5M users, but says that so far only around 8% of them continued to use it when their free trial ended.
The available data is limited. Launching on April 6, the very first free trials only expired on July 5, which means Sensor Tower can only speak for the 910,000 users who signed up in the first few days. However, of those it says that only 72,000 are still using the app.
The Verge reports that Quibi disputes both numbers. First, it says, it doesn’t have 4.5M downloads, but rather more than 5.6M. Second, while it refused to reveal what percentage has taken out a paid subscription, it says the number is out by ‘an order of magnitude.’
That claim is impossible to believe. An order of magnitude is a factor of ten, so that would mean instead of 72k out of 910k signing up, the number of Quibi paid subscribers would be 720k out of 910k.
The full statement doesn’t reveal any specifics.
The Verge’s Nick Statt shares my skepticism.
