Quibi's cofounder blamed its poor performance on the pandemic even though other video apps are soaring

• Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder of short-form video app Quibi, has blamed the app's underwhelming performance wholly on coronavirus.
• In an interview with the New York Times, Katzenberg said "everything that has gone wrong" for the app – which was launched in April – is because of the virus.
• To date, the Quibi app has been downloaded around 3.5 million customers and has around 1.3 million active users, according to Katzenberg – a far cry from the likes of Disney Plus.
• The app provides news and entertainment videos between 5 and 10 minutes long, with its original content featuring the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Idris Elba and produced by the likes of Steven Spielberg.
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Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder of short-form video app Quibi, has blamed the app's underwhelming performance wholly on coronavirus.

In a New York Times interview published Monday, Katzenberg said "everything that has gone wrong" for the app – which was launched in April – is because of the virus.

Asked if he regretted launching the app when he did, the 69-year-old said: "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.

"The answer is, it's regrettable. But we are making enough gold out of hay here that I don't regret it."

Quibi provides original news and entertainment videos between 5 and 10 minutes long, with its original content featuring the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Idris Elba and produced by the likes of Steven Spielberg.

To date, the Quibi app has been installed around 3.5 million times and has around 1.3 million active users, according to the company, a low figure given the hype and buzz around the launch.

Cofounded with Hewlett Packard's Meg Whitman, Quibi was backed by the likes of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to the tune of $1.8 billion.

Katzenberg's stance on Quibi's performance is at odds with the success of another streaming service that also rolled out during the pandemic — Disney Plus, which has long surpassed the 50 million subscriber mark. A little ironically, Katzenberg is a former head of Walt Disney Studios.

Other video services have also soared during lockdown, with Netflix seeing a huge increase in traffic and TikTok surpassing 2 billion installs.

Katzenberg was needled when the New York Times asked him how he felt about the increasing success of TikTok.

He responded: "That's like comparing apples to submarines. I don't know what people are expecting from us. What did Netflix look like 30 days after it launched? To tell me about a company that has a billion users and is doing great in the past six weeks, I'm happy for them, but what the hell does it have to do with me?"

Quibi's very premise – the ability to watch shows on the go – has been upended by coronavirus-induced lockdowns in place across much of the US and the rest of the world. Its content has also been mocked, with one clip featuring a character obsessed with her golden arm being widely shared on social media.

"My hope, my belief was that there would still be many in-between moments while sheltering in place," said Katzenberg.

"There are still those moments, but it's not the same. It's out of sync."

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