The audacity of launching now

It takes either audacious self-confidence or reckless hubris to build a completely asocial video app in 2020. You can decide which best describes Quibi, Hollywood’s $1.75 billion-funded attempt at a mobile-only Netflix of six to 10-minute micro-TV show episodes. Quibi manages to miss every trend and tactic that could help make its app popular. The ... See more

Unlike Netflix, Quibi is explicitly focused on one format - mobile - and one content type - well-produced short-form. They solve for one Job to be Done: something to watch while commuting or waiting in line.

The shift away from traditional subscriptions will quicken pace, driven by the proliferation of on-demand solutions across all areas of modern life. Categories like content consumption (Netflix, Spotify), Travel (Uber, Lime), and food delivery (Deliveroo, DoorDash) are creating an atmosphere on everything on our terms, at all times. These category-... See more

In yesterday’s Daily Update I described how Jeffrey Katzenberg, the founder of Quibi, mistakenly assumed that mobile was simply the next step in the evolution from motion pictures to television, each of which created new possibilities for, in Katzenberg’s words, “the creativity of storytellers [to use] these tools in ways that their inventors had n... See more

The direct-to-consumer wave began in the twenty-tens as a new generation of startups promising to “disrupt” traditional industries for consumer goods. Instead of leaving the market to century-old stalwarts like Gillette, for example, a company like Dollar Shave Club, founded in 2011, would set up its own supply chains to manufacture razors; add cle... See more

As modern consumer behaviour evolves, more and more solutions across their lifestyles are on-demand and flexible. Committing to a recurring purchase of a product that may not even work for you is starting to feel a little tired.

(An interesting side note of the current situation is that startups like Blueland can’t just radically scale up supply overnight to capitalize on the unexpected demand: Beyond production constraints, air freight costs have increased 6x, Yoo says.)

Convenience always comes at a cost. If one impact of the switch to reusable packaging is the perception that online shopping can be guilt-free, it might encourage a move away from bulk buying.