WEBVTT - Big Apps that Flopped 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.240 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.360 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.040 tech are yet. So, once upon a time, we used 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:24.880 to have these things called programs. And I say that 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.160 because now we don't call programs programs anymore. We typically 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.760 call programs apps. I think that really started to become 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.680 a thing upon the ascent of the consumer smartphone, which 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.360 was sparked by Apple, which was then cranked up by Android, 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.800 and that we really had the era of the app. 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.239 At that point. We used to, like I said, call 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.839 them programs. Now they are applications, whether it's for a 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.600 phone or a computer. I guess app stores sounds better 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:57.800 than program emporium anyway. For thousands of entrepreneurs, the dream 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:00.680 is to build an app and to be come rich 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:05.800 beyond your wildest dreams. Right, You design an app and 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.040 then the money rolls in. Maybe it's because some bigger 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.920 fish out there, like some Google or Apple or Meta, 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.000 decides that you're just too good to be left unacquired, 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.440 and then they spend a bucket load of cash on you. 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:23.800 Hopefully ten times more than what you're actually worth. Or 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.720 maybe you actually figure out how to be profitable all 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.399 on your own, you actually have a business plan and 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.840 you have a way of generating revenue. You would be 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.760 the rare Silicon Valley project that actually works as a 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:42.080 business on its own. That again is the dream. But 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.440 dreams don't always come true, and sometimes even apps that 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.000 seem to be strapped to a rocket for success end 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.080 up blowing up and going up in flames. So this 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.480 episode is about apps that fall into that category, apps 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.440 that at one time seem like they were a sure thing, 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.680 only they flamed out down the line. One of the 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.480 apps I originally planned to put on this list was 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.000 four square, but as it turns out, that app and 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.000 the company behind it is still chugging along, just in 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.000 a slightly different role than it was before. See I 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.080 remember when four square launched and folks would use it 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.960 to check in to locations that they were visiting in 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.680 the real world. So some places would even start to 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.799 offer special discountsl right like twenty percent off your first 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.080 drink if you check into the bar via four square. 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.480 Because it was seen as a kind of viral marketing. 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.560 Other folks worried about the privacy issues of this kind 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:43.400 of behavior. In fact, some folks created a website called 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:48.440 Please rob Me, and this site satirically would scrape data 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.519 off Twitter for four square check in notifications, so please 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.040 rob Me would then list people who were saying they 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.360 were not currently at home. Now, the whole point wasn't 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.880 to actually inspire a way of burglaries, but rather show 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:07.160 why it's dangerous to broadcast your location to the world 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.720 in general, and it might not be a good idea, 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:14.840 and maybe people should think harder about their personal privacy. 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.760 In twenty fourteen, for Square actually changed dramatically. The company 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:24.840 launched a companion app called Swarm Now. This app contained 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.000 all the social networking features that for Square used to have, 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:33.240 so all the check in stuff, all the geolocation stuff 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.520 that was kind of seen as the critical element of 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.440 force Square and the one that you should be worried 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.720 about that went to Swarm. For Square meanwhile became four 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:46.600 Square City Guide, which became a discovery and recommendation app, 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.080 and it would help you figure out places that maybe 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.160 you should visit based upon your past experiences. Right. It 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.120 would say, Okay, I see that you're in downtown New 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.320 York and because of the places that you used to 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.560 go to in your hometown, here are some places we 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.600 think you should probably check out because you'll really like them. 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.360 You didn't have to use both of the apps if 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.920 you didn't want to, but they did compliment one another, 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:15.000 so if you used Swarm, four Square would tap into 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.640 that check in data to help inform what recommendations it 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.160 should give you. Those apps are still available today. Like 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.600 I just thought that four Square had come and gone 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:29.599 because I haven't personally used it in a decade, But 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.600 the fact is it's still a thing. One really interesting 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:36.880 thing to me is that, forour Square's business largely involves 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:44.320 licensing its technology to other companies, which include Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat, 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.119 and lots more. The check in feature that four Square 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:52.039 developed powers numerous other apps. So while our perception was 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.640 that four Square was a relic of the past, that's 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.320 just not true. That's totally my misconception there, and again 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.560 it's because I have really paid at digital four Square 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.120 in a decade. But it is interesting to me that, 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.039 you know, they found success in a different way than 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.479 what they set out to do. I still don't have 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.679 any real desire to read download either four square or Swarm. However, 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.760 on a related note, there is also the story of 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.640 yik yak. Now, this app actually did flame out, but 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.480 then it was resurrected again just a few years ago, 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.279 so for those of y'all who do not know the story, 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.720 a couple of guys launched an anonymous location based messaging 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.279 platform back in twenty thirteen, and the way it worked 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.000 was that you would open the app and you would 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.200 connect via putting in your phone number. This would end 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.200 up allowing you to post to the platform, but you 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.240 would only be able to read messages that had been 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.320 posted by people within a certain distance of your physical location, 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.479 such as within a five mile radius, and you could 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.640 post a message anonymously, and again, only people who are 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.120 in a five mile radius of your lowtion would be 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.120 able to read your message. So as you would travel around, 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.760 you would see new messages, while ones that were now 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.160 out of physical range would disappear from view. The focus 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:14.760 on geolocation, coupled with anonymity, made the app extremely popular 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.720 with school campuses, and yakyak largely catered to that audience. 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.360 This also meant there was a lot of abuse. There 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.640 was no accountability right there was no connection to a 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.560 specific person, so people could post to the platform and 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:33.520 they could bully other folks or worse. So there were 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.680 these stories popping up all around the United States about 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.120 how the app was bringing out the absolute worst in 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.640 people and endangering folks. Right Like, let's say that you 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:49.440 belonged to a minority population in a particular campus university 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.320 of Even if someone's not specifically calling you out, it 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.839 might be easy to figure out who people are talking about, 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.640 which could definitely hurt your mental health, or they could 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:02.080 even be calling for more extremes that could endanger your 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:06.760 physical health. So pressure built against the company, and eventually 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.240 yakyak cave to it. So in twenty fifteen, yakyk made 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.440 a massive change and required users to register a handle 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.000 with the site, So all messages now would be attributed 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.400 to a handle. They wouldn't be fully anonymous. Now, it 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.040 was still a handle, not your name, so it wasn't 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.840 exactly the same thing as signing your name to your 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.200 own words, but it was a lot closer than what 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:33.280 had come before. Hardcore users hated this change, and eventually 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.320 yak yak kind of backed off a bit and made 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.040 it an optional feature, but by then the user base 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.760 had been alienated and had dwindled, and in twenty seventeen, 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.360 the company announced that the app was shutting down due 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.600 to that dwindling user base. They actually did a sell 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:53.440 off Square, the company that is behind online payment systems. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.680 They purchased essentially the IP but really more like they 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:01.320 purchased the engineering talent of Yaka and brought them on board. 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.880 And it was for reportedly like just a million dollars, 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:06.840 which is still a lot of money. Don't get me wrong. 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:09.880 A million dollars is a lot, but it's nothing compared 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.920 to what yik yak was valued at a few years earlier. 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:18.040 And so yik yak effectively stopped being a thing in 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:22.080 twenty seventeen, and it stayed in the grave for four years. 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.920 But then in February twenty twenty one, a group of 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:29.520 new owners who remained mysterious and unnamed. Like everywhere I 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.320 look to find out who the heck owned yak yak 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.600 between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty three, didn't have 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.400 information about that anyway, They purchased yik yak and announced 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.040 plans to relaunch, and sure enough, late in the summer 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:45.280 of twenty twenty one, the app came back. Now two 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.440 years later, in twenty twenty three, another company called side 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.400 Chat scooped up yik yak. Now side chats. Shtick was 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:54.960 essentially the same as yik yak. Side Chat had an 0:08:55.000 --> 0:09:01.000 anonymous posting platform that largely was targeting college campus side 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.079 Chat was not as popular as yak yak. A lot 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.599 of yak yak users felt that side Chat's user interface 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:13.199 was inferior, and initially yakyak users were getting messages where 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.560 they were being urged to migrate to side chat and 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.600 they hated it. Eventually that would change, where yak yak 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:25.280 would remain a thing, but effectively transformed into side chat. 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.000 You know, its interface became more of side Chat's interface. 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.240 By the way, I based this all off of blog 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.679 posts and articles and message boards because I wasn't on 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.280 yik yak at the time, so I had no idea 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.680 what was going on. But while the initial yak yak 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.960 was popular with campuses, this new version specifically focused on 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.360 university students, like almost like exclusively. As opposed to it 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.880 being a community based thing or a regional base thing. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:55.640 It was specifically a campus based thing, and occasionally it 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.400 sounds like it would even make mistakes and accidentally assign 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.520 someone to a university that was not the one they 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.720 actually went to, which could be really hairy, right because 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.120 if I were to join yik yak and it suggested 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.040 I was a student at Georgia Tech, that's fighting words 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:13.600 because I attended the University of Georgia. Now that probably 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:15.440 means nothing to most of you, but just know those 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:19.040 two schools have had a long standing rivalry that goes 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:23.160 between being you know, good natured ribbing and genuine, deep 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.600 seated loathing. So if you had one student misidentified as 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:30.439 going to the other school, that could be fighting words. 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.480 Now I should say that yaikyak currently is only back 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.679 for iOS users as I record this podcast. Now, the 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:44.040 relaunch did at one point include Android, and apparently it 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.480 was only active for a very short while before in 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.320 the spring of twenty twenty three, the company said that 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.480 they were shutting down Android support in order to focus 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.439 on building out features for the iOS version. Now, again, 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.680 I can't check this app out. I'm an Android user. 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.000 Plus I'm not a college student, so I have to 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.800 rely on articles and Reddit posts to read up on it. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.000 And it sounds to me that in the past you 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.720 could register for yik yak just with your phone number, 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.800 but now since the side chat acquisition, you have to 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:17.320 supply a university email address to create an account university 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.959 or college email address, and if you don't have one 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.160 of those, you can't have an account, and that has 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.720 upset a lot of users because it meant that they're one. 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.120 If they're not in college, they can't be part of 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.760 this anymore. Though honestly, I don't see why you would 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.640 necessarily want to be, But then that's probably because I 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.280 feel a lot of empathy for the folks who were bullied, 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.559 but it also is a reason. One reason they don't 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.800 want to do it anymore is because their actual identity 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.360 would be associated with their account, maybe not directly, like 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.640 the actual posts would be anonymous, but the site would 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.600 know who you were because you would have an email 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:57.520 address tied to your identity to register for the site. Arguably, 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.360 you could say the same thing is true because for 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:02.840 the old version, because you had to supply a phone number, 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.599 so unless you're buying burner numbers just for yaekiyak, it 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.600 would be pretty easy to figure out who you were. 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:11.920 But it also means that if you're not a college student, 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:14.520 or you're not on faculty or staff, then you're completely 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.200 out of the loop. There's a lot of competition in 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.160 the anonymous message board space these days. Seems to me 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.880 that a lot of the companies behind these apps typically 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.000 will reach a level of success that brings more attention 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:32.000 to their activities and perhaps their flaws, let's say, and 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.040 then they feel pressure to change things in order to 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.880 make their apps less prone to abuse, because now people 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.680 are paying attention to them and calling them out. And 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:44.800 then subsequently, after making these changes, the apps decline in 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.240 popularity because it turns out the user base the stuff 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.640 that they really liked happened to be the same stuff 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.920 that also facilitated abuse. Not to say that users all 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:59.000 enjoyed and piling on folks and abusing people, but that 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:03.480 the same features that made it easy to abuse folks 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.160 were also the features that people just really liked. That 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:08.880 kind of seems to be the life cycle for these 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:12.360 kinds of applications. They launch, they go viral, they get 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.720 really big, folks notice that sometimes really awful people are 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.880 using that app to do really awful things. The app 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.440 then ends up making changes in an effort to not 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.920 be held accountable for these things, and then it alienates 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.400 the user base, both the good and the bad users. 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.720 It then declines in popularity, then it fades into memory, 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.160 your rentse and you repeat. Now, I can't say for 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.319 certain that's what's happening with Yak Yak. There are a 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.160 lot of users who say that it's not as good 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.360 as it used to be, that they don't see the appeal. 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.280 The fact that it doesn't it's not available for Android 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.680 users is a huge thing. It means that a large 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.720 amount of the population can't even access it. Maybe the 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.520 company will manage to relaunch for Android and regain some momentum, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.240 or maybe it's on the path back toward obsolescence. Okay, 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.040 we've got more failed app to talk about. Before we 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:14.040 do that, let's stop for a moment and thank our sponsors. Okay, 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.880 we're back. So no list of failed apps would be 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:25.040 complete without Quibi. Holy cats. This was a massive whiff 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.560 with a whole lot of money and some really heavy 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.400 hitters in both the entertainment and tech industries at the wheel, 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.760 and it still crashed and burned. It was the brainchild 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:41.280 of Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had forged a legendary career in Hollywood. 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.880 You know, he became really well known at Disney and 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.520 then created dream Works, and Quibi was hoping to tap 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:53.680 into that same magic that Hollywood success and also the 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.840 same magic that TikTok boasts. That was the key was 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.440 can we make something inspired by the success of TikTok, 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.120 and that was namely short form content, And in the 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.760 case of Quibi, the short form would be videos that 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:13.520 would last ten minutes or less. However, unlike TikTok, Quibi 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.160 productions would have some serious money behind them. We're talking 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.960 about really high production values, stuff that you would see 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.680 that would be akin to a television or film studio. 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:28.640 And if TikTok can knock them dead with DIY shorts 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.240 created by just any Yahoo out there, surely an entertainment 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:37.760 app with serious Hollywood credentials could make a killing right now. 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.120 On the tech side, former HP CEO Meg Whitman was 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:46.000 on board, and Whitman and Katzenberg brainstormed the structure and 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:50.640 execution of Quibi. They also are argued a lot. Witman 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:54.720 would later essentially say that Katzenberg would undermine her decisions 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:56.920 and was micromanaging, and there seem to be a lot 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.240 of bad blood at the top levels at Quibi, which 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.640 was just one of many problems. But the company signed 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:09.600 on various actors, directors, writers, and associated people to create 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:15.120 content for the site. They poured approximately a billion dollars 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.400 to that effect. Some of the content created consisted of 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.200 standalone short videos right like it was just a one 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.880 and done ten minutes or less video, but some were 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.680 actually serialized. They were longer pieces and divided up into 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.520 ten minute long chapters. This, in turn was a really 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.720 tricky because, like, if you're gonna divide a movie into 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.640 ten minute long chapters, you need a way to entice 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.160 people to continue after a chapter is over, and in 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.120 my opinion, it becomes like a Dan Brown novel where 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.560 every chapter ends in a cliffhanger to try and incentivize 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.920 people to go to the next chapter. And personally, I 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:57.960 find that kind of narrative exhausting and not very satisfying. 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.920 I am not a Dan Brown fan, nothing against him, 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:05.080 I just it doesn't appeal to me to end every 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:09.320 few pages with another cliffhanger. Anyway, they also made a 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:13.639 really odd decision when it came to framing, because the 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.720 whole point of Quibi was that it was intended to 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.320 be consumed on smartphones, and as I'm sure you're aware, 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.520 we're used to watching television programs in landscape format, that is, 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.919 the picture is wider than it is tall, right, But 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:33.200 for phones, we often hold phones in portrait mode, where 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.560 it's taller than it is wide. Otherwise you have to 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.199 turn the dang phone on its side, and there's a 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.880 chance you'll end up watching a tiny video with huge 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.200 black bars above and below it. So one choice Quibi's 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:50.119 founders made is that all content should be viewable in 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:53.359 full screen, whether the user was holding their phone in 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.960 portrait or landscape mode, and that you could switch back 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:58.720 and forth. So you could hold it in portrait mode 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:00.240 and then say you know what, I want to see 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.760 this in wide screen, turn your phone landscape. It would switch, 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.760 and in both versions the image would completely fill the 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.640 screen of your phone. That's a big deal, even though 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.760 it might not sound like it, because if you're a 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.760 director or cinematographer, part of your job is making sure 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:21.200 all the important information for the viewer is available within 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.440 the frame. Obviously that's going to be different if the 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.560 finished product is to be viewed in portrait mode rather 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.040 than landscape you need to figure out how are you 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.400 going to frame the image so that it works in 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.080 both formats, or you might have to use things like 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.879 pan and scan or switching views to get the information across. Right, Like, 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.520 you might have a scene where you have two characters, 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.280 one far left and one far right on the screen. 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:48.200 They're talking to each other, and in landscape mode, that's fine, 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.439 you can see it, but you switch it to portrait 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:52.960 mode and now there's not enough room on the screen 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:56.160 to get both characters in frame. What do you do? 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.600 Do you have an empty frame where both characters are 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.360 off screen, one off screen left and one off screen right. 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:04.560 Do you just focus on one character and then you 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.639 switch whenever the dialogue changes so that you get a 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.359 different view when character one speaks versus character two? Do 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.719 you pan back and forth? Which is that swimmy effect 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:19.200 you often get if you watch like old old home video, 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:21.800 not home video, but you know videos that were made 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.959 for home video use. You will often get that scanning feature. 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.640 Because televisions were in the old four to three aspect 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:33.119 ratio and they couldn't incorporate a wide screen picture unless 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.560 they did the bars at the top or bottom or both, 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:37.679 and a lot of people hated those. They wanted to 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:39.720 have the image take up the whole screen, So you 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:45.280 end up having this digital panning, which I absolutely detested. Well, 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:47.919 you have to make those decisions, or do you end 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:51.600 up blocking all of your shots so that all the 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.600 relevant information can be seen in one view, even if 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:57.679 it's portrait, in which case you might just have a 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:01.119 lot of unused space, like negative space in the frame 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:03.680 if you're watching it widescreen, or maybe you shoot with 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.119 multiple cameras so that way, one camera is taking the 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:11.200 landscape version of the shot, one camera's taking the portrait 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.120 version of the shot. Like, there's a lot of complex 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:16.320 things you have to think of behind the scenes from 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:21.160 a content creator standpoint, beyond just the technology of if 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:23.800 you turn your phone, you want the frame to be 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:28.000 completely full. So this was a real issue that goes 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.000 a technical challenge, and they did not have enough time 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:32.960 to figure out how to deal with that in a 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:36.800 way that was satisfying anyway. That whole design decision became 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.600 a big hurdle. But another hurdle was that Quibi was 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.159 meant to be mobile only by design. It was not 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:45.399 intended to be an app that you would access on 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:49.199 a computer or smart television or streaming box or anything 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.239 like that, and something that was outside the control and 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:55.679 not predicted by the folks at Quibi when they were 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:59.560 putting together their business plan was the COVID nineteen pandemic, 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.679 which took a lot of us totally by surprise. So 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.720 Quibi was really intended to be used for a world 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.320 that was on the go, right. The use case was 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.879 that you would be out in the real world and 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.600 you would have time to kill. Maybe you're waiting in 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:16.879 line of the bank, or maybe you're sitting on a 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:18.840 subway and you're on your way to work and you 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.240 just need something to distract you from the tedium of life. 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:26.160 Boom Quib is there to save the day. High production 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:30.840 value scripted entertainment or you know, like game shows or whatever, 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.520 but still high production value, not the type of stuff 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:37.639 you would see typically on a site like TikTok. Except 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:39.840 the app launched just as the world was shutting down 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:42.480 and going into quarantine in twenty twenty, so the use 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.400 case for the app was no longer relevant, at least 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.840 not for the several first months of the app's existence. 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:52.320 Plenty of critics said that even without the pandemic, Quibi 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:55.320 would have just totally failed, But certainly the lockdown was 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:58.160 a massive blow to the service when there were plenty 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:01.080 of other options folks could act when they were at home. 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:05.560 Why use Quibi if you have access to Netflix or 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.800 one of the billion other streaming services that are out 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.240 there now. The Verge has an article going through other 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:16.919 reasons why Quibi flopped. The writer Julia Alexander argues in 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:19.760 that piece that one big reason is that none of 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.280 the shows on Quibbi were particularly good, and that is 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:25.879 a really tough problem. It is hard to convince folks 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:29.640 to flock to your streaming service if the stuff you're 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:35.000 streaming isn't very entertaining or compelling. Alexander actually says, quote 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:39.280 most titles felt like jokes straight out of thirty Rock 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:42.200 end quoteff if you don't know what that means. Thirty 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:47.399 Rock was this sitcom, a satirical sitcom about creating a 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:51.920 late night comedy variety show a kin to Saturday Night Live. 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:57.000 And often the show was joking about different shows that 0:22:57.080 --> 0:23:00.600 the network was launching, and they were always ridiculous, and 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:03.200 you know, you would never really expect to see such 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.200 a show in the real world well, Quibi apparently brought 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:10.200 those kinds of shows to the real world. Initially, Quibi 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.240 offered a free subscription for a few months to early users, 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.199 kind of a trial period, but once that trial period 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:19.200 ran out, users were then given the option to subscribe 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:21.680 to the service either for five dollars a month, which 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:25.359