Short-form video platform Quibi Holdings LLC started 2020 aiming to shatter the traditional constraints around mobile streaming. But it will end the year shuttered.

The company, founded by film and TV mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, launched in April after months of fanfare and rumors, offering users a range of shows and films delivered in "quick bites," episodes and chapters just a few minutes long. Six months later, it announced it would cease operations and put its technology and content assets up for sale.

There are many different theories as to why the service failed. Katzenberg repeatedly blamed the pandemic, saying in May that the coronavirus was responsible for "everything that has gone wrong" for the service. More recently, however, he and Quibi CEO Meg Whitman were more circumspect, saying there were likely multiple factors at play, including the pandemic and "because the idea itself wasn't strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service."

Whatever the reason, it is clear that Quibi has struggled from the start.

Sensor Tower data showed Quibi tallied only 300,000 downloads on the first day after its launch, as compared to 4 million day-one downloads for The Walt Disney Co.'s Disney+. By April 22, Katzenberg said the service had reached 2.7 million downloads, but The Verge later reported the service was facing a high churn rate following the end of its three-month free trial.

Also weighing on Quibi's prospects has been a lawsuit from Eko claiming patent infringement for Quibi's Turnstyle technology. Following the announcement that Quibi would shutter, Eko on Oct. 30 asked a California court to freeze Quibi's assets as it seeks $96.5 million in damages. Earlier in the month, a lawyer representing Eko warned that Quibi would need to settle the suit before shutting down.

Now, although Quibi said it would seek to sell its technology and content assets, analysts say finding a buyer could be a difficult prospect. The company reportedly approached several potential buyers and was unable to secure a bid.

Moreover, the proprietary Turnstyle technology, which enables viewers to switch their phones between portrait and landscape mode during the video, is at the center of the Eko lawsuit.

Analysts nevertheless said Quibi may be able to find a buyer on reasonable terms from its long list of investors, which includes a range of media and internet companies. However, among the companies Quibi approached, The Wall Street Journal singled out Comcast Corp. and said it turned down Katzenberg's offer, even though Comcast-owned NBCUniversal was listed as one of Quibi's early stakeholders.

That list of investors also includes Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., film studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., legacy Japanese tech and media conglomerate Sony Corp., Disney and AT&T Inc.'s WarnerMedia.

Those and other high-profile investors put undisclosed amounts into Katzenberg's mobile vision in two rounds of funding totaling $1.75 billion. The first $1 billion round came in August of 2018. The second $750 million round came December 2019, just four months before ill-fated Quibi cancelled its launch party due to the coronavirus pandemic and commenced operations a day later.

The research group Loup Ventures sees a number of different lessons to be learned from Quibi's collapse, including several that have to do with Quibi's funding strategy.

"Companies that raise mega-rounds often gain an aura of being unstoppable, but money doesn't equate to success," the group said, noting that "money is never a guarantee" that a product will fit market demand.

Second, the group said, "Large funding rounds decrease the margin for error, not increase it." Based on the amount of money raised right off, Quibi's best option was to eventually go public, according to Loup's analysts. To go public, the company needed to attract millions of subscribers right off the bat and keep them.

"The magnitude of Quibi's financing locked the company into a vision and milestones with minimal flexibility. The unfortunate result was failure," the group said.

Finally, because Quibi raised so much money so early in its lifespan, it went straight to delivering a finished product, with snazzy technology and expensive content, rather than developing a rough prototype and testing it with audiences.

"Nearly $2 billion in financing gave Quibi the opportunity to try the initial idea, but it didn't give the company the flexibility to adapt to market response. The well was dry after so many resources went into the initial idea," the analysts said.