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- MoviePbad's competitor, Sinemia, has closed in the United States, the company said Thursday.
- Sinemia said that "his efforts to cover the cost of unexpected legal proceedings and to raise the funds necessary for the continuation of operations have not been sufficient".
- The movie ticket subscription service faced a clbad action brought by customers and promised to give users that it had just terminated partial refunds.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
MoviePbad's competitor, Sinemia, has ceased operations in the United States, the company said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday. The brutal closure took place just before the opening of "Avengers: Endgame", which is already breaking records at the box office, in movie theaters.
"We are all witnessing the future of movie theaters evolving through movie ticket subscriptions," said the movie ticket subscription service. "However, we do not see the path of sustainability as an independent movie ticket subscription service to the competition from movie theaters that build their own subscriptions."
The company's announcement did not specify whether customers who were paying for annual plans in advance would receive a partial refund.
Sinemia said that "his efforts to cover the cost of unexpected legal proceedings and to raise the funds necessary for the continuation of operations have not been sufficient".
Some clients filed a clbad action suit in November, which was amended at the end of February, alleging that Sinemia had ripped them off by introducing new "processing fees". MoviePbad also filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against Sinemia.
Sinemia said in March it ended "about 3% of its accounts due to misuse or fraudulent activity". But more than 100 users contacted Business Insider, explaining that their accounts had been closed unfairly. One user even went as far as documenting on video and posting on YouTube the process of getting his account canceled by trying to buy a "Captain Marvel" ticket. Sinemia had promised to offer terminated users a partial refund of the difference between what they had poured into their Sinemia plan and what Sinemia had paid in movie theaters.
Sinemia was launched in Turkey in 2014 and also operates in countries such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. It is not known how the operations in these countries will be affected.
MoviePbad has faced its own financial challenges. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars, the company was forced to change its features to stay in business, which has caused its number of subscribers to grow from over 3 million to around 225,000.
Here is the complete statement of Sinemia published Thursday:
Dear Customer,
Today, with a heavy heart, we announce that Sinemia is closing and that operations in the United States stop immediately.
As Sinemia, we have defined our journey with the vision of helping as many movie-goers as possible to enjoy an affordable and better movie experience by creating a movie ticket subscription service that adds value to filmmakers. moviegoers and industry. Since 2014, we have been fine-tuning our model and providing film lovers with many affordable and flexible subscription plans.
We are all witnessing the future of cinematography through subscription to movie tickets. However, we do not see the path of sustainability as an independent movie ticket subscription service to the competition of movie theaters that build their own subscriptions. With the benefit of cost and cross-selling opportunities, movie theaters will occupy a prominent place in the economy of movie ticket subscription.
While we are proud to have created a service unparalleled in the market, our efforts to cover the cost of unexpected legal proceedings and to raise the funds necessary to continue operations have not been sufficient. Competition in the US market and fundamental economic considerations regarding the costs of providing Sinemia's end-to-end experience finally led to the decision to close our operations in the United States.
Despite all the efforts of our team, it has been difficult for us, as a start-up, to continue to provide our services to moviegoers in the United States without the resources or capital needed to cope with increased legal costs and costs. operations.
We want to sincerely thank our customers who believed in us and helped us all along their journey for their love and support.
We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to share our dream with you.
Sinemia Inc.
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