Quibi is Offering Something Impressive, But Does Anyone Want It?
The world loves Chrissy Teigen, but Quibi is not going to be able to promote the service based on intermittent interest in a sea of middling content
Quibi, the streaming startup headed by Meg Whitman and Jeffery Katzenberg, is set to launch in April. In short, Quibi aims to develop extremely high-quality video (think Game of Thrones) that will be distributed on mobile devices. The content will be delivered in short episodes, likely under 20 minutes. In many cases, episodes will eventually be stitched together into longer pieces of content. It will be a subscription service, so you’ll have to pay to see what Quibi has to offer.
Quibi put their PR campaign into overdrive at CES, the tech expo that occurred earlier this month. Whitman and Katzenberg gave a keynote presentation, talked with reporters, and showed demos of the service in action. They further articulated Quibi’s mobile-first experience, which hinges on its “Turnstyle” viewing format (more on that in a bit). They announced that they had raised an additional $400 million, which adds to the $1 billion they had already raised.
This is unimportant, but since I’m writing about Quibi, I must tell you that the name Quibi is short for…
