i3 - November/December 2019 - 8

Tech

By Cindy Loffler Stevens

I N N OVATO R

Quibi CEO
Meg Whitman

uibi, a new Hollywood-based short-form streaming startup led by
CEO Meg Whitman and Founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, stands for
"quick bites" of video. The company plans to take premium films
shot by award-winning directors like Steven Spielberg and
Catherine Hardwicke and present them in episodic chapters no
longer than 10 minutes. The unique value proposition? This storytelling will only be created for mobile phones. According to
market research firm eMarketer, consumers are now watching
close to 70 minutes of video on smartphones each day. In the last year, Quibi has
raised $1 billion in financing from Disney, WarnerMedia, and other major studios
and investors and has numerous projects planned with famous filmmakers.
Whitman, who previously ran for governor of California and was CEO of both
HP and eBay, talked with i3 about Quibi's unique business model aimed at millennials that will launch in April.

pricing levels - $4.99 per month with advertising and $7.99 per month without. In terms
of advertising, Quibi is offering a uniquely
uncluttered environment with a single nonskippable 6-, 10-, and 15-second pre-roll
before Quibi content. Additionally, Quibi will
be experimenting with a number of other
innovative ad formats on the platform to
provide advertisers with new ways to tell
brand stories.

Q What makes Quibi unique? Are other

streaming services from Apple, Disney Plus
and Warner Media competitive?
A Quibi does not compete with these other
services because we have a truly unique
use case for the product. Our mission is to
make every mobile moment extraordinary.
We started with the notion that people are
living their lives on the go and there was
a need to fill those in-between moments
throughout the day with something amazing: the ten minutes you spend waiting
at the doctor's office or your 20 minute
subway ride to work.
8

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

Q What partnerships have you forged?
A Quibi announced that it has sold over

$100 million of its first-year advertising
inventory. The company's roster of category
exclusive advertising partners who will
support the launch in April of 2020 include
Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, ABInBev,
Walmart, Progressive and Google.

Q How does your management style differ
from founder Jeffrey Katzenberg?

A Jeffrey and I see almost everything differ-

ently - and that's our superpower. When we
work together, the different strengths we
bring, from Hollywood and Silicon Valley,
give us the potential to create something
new and powerful.

Q Can you talk about some of the artists

developing original content and the innovative content ownership deal Quibi offers?
A Action Scene stars Kevin Hart as he plays a
fictionalized version of himself on a quest to
land the action movie role of a lifetime. After
being rejected for the role, Kevin randomly
encounters a leading A-List action movie
star which inadvertently sets off a chain

of events, causing Kevin to fight his way
through a series of hilarious, over-the-top
action sequences with the help of some of
Hollywood's biggest action movie heroes.
Antoine Fuqua's #Freerayshawn tells the
story of a young, black Iraq War veteran
named Rayshawn (Stephan James) who
is set up by New Orleans police on a drug
deal, runs for his life and takes refuge
inside his apartment building with his
girlfriend and child. With New Orleans PD
and the SWAT team outside ready to storm
his home, a social media frenzy begins as
community members and news outlets
arrive at the scene. During this growing mayhem, a sympathetic cop named
Steven Poincy (Laurence Fishburne) plays
the role of negotiator, and, over the course
of one brutally stressful day, Steven tries
to get Rayshawn to calmly surrender in
order to avoid an escalation of unnecessary violence.
Catherine Hardwicke's Don't Look
Deeper is set in Merced, California,
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Brinson+Banks

Q What is your business model?
A Quibi is a subscription service with two

i3 - November/December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - November/December 2019