Critic
Quibi Competes With Social Media, Not TV. It May Make Both Better
After a week of testing the new $2 billion app from Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, our reviewer was surprised by what turned out to be its strengths.
Illustration: Jaci Kessler Lubliner
When Quibi (pronounced “kwih-BEE”) was introduced, the masterminds behind it had us right where they wanted: trapped at home, with little to do but obsessively clean and watch hours of content.
Yet, after a week of testing, it’s a little hard for me to tell how I’ll slot the app’s hundreds of roughly seven-minute episodes into my life when things return to normal. Certainly not at night, when the glow of the jumbo television screen lures me in. And not during the one- or two-minute spare windows in the day I use to check Facebook. I’ll be honest. Quibi-ing is what I want to do when work feels tedious—and I know my boss isn’t paying attention.