Which is a better business model?
A: Have 10 great movie producers to produce 200 short videos for your digital platform over two years (Quibi like).
Quibi is a media company that develops media content designed for smartphones
B: Allow tens of thousands of amateur creators, and use an AI to select the best videos daily and distribute them massively in your platform (Tiktok like).
TikTok is a short-video sharing app and social network platform that develops a lip-syncing video application to create videos.
In 2000, Option A would have been a good business because the computing resources to run AI and crunch the numbers were not (commonly) available for Option B. But with cloud computing and the age of AI here, Option B wins. The probability of getting a hit video compounds in Option B while A is limited by the insights of just 10 people; virality is key for short movies. That is why Tiktok will remain a better business than Quibi which is looking for a buyer despite being under the guidance of legendary Jeffrey Katzenberg. People, as I have noted in the Grand Playbook of Business, your business model is more important than your ability to execute.
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Quibi can’t catch a break, even after becoming a two-time Emmy-winner. Less than six months after Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman launched their short-form video streaming startup, the company’s drama “#FreeRayshawn” nabbed acting trophies for stars Laurence Fishburne and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
The accolades from the Television Academy apparently didn’t impress Emmys host Jimmy Kimmel. The ABC late-night comic quipped during the Sunday night broadcast that the newcomer had “10 Emmy nominations this year, including outstanding short form comedy or drama and dumbest thing to ever cost a billion dollars.”
Yes, in ancestral Igbo, a dream of fetching water is full of vitality because the road to the stream is never covered by weeds. But dreaming of fetching a firewood is bad as after the woods are gone, the weeds take over the road. So, you want to be fetching water over fetching firewood as it means there is a future.
Improve your business model.
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But it’s not possible to have multiple Tiktoks, because it’s a winner takes all playbook, while it’s possible to have multiple Quibis performing at good level.
There is a giant caveat with choice of business model, some things are never meant to be tried at home.
Look before you leap, to avoid stories that touch…
I agree Tiktok killed Quibi. If there are going to be “Quibi” like productions, look to how those sorts of channels are appearing on Youtube. Quibi was a closed platform.