The history and failure of Quibi, and ebook vs. print books

The Quibi story is both short and epic. In January 2020, company founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman were onstage at CES delivering an hour-long presentation on how they were about to upend the entertainment business. They’d developed new tech, signed up seemingly half the stars in Hollywood, and had raised more than a billion dollars to pull it off. By October, it was all over. Quibi was shutting down.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we’re once again trying out a couple of our favorite new show formats. First up is the rewatch show, which we’re calling Version History. We talk through the whole story of Quibi, from its early days as NewTV to its extremely ill-timed launch and ultimate demise. Is there a world in which Quibi could have worked? Could a company called Quibi have actually succeeded? We have much to discuss.

Next, we try out our as-yet-untitled debate show, in which The Verge’s Kevin Nguyen and Alex Cranz take on a surprisingly contentious topic: is the future of books print or digital? Each gets to make their case, before having it ruthlessly ripped to shreds in front of their eyes.

(We’d love to know what you think about these new formats, by the way! We’re trying out lots of new stuff, and we’re always looking to expand and even launch new shows — so we want to know everything you think we should do more of, do less of, or do differently. You can send us an email at vergecast@theverge.com, call the hotline at 866-VERGE11, or just leave us a comment here.)

Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline about a very unusual shopping situation for MP3 players. Turns out, there are good reasons to still want a dedicated music player.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on Quibi:

And on the future of books: