Meet Quibi, The ‘Short-Clip’ Streaming Service

You’ve likely heard about the newest member of the streaming service family, Quibi, already, however, what exactly is the deal with this new short-clip streaming platform? Quibi itself stands for “Quick Bites” which refers to the length of every episode on the app, as it’s designed for television viewers on the go. It initially launched on April 6th of this year, and consisted of 24 series to choose from; each series had episodes no longer than 10 minutes. 

Quibi has featured a multitude of well-known celebrity personalities in its advertisements to attract skeptical users. Chrissy Teigan, Will Arnett, Nicole Richie, Sophie Turner, Liam Hemsworth and more are all featured in original Quibi programming. The content on the platform includes comedies, dramas, docu-series, thrillers, and reality series as well, as time goes on more and more shows will obviously be produced and uploaded as well. 

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Many individuals on social media criticized Quibi for basically being a glorified YouTube-type platform that you have to pay for, however, it’s a little more complex than that. The content on Quibi is like that of any other original series on streaming services like Netflix or Hulu, in the sense that they all have Hollywood resources supporting them on the back end, so the quality is more similar to shows like “Stranger Things” as opposed to a teenager in their bedroom with a ring light. Here’s some examples of the content that’s currently streaming: 

“Dishmantled” is hosted by “Unforgettable Kimmy Schmidt” actor Tituss Burgess, who already has one of the biggest personalities in Hollywood currently. In his show, Burgess hosts a culinary competition of sorts, if you can even call it that. Contestants are to wear full-body hazmat gear as they stand in front of a canon while it blasts food at them. Contestants are then supposed to taste as much of the food that hits them in the face as they can, and whoever does the best at identifying the most food, wins. 

Mark Wahlberg produced the documentary series “Run This City” on Quibi, which is meant to be an entertaining story about the political rise and fall of Jasiel Correia II, who was the youngest mayor to run the town of Fall River, Massachusetts at 23-years-old. This series is meant to explore Correia as an individual, and begs the question, how much of his campaign was genuine, and how much of it was actually a scam? You’ll have to watch to find out. 

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“I Promise” is a series that was produced by LeBron James as a means to promote his school in Ohio. The show follows kids and teachers that are attending an experimental alternative school as they go through the traditional trials and tribulations of America’s education system, as well as overcoming other obstacles on the way. 

One of the other unique qualities that Quibi claims to separate them from other platforms is the fact that it shines a light on a lot of subcultures within our society that don’t often get explored on television. Some examples of these series include “NightGowns” which follows RuPaul’s Drag Race Winner Sasha Velour as she takes us behind-the-scenes of her cabaret performances. Other series include “You Ain’t Got These” which explores the art of “sneak culture” in America. 

Quibi currently is $5 a month for limited service, and $8 a month if you don’t want any advertisements. So, how worth it is this new streaming service? It honestly depends on preference, there are so many services out there currently that the only person who can tell you which platform to choose, is you. The best way to go about it is to really look at the content of each, and decide which best suits your lifestyle and interests, so get streaming!