BlogSat

I'm spending a lot more time on TikTok recently, and so found myself reflecting a little longer than usual after reading this great article by Ben Thompson on TikTok and Quibi . I won't repeat all his insights, but the thing that stuck with me is his comment that Katzenberg's thesis that led to the founding of Quibi was right. It definitely was. I remember thinking at the time that he was definitely right on the trends. The thesis was roughly There was a lot of entertainment consumption shifting to phones. There was an opportunity to innovate there.  Shorter content was probably part of the answer as people's attentions and habits  However, the set of decisions and the execution the team decided on was informed by their backgrounds and assumptions. They innovated on format ( vertical/horizontal ) and on length (all content is under 10 mins) and then bet big on premium content (celebrities, high production value and great scripts) to attract users and a regula...

A line about Disney that has really stuck with me over they years is "Disney owns your childhood". Across the "original" Disney characters and stories, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars (and now even more with Fox acquisitions) - a single company owns a lot (not all, but probably close to a majority) of the IP that I really care about - that I associate with happiness as a child and as adult. I assumed the same would be true of my son (6) and daughter (3), and to some extent it is. It's not just what they watch and read. They absolutely loved going to Disneyland and love a lot of the characters - my daughter goes to be with a Minnie doll. So I assumed when I got Disney+, they'd be watching a lot of it - surprisingly that isn't case! We watch "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" occasionally and the Cars shorts, but probably because my son doesn't like the idea of sitting down for a whole movie that much, we just don't spend that much time on the ...