♪ emily: she is one of the most prominent ceos and women in tech history. meg whitman ran ebay for a decade, then ran for governor of california. whitman lost that race but didn't stop there. she took over the struggling tech icon hewlett-packard with a massive turnaround effort that led to her splitting the company in two. she found her latest act outside of silicon valley. she teamed up with dreamworks founder jeffrey --tzenberg to start equity

which they believe will revolutionize entertainment. joining me today on "studio 1.0," meg whitman, former ceo of ebay. good to have you here. the last time you talk to to us, you were ceo of hp. you have had a few life changes in the last year. meg: i know. i stepped down in march this past year. a i thought i will take a break. i will do some things. i am the incoming chairperson of teach for america. i was focused on that. emily: did you take a break? meg: not really. which might be my nature, i am afraid. my long-term friend jeffrey katzenberg came to see me. he shared with me this idea. at the time it was called new tv. i spent 3.5 hours at dinner with him and said it is a good idea. i might have one more start up in me. emily: you met at disney and work on the board of dreamworks. did you want to leave the proverbial silicon valley? were you ready for a change? meg: i wasn't thinking i would.

i loved the bay area. emily: now you live here. meg: yeah. when you do a startup you have to live where the company is. ultimately, i decided we had to be together. emily: you were employee number one. meg: i was employee number one. emily: quickly means quick bite. so this is a short form video platform setting on six to 10 minute episodes of short form content. why do you think that is the future? meg: i think a couple things. we know the revolution that has been started by mobile. and today, our target audience of 25 to 35-year-olds is spending nearly 12 hours on their mobile. you leave your home with a little tv in your pocket, your smart phone. you have in between moments, waiting for a friend for lunch, a doctor's office. in a you have 10 minutes. you want to see something great. what you are doing is watching some of the great youtube and snapchat, facebook, social

networking. maybe playing casual games. we want to steal a little bit of that in between time by making hollywood quality content in short form. emily: it is interesting you mentioned youtube and snapchat and facebook. it doesn't seem like the audience has flooded there in droves for their short content. what makes you think this is the might -- length? meg: youtube is generated by users. this is not. this is produced hollywood quality content with the greatest actors, show runners, and directors we can put together. it is a you really unique content strategy that we think will fit that on the go lifestyle perfectly. you can't afford to make this quality content if advertising is your main form of modernization. this will be advertising plus

subscribing. it allows us to spend $1000 a minute for what we call our lighthouse stories. emily: what makes you think people will pay for another subscription service? netflix just raised their prices. meg: this is different from netflix. you get home from work or you are on a weekend, you immerse yourself in a show. we are going after a different use case during the day. remember when hbo launched, their tagline was we are not tv. we are hbo. "band of brothers" would be today $30 million an episode. they were able to do content like "the sopranos" and others that would not have been allowed on tv. we think this can live right alongside whatever you choose to subscribe to. emily: you have raised a billion dollars from major studios, disney, warner, investors in china.

is that enough to compete with the likes of netflix? meg: we are not competing with netflix per se. emily: you are for a time share. -- mind share. meg: only about 10% of netflix, hulu, these longform things are watched on mobile. they are primarily a living room experience prove this is a different thing. i would say we are competing more with social networking and gaming. emily: you have attracted big names. steven spielberg -- meg: this is where jeffrey katzenberg has been so successful in this company. he has been here 40 years, well known, highly respected and has been able to curate the show runners, stars to make content for us. the first content i would call stories that are long but are told in short chapters. all give you an analogy in another medium, the da vinci

code, it is 464 pages. 105 chapters each is five pages long. if you have 10 minutes, you read two chapters. nothing about "the da vinci code" is lesser except the length of the chapter. then we have content we think is quite unique. if you saw it on some other platform you might think it is strange that it is here. one of our favorite ones is justin timberlake will host a show with singers. the question is, who is the song and singer that inspired you? really a show that inspiration. in six and a half minutes, a little gem you might watch while you are on the go. emily: is there a target audience, millennials or younger? meg: it is 25 to 35 is our target because startups are all about focus. how well does how about we do this really well as opposed to solve world hunger? emily: what about distribution? meg: it is an app and we could work with streaming music

services. we will also have the talent to help market this and then brand advertising, and explain what this is. it is completely new behavior. emily: in the last year, the streaming landscape has changed dramatically. disney is launching one, warner, comcast streaming services. how do you keep up? meg: i have never seen the industry be this disruptive as today. there is lots of change. most of the competition today is moving towards longform streaming services. they are all chasing netflix. we are doing, everyone is zigging, we are zagging. emily: disney and other companies are pulling content. netflix, what does netflix have? meg: we have respect for

netflix. let's pause for a moment and contemplate what they have built. it is extraordinary. they have revolutionized the industry and have incredible content. the best talent in hollywood is making content for them. i think this will be a battle but there will be room for one or two players, maybe three. it is very much possible that netflix continues to do well. emily: you think there will be consolidation. meg: netflix will be one of the winners. i can't see a scenario where netflix is not one of the winners. emily: do you think as many streaming services existing now will in the future? meg: probably not. think back to when an industry is firstborn. think about the car industry. at one point there were something like 100 car companies and now there are effectively three u.s. car companies. there will be a lot of entrants, then there will be consolidation and winners and losers but certainly

netflix and disney i am sure will be a winner. i think we need to be prepared for a global economic slowdown. emily: you are now an outsider

looking in on silicon valley. it has been a volatile year, hundreds of billions of dollars wiped off the market caps of face book, apple, amazon. iphone sale slowdown, government scrutiny of tech. why do you think the cloud has darkened over silicon valley? meg: let me tell you what is still remarkable about the silicon valley, especially being removed, you almost appreciate some things more. it is a hub, a center of ideas and new thoughts. it is the most creative place in the world. that is still true. i don't think that changes. some of it is just growing pains

and growing up. i have confidence these guys will sort out there challenges. there will be bumps in the road. emily: facebook has run into a lot of issues, lot of user trust issues. where do you think they went wrong? meg: it is easy to look at them and say where did they go wrong? when you are growing at that rate, you have become so ubiquitous. you do the best job you can at the time and sometimes you make mistakes. you don't see things as clearly as you might have. you will make mistakes. how fast do you fix them? the proof is in the pudding but there is the mission to fix those mistakes that they have acknowledged making. emily: you navigated a historic split at hp. you think these big tech companies are too big for their own good? meg: i don't know. i felt hp had to be broken into smaller, more nimble pieces. but there is a time for a big

i.t. supermarket where tech spending was rocketing, then there comes a time where an industry shifts and you become too big to be nimble enough to fight off competitors that are disrupting you. that is what we saw at hp. when industries get mature or there is a different lifecycle sometimes smaller is , better. not always is bigger better. i don't think the same thing is driving this. people are asking if it is too big, too much power consolidated in these companies? that is different from what we faced at hp. emily: do you think regulation is a threat to these companies? meg: i think the government is very interested in these companies. having been a politician, i will tell you politicians see something happen and their instinct is, what should we be doing to regulate that industry or protect consumers? that instinct isn't necessarily wrong. they have to be thoughtful and

know what they are doing. there could be a role for some regulation. emily: where do you see the biggest risk? meg: tech is moving at lightning speed. i have never seen anything like this. in my early days in my career, you would see trends coming and you had a year or two or three to adapt. now you have a month or two or three. the biggest challenge is time of innovation has shrunk dramatically. you see these new companies coming out of nowhere to disrupt the very thing is that was safe. emily: are facebook and amazon disruptive? meg: for they are. someday, amazon will be disrupted. sears 100 years ago was the amazon of that time. they have been disrupted. it is darwinian. there is no question. emily: when you were running ebay, you made a pledge to win

china. alibaba won china and no u.s. economy did. they said whoever wins china wins the world. is china as important today as it was back then? meg: china is very important. our joint venture partner in china is likely to be alibaba and i am glad to be on the same side as them this time. [laughter] emily: it is a huge market but it has also been difficult for the u.s. entertainment industry to crack. meg: it is unique and unwise to think about going to china alone. i lived in china for four months when i was trying to fix china in ebay and it is completely different. having a strong partner who understands that market is important. emily: what will alibaba provide? meg: they have tremendous scale

in china. it is remarkable how much they have grown in the last 20 years. they have a platform, they have alibaba pictures, music, entertainment properties that hopefully we can leverage, and they have remarkable technology. emily: what is your take on the u.s.-china trade tensions? as we sit in the middle of a trade war. meg: maybe you know this, i tend to be a free trader. global trade, while there is dislocation associated with it, it is the right thing to do. you want a level playing field. there are things we can do better with china, honestly, the free movement of goods and ideas and trade has always been the right thing for the united states. emily: what is at stake? meg: we have to be very thoughtful. second largest economy in the world. there is lots of things we should be doing together. is it good for every single person and every community, no. , we have to keep an

eye on what are the future industries? i'm enough there, 3-d printing , threenotherapy printing, ai. let's make sure we are the best in the world in the industries of the future, because that is always what has made america great. emily: are you concerned about a sharp chinese economic slowdown. meg: the economies of the world now are completely interconnected. what happens in the u.s. influences china, what happens in china influences europe. to the extent there is a trade war or other things that disrupt connectivity, it is possible that you see a slowdown. emily: what about a broader macro economic slowdown? meg: we are due for a contraction and you would see that in december and the markets this year. we should be prepared for an economic global slowdown. emily: you lived through a couple of bubbles, but are we in one? meg: it doesn't feel the same as it did in 2001, 2002.

it does not feel at all the same as 2008, which was a catastrophic connection, but the -- correction, but the economy feels weaker. sometimes these things are self correcting and it is a little dip. the hardest thing i ever did was run for public office. ♪ emily: you ran for governor of

california as a republican. meg: i did. emily: you endorsed hillary clinton in the last election and not much love for president trump. what is your reaction as you have watched the trump administration unfold? meg: as you pointed out, as a lifelong republican i was a supporter of hillary clinton, not for donald trump. the reason i thought was experience actually did matter. you might remember i ran for governor.

one of the things i said was we need to run it like a business, but that was a little naive. but experience, hillary was the most qualified person. you are starting to see the challenges associated with the country's leadership. emily: is the dysfunction enough for you to change party loyalty? meg: i am not a registered republican and a more, i am not a registered democrat. i just want the right person to lead us out of this and create economic opportunity for everybody and live up to the american dream. emily: "the new york times" said you were among the women most likely to be president of the united states. i know that you said you would never run again. has that changed? meg: no. i will never run again. you heard it here. emily: what do you want to see in 2020? are there any candidates you are excited about? meg: it is too early to say.

i am hoping -- when america has been at our most challenged times, someone arrives to hopefully lead the country out. you can go back -- remember, i just watched the ken burns "the civil war" again. that was pretty bad. here comes abraham lincoln. navigates the country through one of the most difficult things. i am hoping someone will emerge who can navigate the country through what i think is a difficult time. emily: do you think there is a real risk of populism dividing our country? meg: you do see big divides. the biggest divide i have seen probably in my lifetime. we are at our best when we come together to solve problems. we are at our best when there is an art of compromise. that seems largely broken down and i do not think it is a good thing. emily: should another republican challenge donald trump? meg: it is hard to challenge a sitting president. we will see what unfolds. emily: any democrats catching your eye?

meg: there is like 24 people at least. i am sure there will be one of those i think is interesting and may be able to lead the country. emily: you were one of the most prominent and earliest female executives in history, so first of all, thank you for paving the way. what has it been like watching the #metoo movement unfold? you were here first. meg: i was. let me give you some analogies. it has been surprising how widespread it has been. it has been i think uplifting for many women and i think it will fundamentally change how business is done, entertainment, law. it will change everything. you can argue it was overdue. we are in a better place as a country and society because of this. emily: has it caused you to reflect on moments of your career where you were made to feel inadequate or small?

meg: i think when you are in the minority -- i was at harvard business, 20% women at least in my class. i was in just the fourth class of women out of princeton. my first class at procter & gamble was four women out of 100. when you are in the minority it is able to feel like you are not part of mainstream. calling this out and having people recognize the impact they have on others is a really good thing. emily: did you feel like you could not be yourself at times? or lead the way you wanted to lead? meg: it is funny, yes. i graduated from harvard and have always gone by meg. i show up to proctor and gamble and i thought, i have got to be serious and taken seriously. i will go by margaret. it sounded better. that lasted for two weeks. it is ridiculous. i have been meg for 22 years.

it was an early lesson for me because i didn't know any other way to succeed other than be myself and work as hard as i could and figure out what and add value and and be customer obsessed. i never really lost my sense of self because of that early experience. i didn't know any other way to be. emily: you didn't talk about this a lot. women didn't want to talk about it, which i get. why not? meg: i have gotten older and recognized inspiration is an important thing for people. when i look at procter & gamble there were no women. there were a few. i think whether you are a doctor, lawyer, a farmer, it is helpful to see someone who looks like you, who acts like you, who you can look up to. i tried to do more as mentoring. this morning, i spoke to a harvard business school group about what it was like to grow

up in a different era. that was helpful to people. i am more open than i was in in the last decade. my generation was more, put your head down and get the job done and just persevere. we have an obligation to help younger women and others figure out how to make their own journey. emily: do you still see double standards for women in business and politics? meg: certainly. the hardest thing i ever did was run for public office. no matter what people say, it is much harder if you are a woman. hair, makeup, how you trust, how how you dress, you are judged in a way that was foreign to me. the good thing about business is there is results. relative market share, return on investment capital, there are measurable results you can be measured on whether you did a good job or not. in fields like politics there are no results until the election. that is hard.

it is hard if there is nothing you can hang on to that says i am doing a good job and doing what i'm expected to have done. emily: how did you handle that? meg: i found running for public office was the hardest thing i have ever done. it is a full on combat sport. you have to be wired for combat to do well in politics. i was not wired for combat. i found it incredibly difficult. when you jump into politics at that high a level, there are things you don't know. to some degree, career politicians, some of them have an advantage because you have an instinct about what to do. my instincts were not finely honed when i was running. emily: on your latest startup, what would be your advice be? meg: find something you love to do. i love business.

i love working. find people you want to work with. emily: meg whitman. so great to have you. meg: take care. ♪ the latest innovation from xfinity

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shaped the week in business around the world. clashes drive markets from the ups and downs of u.s. trade with china. the question becomes when will there be a final deal made? >> speaking to the united states, i would say it is likely 80 all caps, but that does not mean it will happen. pull on brexit. . the expectation is that there is not enough time to compete the leg