Wal-Mart shut its movie download service on December 21st, but until today no one noticed.
The service was launched in February with all the major film studios providing content; at the time Michael wrote that it was an extremely crowded and competitive space however “Wal-mart will bail out of markets that they can’t dominate,” he was right. Wal-Mart’s Video Download service joins the TechCrunch Deadpool.
In related (and bizarre) news Wal-Mart has instead begun to offer search engine marketing services. Sam’s Club Online Services entices customers with the pitch “Advertise your website in Google with a pay-per-click package through us.” Pic below via Karl Ribas who first spotted it.
Awesome, I can grab some dog food, toilet paper and stock up on some PPC all at the same time.
Who did they outsource this too? I cant imagine them hiring a team to kick this effort off.
Wait? I’m lost…Wal-Mart offering advertisements now? Through Google? Huh?
Not much of a “marketinglane” if you can’t read a webpage, are ya? Maybe we can get an Einstein around these parts to solve the mystery of who WM is outsourcing to. Any takers?
http://innuity....ugust_2005.html. C’mon now guys. This really isn’t that big of a deal at all…they’ve been offering web services to members for over two years.
They must have read TC’s article the other day about iTunes coming out with a download service
Jon
Honestly I didn’t know about it, even tho wal-mart is one of my favorite grocery stores.
Weird I haven’t wrote anything about them on my blog!
SEM from Walmart? WTF?
They been offering SEM for over 12 month now. . . do some real reporting please . . .
Walmart has forayed into a number of different realms lately (e.g. music, social networking, movies) and shut down some…
Wow, I didn’t know Walmart offered SEM services. This is news to me!!!
Who’d have seen this comming – lol?
mass middle class america, walmart, offering SEO services
Wow, I didn’t know Walmart offered SEM services.
I had no idea they offered SEM as well. I’m there all of the time
http://www.whatshottoday.com
Wal Mart offers SEM services? Hell i didn’t know that.
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Walmart SEM will join the dead pool soon, it seems it is getting crowded there.
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In a frenzy to catch up with Apple, the industry hasn’t learned much from the PlaysForSure debacle by watching Microsoft abandon its own DRM and introduce Zune with a new and incompatible system to compete directly against its erstwhile digital music “partners.” In another instance of mortgaging success to others’ willingness or ability to innovate, AOL recently moved its struggling video service to Amazon Unbox which in turn is based on Microsoft’s PlaysForSure.
The irony here is that Wal-Mart relied on HP that relied on Microsoft and AOL relies on Amazon that relies on Microsoft which itself no longer relies on its own PlaysForSure. When a core component of a product or service depends on the rate of innovation of another party over which you have no control or influence, it’s time to rethink strategy. It’s also time to ask yourself, twice or thrice removed from core competency, should you really be in such a business?
Strategic design risks (1): Wal-Mart’s foolhardy reliance on “partners”
http://countern.../walmart-video/
Talk about wanting to be everything to everyone.
“Wal-Mart Shuts Movie Download Service” and nobody notices!
fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
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@LiveCrunch:
– You should just take down your site, you gotta know the C&D letter is on the way!
heh ,.rb
as for Walmart offering ppc services.. sounds radical for a grocery store to offer ppc services.
Be efficient — add Walmart’s SEM service to the deadpool now, even though it’s just begun. They don’t have a prayer of being successful. I don’t think they buy their own keywords so how can they help other companies?
Thats crazy! Walmart + PPC = bad news.
Wow! I didn’t realize — ah screw it! Just visit my damn blog!
Costco also offers PPC services to their members through ValuWeb but has done a much better job of promoting it to their customers than Sams Club does promoting the Innuity services. Neither of these companies are providing the services they are basically acting as an affiliate.
This particular space of SEM services to small business is not a crowded space considering the growth potential in that arena. Yes there are 10,000 agencies ready to set up SEM services but 98% of their fees are out of reach to the small business owner who wants a turn key solution. Intuit is addressing this space as well leveraging their QuickBooks customers. My thought is that eventually Google will offer “vertical specific” programs for small businesses as they are doing with auto currently eventually taking out the middle man.
~Micha
http://www.eboo...tconsulting.com
no more movies,
how about music?
http://mp3search.POPave.com
Awesome, I’d love to pick up some PPC at Wal-Mart… Oh wait, I thought you meant “pills, porn, and casinos”.
Walmart is just sending traffic to Google Adwords and receiving a kickback for the adwords signups.
I just setup the same campaign for a company I work for. They give you $100 for signing and gives the company who sent the traffic $100 for each signed up account.
Its a pretty sweet deal actually. But they really don’t offer SEM services…just a flow through.