Wal-Mart Online Classifieds?? WTF?
This post is a little outside the realm of my usual snark and cynicism, but I feel like posting it so nyeh.
Yesterday, many tech sites reported that Wal-Mart was starting an online classifieds service Here.
I forwarded the link to some folks I work with as a heads-up and we got to talking.
I grew up in Bentonville, where Wal-Mart HQ is located. The place fairly exudes Wal-Mart corporate, so anytime I visit I pick up whatever is going on by osmosis. Doesn't make me an expert, but when I see moves like this I have a pretty good idea what they're thinking.
My take:
They are working hard to build their online brand. They want to drive traffic to their online store and I bet they’re hoping a classifieds service will accomplish that. I’m betting they’ll serve ads from their online store next to search results, so If someone is looking for a lava lamp and there aren’t any classified listings, they’ll show you where you can buy one from Walmart.com instead. (more after the jump)
