... and You Thought Wal-Mart was Already an Unstoppable Giant?

Recently, I've been hearing a lot about Wal-Mart venturing into new areas of business. I found this pretty surprising since I figured that Wal-Mart pretty much already had its hands in everything. But, Wal-Mart has managed to find a new target category: digital entertainment. More specifically, I was reading about Wal-Mart's acquisition of the VUDU digital media service in the article "Wal-Mart Picks Up Digital VUDU". I hadn't heard of the VUDU service previously, however it apparently is somewhat similar to Netflix, selling and renting digital movies on through the internet directly to specific web-enabled devices such as Blu-ray players and LG televisions.

Well, maybe its not THAT surprising. After all, I do recall a group presentation in one of my other MBA classes last semester which focused on Wal-Mart's entertainment media strategy. Apparently Wal-Mart has been phasing out DVD and Blu-Ray movie sales for quite some time. In fact, the firm has been moving toward selling only popular new release titles. Along with that, Wal-Mart has also been pushing for more Red Box kiosks in its stores. The firm actualyl makes more on its Red Box rentals than it does through traditional media sales; not to mention the extra floor space in each store. Perhaps then the move to digital media is really the next logical step.

Of course, Wal-Mart has been fiercely competing with internet wholesalers such as Amazon. One of the most recent battles between the two firms came in the form of the '$10 bestsellers list books'. With the acquisition of VUDU, perhaps Wal-Mart is targeting digital video sales before Amazon makes a similar move. Personally, I think this is a major oversight on Amazon's part as it obviously has the infrastructure to implement a service such as VUDU seemingly much more easily than Wal-Mart.

Beyond Amazon, the article also suggests that Wal-Mart is reaching even further to compete with Netflix and even Apple in the realm of digital media distribution. This certainly seems a daunting task as both of these firms are proven industry leaders in categories with which Wal-Mart has little or no experience at all. Finally, the article does briefly mention that there is at least some resistance to Wal-Mart's never-ending spread. Best Buy is now partnering with Netflix to sell digital media through its retail outlets and through the devices it sells.

This will certainly be a hot topic for discussion in the future as these developments unfold. Will Wal-Mart take over all digital media as we know it? I hope not, but I don't doubt it!