Walmart's e-commerce binge is one big Silicon Valley bailout

© Gary Arbach | Dreamstime.com - Walmart Supercenter

Utterly absorbing, and superbly written, post on LinkedIn from a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur about how few e-commerce start-ups are actually any good. Amazon, of course, is amazing – but we all knew that already. But for every Amazon, there are 100 duds, some of which have managed to raise millions of dollars to develop products that simply aren’t very good, and few have managed to turn a profit. Neither of these realities, however, have stopped retail behemoth Wal-mart from spending billions on acquiring e-commerce start-ups as it flounders in its attempts to respond to the challenge of Amazon. “It’s early in Walmart’s buying spree, but the early signs are ghastly: paying real money for unproven, or proven-to-be-bad, businesses: Bonobos, MooseJaw, Modcloth, ShoeBuy, Jet. E-commerce, especially in Silicon Valley, is a roach motel for shoddy businesses run by slick entrepreneurs.”