*By Michael Teich*
Walmart's reported plans to launch a streaming video service may prove futile, said The Information reporter Jessica Toonkel. After all, the retailer, she told Cheddar on Wednesday, is late to the game.
"Netflix and Amazon have been doing this for a while," Toonkel said. "This is a really hard business to get into."
Toonkel broke news this week that Walmart may develop a subscription-based video service to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The retailer is considering a price point below $8 per month and may also include an ad-supported free service.
What's the likelihood that Walmart will actually enter the streaming business? That depends on its willingness to spend billions of dollars, Toonkel explained. But after generating $17 billion in cash last year, the company potentially has enough ammo to match Netflix's aggressive spending budget, pegged at $8 billion for 2018.
But it's not just a matter of cash flow, Toonkel said. "They have a lot of money, clearly, but they also have investors that might not be as patient as investors in Netflix."
Walmart's last attempt to enter video content faltered ー in 2010 the retailer acquired Vudu, a video-on-demand service that currently offers a combined 100,000 movie titles and television series. But analytics firm comScore reported that users spent only 18,000 hours on the platform in May, just 2 percent of the total hours spent on Netflix and 6 percent of hours spent watching Amazon in the same period.
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/walmart-could-launch-video-streaming-platform)
Vidyuth Srinivasan, CEO and Co-Founder of Entrupy, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how this app uses artificial intelligence to analyze authenticity for luxury goods and sneakers, and why this is so critical as the secondary and resale retail markets are on the rise.
Mona Akhavi, CEO of Vrai, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss the process of creating lab grown diamonds, why this industry is growing, and the latest trends in the jewelry and engagement ring space.
New laws under consideration in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. could put some sharp limitations on Big Tech. Some of the limits would include how these companies can treat smaller competitors and even restrict their use of artificial intelligence, things like facial recognition. Co-founder and Executive Director at Accountable Tech, Nicole Gill, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
A new report out on Linkedin says that Crypto-related job postings in the US surged to 395% between 2020 and 2021. Job titles which included titles containing "Bitcoin", "Ethereum", "Blockchain", and cryptocurrency, all outpaced jobs in the wider tech industry which saw a 98% increase in listings during the same time period. LinkedIn also notes that the most common crypto job postings were blockchain developers and engineers. CEO of Radkl, Ryan Sheftel, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Garrett Nelson, Senior Analyst and VP of Equity Research at CFRA Research, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down where automakers like Ford, Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid currently stand at the start of 2022 and what we should expect to transpire in the upcoming year.
