Wal-Mart’s experimentation with on-line networking, on the lines of MySpace, seems to come to an end as reports are pouring in suggesting that the giant retailer has decided to close down its teen oriented social networking site, The Hub. The site was launched in August this summer as a promotion of the start of the school year. Apparently, the social networking site was trying to emulate the practices of MySpace by encouraging visitors to set up their own personalized web pages.
Moreover, the social networking site had been used as an advertising producing source since it always encouraged teens to create commercials for the retail giant and post them on the site. There was a time when ad age had reported that Wal-Mart had confirmed that it had started selling ad space on the website and the ads were ‘cost-effective online Marketing vehicle’. Be it anything, Mal-Mart’s experimentation with online social community has failed to realize the desired result due to its inherent incapability and vision.
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