Tech Bytes — Week in Review: Walmart health centers, VCs and Bumble
May 3, 2024

Tech Bytes — Week in Review: Walmart health centers, VCs and Bumble

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Christina Farr, author of the health tech newsletter Second Opinion, joins Marketplace’s Lily Jamali to discuss the week’s biggest stories.

This week: Startups are taking longer to go public or sell to a buyer. What does that say about the state of tech? Also, the dating app Bumble once courted women by letting them make the first move. We’ll explain why Gen Z is prompting Bumble to change things up. But first, discount retail giant Walmart announced this week it is shutting down its telehealth business, as well as its network of low-cost health clinics. There were 51 of those clinics scattered across five states throughout the country. They were part of Walmart’s big push into health care, announced in 2019. So what happened?

Marketplace’s Lily Jamali is joined by Christina Farr, author of the health tech newsletter Second Opinion, for her take on this week’s tech news.

More on everything we talked about

Microsoft announces US$1.7 billion investment to advance Indonesia’s cloud and AI ambitions” from Microsoft

Walmart Closes Health Centers, Telehealth Unit as Costs Rise” from Bloomberg

UnitedHealth Group Shutting Down Optum Virtual Care Telehealth Business” from PYMENTS

Dear venture capitalists: You’re blowing it” from Axios

Women on Bumble No Longer Have to Make the First Move” from The New York Times

Dating Apps Are In Their Flop Era” from Bustle

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The team

Daisy Palacios Senior Producer
Daniel Shin Producer
Jesús Alvarado Associate Producer
Rosie Hughes Assistant Producer