In a mirror image of the global automotive industy, the UK's retail industry is offering up similarly outlandish company valuations - if, that is, you are a 'technology company'.

Ocado has a 1.7% share of the UK grocery market, yet has a market cap. (£21.7BN) which has nudged past that of the dominant player Tesco - who have a 26.8% market share.

The difference is that Ocado don't have bricks and mortar stores, they are a pure-play online offering - their only physical sites being highly sophisticated, automated, distribution warehouses. And, of course, a fleet of vans to deliver the goods. 

The other difference is that Ocado sell their intellectual property (IP) abroad almost as a IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) offering - as opposed to building out highly capital intensive chains of stores, such as Tesco did in the US with Fresh & Easy.

I am old enough to remember the web1.0 boom: Ocado is what WebVan was meant to be. I think it was Marc Andreessen (a16z) who first coined the phrase 'software will eat the world' ;-)