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Priceline now worth $100B

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Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#71

Post by mtgx »

rayiner wrote: post #26
wheaties wrote: post #16

This is stupid. Really. Here we are in a world where the companies that own the assets (you know, the things that cost a lot of money) are worth less than the things that don't own anything. This doesn't seem "right" or "fair" in the sense that Priceline should be a middleman, unable to exercise any or all pricing power because it does not control the assets producing the revenue. I wonder how long this can last?

The Internet has facilitated the age of the middleman. Owning stuff is expensive. It's much easier to leverage network effects to tie consumers to producers. Why make or build anything when you can control the market by controlling the app at the end of the distribution chain?

Wasn't the Internet supposed to eliminate the middleman?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#72

Post by [deleted] »

hayksaakian wrote: post #46
wheaties wrote: post #16

This is stupid. Really. Here we are in a world where the companies that own the assets (you know, the things that cost a lot of money) are worth less than the things that don't own anything. This doesn't seem "right" or "fair" in the sense that Priceline should be a middleman, unable to exercise any or all pricing power because it does not control the assets producing the revenue. I wonder how long this can last?

If you work backwards from what generates revenue (purchases) in the travel industry you'll find that marketing drives decision making more than the underlying airplanes, trains etc. Physical assets are a known quantity for better and for worse. They intrinsically depreciate. On the other hand, Brands grow over time from word of mouth and other marketing, so long as their final product is at least average.

[deleted]

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#73

Post by dajohnson89 »

Fej wrote: post #70
mpweiher wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So he "only" made $600m. Although apparently the numbers are disputed. Heck, even 1/10th of that is a tidy sum.

I'm guessing he doesn't really need the money at this point, especially given his age.

I really don't understand this line of thinking. Are old people incapable of spending money? Is what they chose to do with capital of less consequence? Even if they do have one foot in the grave, they have a right to legacy.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#76

Post by edwinnathaniel »

mtgx wrote: post #71
rayiner wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Internet has facilitated the age of the middleman. Owning stuff is expensive. It's much easier to leverage network effects to tie consumers to producers. Why make or build anything when you can control the market by controlling the app at the end of the distribution chain?

Wasn't the Internet supposed to eliminate the middleman?

It did when it comes to distribution channel.

A hotel can have a website where people can directly book a room.

But people want to compare prices, shops around, hence a new form of ... middleman :D

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#77

Post by mp01 »

atombender wrote: post #24
throwaway91111 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually no. Why is it so popular? It seems to have fewer features than hipmunk.... Not to knock them, though, it's a hard problem to solve well from an interface and integrations perspective.

Personally, I reach for Booking.com because they're simply better than most competitors. They have a huge inventory of hotels, and they have a functional, fairly responsive search interface that isn't annoying. The last part is important — there's little in terms of popups, ads, intrusive upsells, flashy UI elements, and so on. It's not the most modern, but it's very well optimized towards finding stuff. For example,…

> TripAdvisor comes close, but is too annoying.

Have you tried the new UI?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#78

Post by _ea1k »

edwinnathaniel wrote: post #76
mtgx wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't the Internet supposed to eliminate the middleman?

It did when it comes to distribution channel. A hotel can have a website where people can directly book a room. But people want to compare prices, shops around, hence a new form of ... middleman :D

Yeah, and they these middlemen also give hotels a way to sell lesser service and blame the middleman. Going through the third-party often loses membership perks and amenities and generally also makes cancellation much harder, in exchange for a lesser rate.

If the hotel offered the lesser rate themselves, they would effectively be pricing their "free" amenities, and they don't want to do that.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#80

Post by [deleted] »

wheaties wrote: post #16

This is stupid. Really. Here we are in a world where the companies that own the assets (you know, the things that cost a lot of money) are worth less than the things that don't own anything. This doesn't seem "right" or "fair" in the sense that Priceline should be a middleman, unable to exercise any or all pricing power because it does not control the assets producing the revenue. I wonder how long this can last?

[deleted]
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