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Priceline now worth $100B

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Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#131

Post by rdiddly »

dajohnson89 wrote: post #73
Fej wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The line of thinking on age is as follows: As you age, you have a probably smaller number of future years for which you need to worry about survival costs. And by "probably" I mean the probability is pretty well established based on millions (billions?) of data points. Death is coming for your ass. If you're 102 years old, you might live another 20 years, but I'm not wagering heavily on that. And if you're 15 you might die tomorrow in a car wreck, but the odds are that you can "expect" your "life" to be a certain length - your life expectancy.

This comment is only on survival costs and age. Legacies are outside the scope of this comment. William Shatner's survival costs, having been paid-for long ago, are outside the scope of this comment.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#132

Post by sdy »

I have no experience in the travel industry, but I see the value in priceline (name your price). They provide hotels a way to keep the rooms filled without disclosing to the public the low rates. It also provides a way to reach a different market. Source: I use priceline (name your price) at least once a year. Pretty happy with them.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#133

Post by 1zee »

xrange wrote: post #127
misterbwong wrote: post #112

If you were to tell a non-HNer that Kayak, Booking, Priceline, CheapFlights, OpenTable, and other large websites are worth 100B combined , I don't think they would even blink an eye. Come here and the top discussion thread is about how little Priceline does, how they're "just middlemen", and that they don't add any value. It's clear that HN (and techies as a whole, I assume) highly discounts the value of users, marke…

>If you were to tell a non-HNer that Kayak, Booking, Priceline, CheapFlights, OpenTable, and other large websites are worth 100B combined, I don't think they would even blink an eye. ...is that because you don't think non-HNer's don't have an appreciation for how much something like Walmart is worth (~$250B)? Or because you think they believe that $100B is a reasonable valuation? >Really is fascinating how different…

You know people that would not recognize any of those brands?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#134

Post by Consultant32452 »

perfectstorm wrote: post #65
lobster_johnson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from Booking.com, they also own KAYAK, Cheapflights, Rentalcars.com and Open Table (the restaurant booking app).

TIL. I usually use Kayak and Booking.com (because you've the option to pay when you checkout). This comment made me realize that their only other major competitor is Expedia (fun fact: Expedia originated from Microsoft).

Google flights is the best airline aggregator.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#135

Post by [deleted] »

jimmykennedy wrote: post #123
misterbwong wrote: post #112

If you were to tell a non-HNer that Kayak, Booking, Priceline, CheapFlights, OpenTable, and other large websites are worth 100B combined , I don't think they would even blink an eye. Come here and the top discussion thread is about how little Priceline does, how they're "just middlemen", and that they don't add any value. It's clear that HN (and techies as a whole, I assume) highly discounts the value of users, marke…

"just middlemen" == abstracting away complexity All you have to do is reword it in programmer talk and HN gets it.

[deleted]

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#136

Post by z3t4 »

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 go into any local store, you wont find a single one that produces their own goods. Some people like making stuff, other people like selling it, and selling it is actually a lot of work. Now what if we could make a discovery service so that makers could sell directly to the buyers, without the middle hands !?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#137

Post by Urbanxassassin »

misterbwong wrote: post #112

If you were to tell a non-HNer that Kayak, Booking, Priceline, CheapFlights, OpenTable, and other large websites are worth 100B combined , I don't think they would even blink an eye. Come here and the top discussion thread is about how little Priceline does, how they're "just middlemen", and that they don't add any value. It's clear that HN (and techies as a whole, I assume) highly discounts the value of users, marke…

And yet priceline has screwed my work/personal trip bookings left and right.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#138

Post by dragontamer »

shimon wrote: post #82
hayksaakian wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right. Another way of highlighting the absurdity of dismissing things like Priceline as non-assets is to look at the history of computing. Microsoft commoditized PC hardware, and became tremendously valuable selling the dominant OS. Google is doing the same thing with Android. Is Windows or Android not an asset? Is it not the dominant asset in terms of value, even if manufacturing electronics at scale is larger in ph…

> Microsoft commoditized PC hardware

No. Tandy (aka Radio Shack), Dell, Compaq, and so forth commoditized PC Hardware.

Microsoft made the OS a commodity, reducing the cost of an OS from thousands of dollars to only $100. Android / iOS have done the same thing except reduced the cost to $0.

The hardware manufacturers don't make as much as the software guys. Because people and habits are tied to the software, not hardware.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#139

Post by anigbrowl »

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.

Brands have no inherent value though; they're the consumer equivalent of religious icons. They cease to have meaning if they're not kept alive by advertising and can be destroyed by a single screw up or undermined by a clever emme.

Marketing people sell value, they don't create it.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#140

Post by anigbrowl »

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?

So it's the means of distribution that need seizing.
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