Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Priceline now worth $100B

google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 232 posts

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#141

Post by dopamean »

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…

In my experience in tech (only a few years, I came from finance, and before that construction, weirdly) people are super cynical and often believe that they know more about _any_ business because they can write some code or something similar. I have never been around more people who consistently think they know better than everyone else. This was a surprising thing for me because I assumed engineers would be more curious and thusly more humble. It's actually a really unappealing part of my experience in the industry that often makes me wonder how long I'll last in it.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#142

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

1zee wrote: post #133
xrange wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

Plenty.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#143

Post by jgalt212 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #139
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.

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.

don't tell that to Warren Buffet

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#144

Post by anigbrowl »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #64
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 things that don't own anything Not true at all, they own the attention of people who would be paying the asset holders. That is (obviously) very valuable.

No they don't. That's not fungible, tangible, or reliable. In the zero-sum world we're heading towards right now, where normal institutional procedures are in abeyance, expect brands to topple like dominos. Remember that salmonella outbreak that killed all those people.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#145

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]

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#146

Post by titanix2 »

1zee wrote: post #133
xrange wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

Yes, beside Booking.com I never heard of any of them. They may be a thing in the US, outside not really.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#147

Post by anigbrowl »

majani wrote: post #55
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 tech middlemen are simply way more efficient than their brick and mortar counterparts. Surely this argument was put to rest years ago.

No they're not. The technology is more efficient. When travel agents ruled the earth most people didn't have personal computers, nor was there a global communications network that was trivially easy to access and operated at high speeds.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#148

Post by _m8fo »

IMO a company's "real" value is determined by how useful it would be if the Earth had a high likelihood of complete destruction in a century. Needless to say, Priceline would probably be worth nothing in such a scenario.

Interestingly, Google and Facebook would still be pretty useful, albeit maybe not as much.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#149

Post by amzpix »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #108
zjaffee wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Priceline's value is no different than the value provided by Airbnb. They make the vast majority of their money being a middleman for hotels, not flights, and in turn have made it much easier for people to package everything together and get a better deal though the partnerships their partners already have with each other. Additionally, comparing hotel pricing does put major pressure on prices, as most travelers know…

Let's talk about value here for a moment: I recently stayed in Airbnb where the host provided everything: dishwasher, washer and dryer, full-fledged kitchen with all utensils, all the necessary stuff from which I can make a good breakfast, upwards of 10MBPS speed wifi internet, and the entire place is private to me. All this in just ~$55/night. If I were to live in hotel (which I don't even think is easily available)…

I have tried booking Airbnb many times. In my case, each time it was much more expensive than the hotel room I could find via priceline (even more once I include the extra fees from the Airbnb's fine prints).

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#150

Post by sAbakumoff »

dopamean wrote: post #141
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…

In my experience in tech (only a few years, I came from finance, and before that construction, weirdly) people are super cynical and often believe that they know more about _any_ business because they can write some code or something similar. I have never been around more people who consistently think they know better than everyone else. This was a surprising thing for me because I assumed engineers would be more cur…

yes, indeed all the techies are the same and consistently think they know better. Keep labeling people, MR. Finance-Constructor, it's the sure way to the success.
Post reply on HN