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Priceline now worth $100B

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Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#201

Post by bhnmmhmd »

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…

Well, the "techies" often have better insights about the technical parts of a product and tend to prefer code over business-politics.

Code is pure, while business tends to get nasty and diabolical at times. Also, "code" self-proves its value, "business" simply doesn't.

Let's not forget the people who started this whole personal-computer revolution were hippies, geeks, techies, and nerds who cared about the "code" and how this could make "peoples' lives" better.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#202

Post by vwcx »

ksk wrote: post #176
1zee wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I recently met an older dude who hadn't heard of Craigslist!

There are all kinds of people who have never heard of Craigslist within the United States. There are also plenty of children under 18 who have never heard of Craigslist. Despite its popularity and relative staying power, Craigslist belongs/belonged to a specific sub-generation.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#203

Post by eldavido »

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…

Yeah I agree. There's also a general proclivity to discount boring, but effective solutions to problems.

I'm writing a hotel property management system right now for a hotel chain. In its first year, it will move more money than most startups will make in their lifetimes. Somehow, that isn't "cool", though.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#204

Post by eldavido »

drinkzima wrote: post #193
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…

Really it's booking.com is worth ~$95B and the rest of those brands combined are worth ~$5B (OpenTable just got written down from an accounting perspective). There is a huge general misunderstanding in the profitability of directing hotel bookings vs flight bookings or other types of travel consumables. Rate parity and high commission rates mean that directing hotel rooms is hugely profitable and Expedia (hotels.com,…

To further corroborate, I'm working in hotel software at the moment and these sites drive a _ton_ of traffic. 10-15% commissions on every booking they process.

booking.com is such a piece of shit in so many ways: strip-mall aesthetics, horrible data quality (firsthand knowledge here), huge commissions for hotels, and yet, it's a fantastic business.

Probably a good lesson or two here.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#205

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

kolbe wrote: post #169
michaelmrose wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are priced almost 50 times their earnings do they really have that much room to grow in the next several years?

I have serious doubts they have any room to grow. Seems like their entire business model depends on retaining monopoly pricing power in industries with very few barriers to entry.

> retaining monopoly pricing power in industries with very few barriers to entry.

Few barriers to entry, really?? Sorry, but this sounds a bit like an inexperienced developer saying "Hey, I could build most of Facebook's functionality in 2 weeks." Booking.com is THE largest spender of advertising on Google. They have giant teams that A/B test the living shite out of every pixel on their screens, and huge teams of data scientists squeezing out every last bit of optimization on their site. It's a huge barrier to entry. This answer from Quora's CEO explains it well: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-important-internet-compa...

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#206

Post by vmlinuz »

komali2 wrote: post #129
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newsflash: Almost all of the travel sites you've heard of are owned by Expedia or Priceline. Priceline couldn't buy Expedia because it would get killed by antitrust concerns. Expedia also owns Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire, Hotels.com, VRBO, HomeAway, has a majority stake in Trivago, etc. Basically the only big travel sites not owned by Expedia or Priceline are TripAdvisor (previously spun off from Expedia) and AirBnB…

And Skyscanner! Lone little skyscanner. Still my favorite.

That's Skyscanner, acquired last year by "leading Chinese online travel agent Ctrip"?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#207

Post by acchow »

sliverstorm wrote: post #175
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…

HN might also be aware of the market caps of the airlines Priceline books for: Delta: 34.4B Southwest: 30.2B American: 22.1B United: 18.7B Are we incorrectly discounting marketing, brand, etc when we notice that the top booking service is valued triple the top actual provider? That the value they add might not actually be triple the value of the actual flight ?

Margins on flights are slim.

Hotel bookings are the real meat.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#208

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

sliverstorm wrote: post #175
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…

HN might also be aware of the market caps of the airlines Priceline books for: Delta: 34.4B Southwest: 30.2B American: 22.1B United: 18.7B Are we incorrectly discounting marketing, brand, etc when we notice that the top booking service is valued triple the top actual provider? That the value they add might not actually be triple the value of the actual flight ?

This is a common misconception based on Priceline's history. The vast, vast majority of Priceline's value is Booking.com, which does hotel bookings. The margins on flight bookings are razor thin and probably only add value by enabling travelers to add hotels to their flights.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#209

Post by gruez »

petra wrote: post #182
fitchjo wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the eyes of who? To the company and its owners, if my brand allows me to sell an equivalent widget for a higher margin, how is that not value? Just because value can be created or destroyed by a single action doesn't mean that value is somehow less valuable. To the user, if I derive greater pleasure because I believe I have bought a more valuable product (attributable only to the brand), just because there is an e…

Maybe brands could be tied to momentarily moments of happiness for some people. But the modern branding and marketing, but also mass media, is a pretty bad environment to grow a child, to be a female, and for people and societies in general. So i highly doubt the positive value of marketing. But sure, they do help extract higher margins.

>to be a female

explain?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#210

Post by fowl2 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #134
perfectstorm wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Region specific. Good luck for flights in Asia/Australia/Pacific.
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