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Technology Stocks : Booking Holdings (formerly Priceline) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Rose who wrote (1285)	5/13/1999 9:02:00 AM
From: Sasha I.	Respond to of 2743

Hello! Writing from Moscow... Russia. I am curious about this Azumano.com company (OTC: ADEN). Heard they own patents which Priceline violates and that they have filed suit against Priceline. According to them, their patents predate Priceline's by a year and a half. I checked the ticker and read some press releases. Also read stories in WSJ, NYT and last week's FORBES magazine about them. Seem to have Priceline by the... patents. Anyone know about this? I'm curious because I heard they are here in Moscow this week recruiting programmers for their project. Sounded unique to me, so I checked it out. Especially since they are at the Russian Academy of Science negotiating with a few of their computer gurus. I'm really interested... any info out there I can't see here?

To: Robert Rose who wrote (1285)	5/13/1999 2:00:00 PM
From: Gerald Walls	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2743

How does EGRP subsidizing a PCLN airline ticket result in a new EGRP customer? While bidding on a ticket you may be given an opportunity to increase your effective bid (but not what you actually pay) by $50 (say) by applying for a credit card or opening an E*Trade account.

To: Robert Rose who wrote (1285)	5/14/1999 9:57:00 AM
From: B. A. Marlow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2743

Thanks, Robert. Shorts not too entertaining? <g> See your question about PCLN "subsidies" was answered. It's that simple. Conventional wisdom says AMZN's just an e-tailer, and a low-margin one at that. But retailing isn't really what AMZN's about. In the end, it's selling a convenient, predictable and rewarding customer experience. After all, someone else will *always* have a lower price. Did you see how fast AMZN got into the music and video business 9 months or so ago? Amazing. Now, all of a sudden, it's into gifts, e-cards, pharmacy stuff and auctions (for which 8 million AMZN customers are pre-registered!). Pretty soon, it'll be groceries, weddings, divorces and funerals, maybe even a portal. A veritable Mall of America, this Bezos. So the AMZN model looks a lot like that of a shopping center developer. "Build it and they will come." Some day, AMZN will make a lot of money. See previous post for PCLN's simple definition of "demand-collection". As to the EBAY comparison, if you've bid for something at EBAY, did you wonder whether you'd get what you expected in the advertised condition? Maybe you priced this uncertainty into your bid, but maybe you scored nothing if you did. PCLN avoids this and other EBAY limitations. PCLN will concentrate its attention on designated goods and services categories and become a "Big Box" for them. Retailers call this phenomenon a "category killer." There will be some limitations associated with bidding at PCLN, but they'll always be defined and you'll know in advance whether or not you can handle them. PCLN can't be Tiffany's. If you can't accommodate many limitations, you can at least know what you're in for--and get a quick answer. And if you can't handle any, you'll go elsewhere for a price-certain--above the "priceline," so to speak. PCLN's ability to reconcile supply and demand (while protecting vendors from "channel conflicts" and cannibalization) should bring you back for the same item time and time again, even if you're a low-baller. PCLN becomes a "must try" for just about everything it offers. With EBAY, you might find what you want (or something else that's interesting), or you might not. You don't go to PCLN to window-shop, you go to get the job done on a budget. So PCLN's primary advantages as a business model are the power of product and service concentration, large volumes, control over buyer cognitive dissonance (you won't confront the awkward decision of whether to buy the EBAY "i-Escrow service"), great flexibility and the potential for repeat business. As PCLN rolls out its program, its margins should outperform EBAY's as well. BAM P.S. Long PCLN; no position in AMZN or EBAY.