> 1. How does it reach travelers from around the world? Research in the early 1990s on software agents/bots/multi-agent systems went from the assumption that t

> 1. How does it reach travelers from around the world? Research in the early 1990s on software agents/bots/multi-agent systems went from the assumption that the Internet would lead to a decentralized marketplace with many vendors and independent markets, and your agent/bot would go out and find/place bids on products and services for you. Capital investment and economies of scale have instead lead to near-monopolies (Amazon, Paypal, eBay, Craigslist, now Uber and AirBnB). It seems like the decentralized marketplace idea cannot work because of trust issues - a lot of capital is needed to deal with vetting, fraud and disputes on e-commerce platforms. A good example of what happens when that is not handled properly is Aliexpress.