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apparently Ocean Infinity, the private salvage search company mentioned in the article that spent millions on a "no find no fee" search for MH370 is committing

by swyx 4y ago

apparently Ocean Infinity, the private salvage search company mentioned in the article that spent millions on a "no find no fee" search for MH370 is committing to doing it again this or next year: https://www.reddit.com/r/MH370/comments/t85bdv/ocean_infinity_commits_to_new_search_for_mh370_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MH370/comments/t85bdv/ocean_infinit... how exactly do these guys fund themselves? this must be a horrendously expensive enterprise and fairly infrequent at that.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago
There's a lot of people with a lot of money who look for ventures to invest into; some build schools or affordable housing, some buy artwork, some set up charities for tax dodging reasons, and others will invest in a company like this which will get customers calling them nonstop if they find the plane. I mean the article mentioned this company spent "millions" on the search. There's people that earn millions per day by doing nothing or sending a tweet. There's tons of money out there, it's just allocated poorly.
- Eisenstein 4y ago
  Yeah, 'millions' to a company with 8 autonomous submarines each equipped with long-range sonar is probably not much at all. The crew is probably paid anyway, might as well use them for something.
phire 4y ago
They have other customers. Even if they don't find it, this is great advertising for them, and gives them a reason to test their technology. And if they do find it, even better advertising. I wouldn't be surprised if their negotiated finders fee from Malaysia is still below cost.
- gsnedders 4y ago
  If they _do_ find it, they'll be getting reported for _decades_ for having found it. Putting a marketing value to that is… incredibly difficult.
  - swyx 4y ago
    first they shall have to find the proverbial broken up needle in a haystack deeper and wider than any search that has ever been done on earth. expected value of this thing is ultra negative no matter the marketing value lol
andrewaylett 4y ago
I suspect that like many peacetime efforts undertaken by various militaries, they need to train so they might as well do something useful while training.

by swyx 4y ago

Cthulhu_ 4y ago

There's a lot of people with a lot of money who look for ventures to invest into; some build schools or affordable housing, some buy artwork, some set up charities for tax dodging reasons, and others will invest in a company like this which will get customers calling them nonstop if they find the plane. I mean the article mentioned this company spent "millions" on the search. There's people that earn millions per day by doing nothing or sending a tweet. There's tons of money out there, it's just allocated poorly.

Eisenstein 4y ago
Yeah, 'millions' to a company with 8 autonomous submarines each equipped with long-range sonar is probably not much at all. The crew is probably paid anyway, might as well use them for something.

phire 4y ago

They have other customers. Even if they don't find it, this is great advertising for them, and gives them a reason to test their technology. And if they do find it, even better advertising. I wouldn't be surprised if their negotiated finders fee from Malaysia is still below cost.

gsnedders 4y ago
If they _do_ find it, they'll be getting reported for _decades_ for having found it. Putting a marketing value to that is… incredibly difficult.
- swyx 4y ago
  first they shall have to find the proverbial broken up needle in a haystack deeper and wider than any search that has ever been done on earth. expected value of this thing is ultra negative no matter the marketing value lol

andrewaylett 4y ago

I suspect that like many peacetime efforts undertaken by various militaries, they need to train so they might as well do something useful while training.