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The "Experiences" thing sounds like Groupon. What killed Groupon was that Groupon wanted too big a cut, and the service providers dropped out. This trick only w

The "Experiences" thing sounds like Groupon. What killed Groupon was that Groupon wanted too big a cut, and the service providers dropped out. This trick only works if you reach oligopoly levels, so providers have to sign up or go broke. AirBnB is there in short-stay housing. Doordash/Uber are there in food delivery. Doordash/Lyft are there in gig rides, but might not survive Waymo. Amazon is there in e-commerce, but it took decades. Can AirBnB find a second niche they can start to take over?

presentation 1y ago
Also there are already other products like that, like Viator and Klook. I wish companies like Airbnb didn't feel the need to conquer everything all the time. It already is useful as it is.
- sazor 1y ago
  The appeal and selling point of Airbnb experiences was local guides and small groups compared to Viator with more traditional group tours. In my experience it was quite good in Europe at the beginning. But now prices are just too high to justify, like 200+ euros for few hours walking tour.
hakfoo 1y ago
I had always heard what killed Groupon was the bad economics. The "loss leader" concept is Business 101, and Groupon was presented to customers as a gallery of loss leaders they can shop. Actually delivering a good loss leader is hard. Design the offer wrong, and people don't attach properly-- they either don't load up their cart with additional, higher-margin items, or they don't return for future full-price services. I suspect Groupon didn't help-- if they provided consulting, it was probably to steer the merchants to give the store away to make Groupon look compelling regardless of bankrupting the merchant. Over time, a lot of industries pulled away, either because they personally ran the numbers or simply saw their peers trying it and losing their shirt. The offers eventually retreated to what could survive in the cost structure: stuff like classes (near-zero marginal cost per attendee) rather than food or personal services with significant cost of goods or labour.
- blitzar 1y ago
  They bringing a large pool of customers who will only ever pay "loss leading" prices. The ultimate problem with Groupon is their customers.
  - SkyPuncher 1y ago
    And as customers, I quickly realized that businesses didn't actually want me there either. I was a distraction to their actual profitable customers.
    - ghaff 1y ago
      For me, it was one of those businesses that, as a consumer, you realized was sort of a novelty but the coupons weren't really really worth it and they were a PITA to use a lot of the time. And once the novelty wore off, they sort of slipped off your radar and weren't worth thinking about any longer even if there might be an interesting deal here or there.
  - nothercastle 1y ago
    And the volume of people caused the good customers to get shitty service so it was basically impossible to make it work. Also it was a mega loss leader since Groupon took a huge cut

presentation 1y ago

Also there are already other products like that, like Viator and Klook. I wish companies like Airbnb didn't feel the need to conquer everything all the time. It already is useful as it is.

sazor 1y ago
The appeal and selling point of Airbnb experiences was local guides and small groups compared to Viator with more traditional group tours. In my experience it was quite good in Europe at the beginning. But now prices are just too high to justify, like 200+ euros for few hours walking tour.

hakfoo 1y ago

I had always heard what killed Groupon was the bad economics. The "loss leader" concept is Business 101, and Groupon was presented to customers as a gallery of loss leaders they can shop. Actually delivering a good loss leader is hard. Design the offer wrong, and people don't attach properly-- they either don't load up their cart with additional, higher-margin items, or they don't return for future full-price services. I suspect Groupon didn't help-- if they provided consulting, it was probably to steer the merchants to give the store away to make Groupon look compelling regardless of bankrupting the merchant. Over time, a lot of industries pulled away, either because they personally ran the numbers or simply saw their peers trying it and losing their shirt. The offers eventually retreated to what could survive in the cost structure: stuff like classes (near-zero marginal cost per attendee) rather than food or personal services with significant cost of goods or labour.

blitzar 1y ago
They bringing a large pool of customers who will only ever pay "loss leading" prices. The ultimate problem with Groupon is their customers.
- SkyPuncher 1y ago
  And as customers, I quickly realized that businesses didn't actually want me there either. I was a distraction to their actual profitable customers.
  - ghaff 1y ago
    For me, it was one of those businesses that, as a consumer, you realized was sort of a novelty but the coupons weren't really really worth it and they were a PITA to use a lot of the time. And once the novelty wore off, they sort of slipped off your radar and weren't worth thinking about any longer even if there might be an interesting deal here or there.
- nothercastle 1y ago
  And the volume of people caused the good customers to get shitty service so it was basically impossible to make it work. Also it was a mega loss leader since Groupon took a huge cut