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0 pointsmym19905y ago0 comments

Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application. I imagine it is also a company that is heavily invested in its software engineering workforce and all the resources that support/flow from that.

To note, it feels like 'tech company' is a bit ambiguous these days and doesn't necessarily have great clarity.

0 comments

12 comments · 2 top-level

PaulDavisThe1st5y ago· 8 in thread

I would suggest the following:

* a car company makes cars that it sells to consumers or other businesses

* a tortilla company makes tortillas that it sells to consumers or other businesses

* a chip fabrication company makes chips that it ...

... you see where I'm going with this?

* a tech company is a company that makes technology that it sells to consumers and other businesses.

Amazon is a tech company, but only because of AWS, not the marketplace or its own retail operations.

AirBnB is not a tech company. Neither is Ebay.

Maybe we need a new term like "tech-dependent company" to describe most of what are currently termed "tech companies".

pembrook5y ago

All companies are "tech-dependent companies." This is an intellectual dead end.

Traditionally, the business world has qualified tech companies as those which primarily function via zero marginal cost distribution provided by software and the internet.

If Airbnb and Ebay aren't tech companies, then neither are Google and Facebook. All four are marketplaces (Google and Facebook are advertising marketplaces at their core).

Saas and marketplaces are the most solidly "tech" businesses that exist by the textbook definition. They fully take advantage of zero marginal cost distribution.

shajznnckfke5y ago

I don’t think that definition is right. Nobody will argue that Apple isn’t a tech company, and the iPhone isn’t zero-marginal-cost.

1 more reply

RhodoYolo5y ago

Would you call Tesla a tech company?

PaulDavisThe1st5y ago

Yes. They make and sell technology to customers.

2 more replies

milesskorpen5y ago

Amazon doesn't make anything. Increasingly it doesn't even own what it's selling. Same with AirBNB. They're selling a marketing platform to businesses.

PaulDavisThe1st5y ago

AWS isn't a "marketing platform", and it's where most of their profit comes from. It's a bundle of many different and related technologies, most of which have only a few competitors and would be tricky to implement locally.

And then there's that "Amazon doesn't make anything" claim so neatly demolished by jodrellbank.

jodrellblank5y ago

> Amazon doesn't make anything.

Kindle. Firestick. Echo / Echo glasses/earbuds/wearables. Delivery drone (prototypes). Luna controller. The new AZ1 chip inside Echos. They own Ring (doorbells) and Eero Wi-Fi routers.

They custom design[1] their own internal routers, chips, storage and compute servers and network cards, they own Annapurna.

[1] https://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-web-services-secret-wea...

1 more reply

jonahss5y ago

An Amazon employee once told me that Jeff Bezos would agree that Amazon is _not_ a tech company

jbay8085y ago· 2 in thread

> Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application.

Is Expedia a tech company?

ch4s35y ago

Yeah, they were definitely part of the first wave of bing name internet tech companies. I expect that in 10 years AriBnB will be similarly boring.

nemothekid5y ago

Expedia is literally a dotcom that was spun off from Microsoft.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

12 comments · 2 top-level

PaulDavisThe1st5y ago· 8 in thread

I would suggest the following:

* a car company makes cars that it sells to consumers or other businesses

* a tortilla company makes tortillas that it sells to consumers or other businesses

* a chip fabrication company makes chips that it ...

... you see where I'm going with this?

* a tech company is a company that makes technology that it sells to consumers and other businesses.

Amazon is a tech company, but only because of AWS, not the marketplace or its own retail operations.

AirBnB is not a tech company. Neither is Ebay.

Maybe we need a new term like "tech-dependent company" to describe most of what are currently termed "tech companies".

pembrook5y ago

All companies are "tech-dependent companies." This is an intellectual dead end.

Traditionally, the business world has qualified tech companies as those which primarily function via zero marginal cost distribution provided by software and the internet.

If Airbnb and Ebay aren't tech companies, then neither are Google and Facebook. All four are marketplaces (Google and Facebook are advertising marketplaces at their core).

Saas and marketplaces are the most solidly "tech" businesses that exist by the textbook definition. They fully take advantage of zero marginal cost distribution.

shajznnckfke5y ago

I don’t think that definition is right. Nobody will argue that Apple isn’t a tech company, and the iPhone isn’t zero-marginal-cost.

1 more reply

RhodoYolo5y ago

Would you call Tesla a tech company?

PaulDavisThe1st5y ago

Yes. They make and sell technology to customers.

2 more replies

milesskorpen5y ago

Amazon doesn't make anything. Increasingly it doesn't even own what it's selling. Same with AirBNB. They're selling a marketing platform to businesses.

PaulDavisThe1st5y ago

And then there's that "Amazon doesn't make anything" claim so neatly demolished by jodrellbank.

jodrellblank5y ago

> Amazon doesn't make anything.

Kindle. Firestick. Echo / Echo glasses/earbuds/wearables. Delivery drone (prototypes). Luna controller. The new AZ1 chip inside Echos. They own Ring (doorbells) and Eero Wi-Fi routers.

They custom design[1] their own internal routers, chips, storage and compute servers and network cards, they own Annapurna.

[1] https://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-web-services-secret-wea...

1 more reply

jonahss5y ago

An Amazon employee once told me that Jeff Bezos would agree that Amazon is _not_ a tech company

jbay8085y ago· 2 in thread

> Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application.

Is Expedia a tech company?

ch4s35y ago

Yeah, they were definitely part of the first wave of bing name internet tech companies. I expect that in 10 years AriBnB will be similarly boring.

nemothekid5y ago

Expedia is literally a dotcom that was spun off from Microsoft.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse