Priceline 2015 Annual Report Download - page 15

the terror attacks in Paris in November 2015; Hurricane Sandy, which disrupted travel in the northeastern United States in late 2012; a major earthquake, tsunami
and nuclear emergency in Japan in 2011; severe flooding in Thailand in October 2011; and disruptive civil unrest in Thailand in 2010 and 2014. In addition, MERS
had an adverse impact on our business in northeast Asia in 2015. Also, in 2015 regional hostilities in the Middle East spurred an unprecedented flow of migrants
from that region to Europe. As countries respond to the European migrant crisis, travel between countries in the European Union and to and from the region could
be subject to increased restrictions or the closing of borders, which could negatively impact travel to, from or within the European Union and adversely affect our
business and results of operations. Future terrorist attacks, natural disasters, health concerns or civil or political unrest could further disrupt our business and
operations and adversely affect our results of operations.
Intense competition could reduce our market share and harm our financial performance.
We compete with both online and traditional travel and restaurant reservation and related services. The market for the services we offer is intensely
competitive, and current and new competitors can launch new services at a relatively low cost. Some of our current and potential competitors, such as Google,
Apple, Alibaba, Amazon and Facebook, have access to significantly greater and more diversified resources than we do, and they may be able to leverage other
aspects of their businesses (e.g., search or mobile device businesses) to enable them to compete more effectively with us. For example, Google has entered various
aspects of the online travel market through its acquisition in 2011 of ITA Software, Inc., a major flight information software company, its hotel search and
reservation booking business ("Book on Google") and its license of hotel-booking software from Room 77.
We currently, or may potentially in the future, compete with a variety of companies, including:
• online travel reservation services such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif, Cheaptickets, ebookers, HotelClub, RatesToGo,
CarRentals.com and Venere, which are owned by Expedia; laterooms, which is owned by Tui Travel; Hotel Reservation Service (HRS) and hotel.de,
which are owned by Hotel Reservation Service; and AutoEurope, Car Trawler, Ctrip (in which we hold a minority interest), eLong (in which Ctrip has
acquired a significant minority ownership interest), MakeMyTrip, Webjet, Rakuten, Jalan, Hotel Urbano (in which we hold a minority interest), ViajaNet,
Submarino Viagens, Despegar/Decolar, 17u.com, HotelTonight, Bookit.com, CheapOair, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and eDreams ODIGEO;
• online accommodation search and/or reservation services, such as Airbnb and HomeAway (which is owned by Expedia), currently focused on vacation
rental properties and other non-hotel accommodations, including individually owned properties;
• large online companies, including search, social networking and marketplace companies such as Google, Facebook, Alibaba and Groupon;
• traditional travel agencies, wholesalers and tour operators, many of which combine physical locations, telephone services and online services, such as
Carlson Wagonlit, American Express, Thomas Cook and Tui Travel, as well as thousands of individual travel agencies around the world;
• travel service providers such as accommodation providers, rental car companies and airlines, many of which have their own branded websites to which
they drive business, including joint efforts by travel service providers such as Room Key, an online hotel reservation service owned by several major hotel
companies;
• online travel search and price comparison services (generally referred to as "meta-search" services), such as TripAdvisor, trivago (in which Expedia holds
a majority ownership interest), Qunar (which is controlled by Ctrip), Skyscanner, HotelsCombined and Traveloka;
• online restaurant reservation services, such as TripAdvisor's LaFourchette, Yelp's SeatMe, Zomato, Bookatable (which is owned by Michelin) and
Quandoo (which is owned by Recruit); and
• companies offering new rental car business models or car- or ride-sharing services that affect demand for rental cars, some of which have developed
innovative technologies to improve efficiency of point-to-point transportation and extensively utilize mobile platforms, such as Uber, Lyft, Gett, Zipcar
(which is owned by Avis), BlaBlaCar, Didi Kuaidi and Ola.
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