Essay Help on KAYAK and Intellectual Property: Revenue Structure, Technology, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Properties
Essay Help on KAYAK and Intellectual Property: Revenue Structure, Technology, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Properties
KAYAK as a company that is driven to provide good travel services by connecting travel companies like Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz to the end users. It hosts websites and mobile applications that are used by users to research and find out the best travel company, accommodation providers and hotels. It performs in a multi-sided market model, it typically serves distinct group of users who benefit mutually from each other on the platform. Any platform has an interest in attracting both the end users and application developers and in this case they lower the cost of operation by reducing such costs as licenses, rents since it is just a software platform that make services available through application programming interface. The software platform like KAYAK benefits from interconnecting distinct group of customers and coordinating the members of each distinct group. Any platform operator can use indirect network externalities to serve as matchmakers, constructing audience, and being cost efficient by giving out shared services for all the end users from every relationship. A multi-sided company charges less for one party or provide free services as seen with KAYAK where traveler services are provided freely. In this paper, the structure of the KAYAK’s multi-sided market is discussed and the intellectual property required. (Essay Help on KAYAK and Intelectual property: Revenue Structure, Technology, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Properties)
The multi-sided market structure for KAYAK
KAYAK brings together different travel agencies including the leading airline in the world and customers by providing global travel sites from which travelers get the desired flight, hotel, hiring cars or cruise line. In its operations it has advertising agreements with most hotels, travelling agencies, rental car operators. It conducts its operations through websites from which you can compare different travel sites and find your choice on which to book. The company has travel application that can be downloaded and are available free on mobile devices and windows mobile seven. KAYAK is made of web pages that are served by Tomcat, Apache, Java, with perl operational glue and they all run on Linux developed often on Mac OS x and Ubuntu Linux, develops and maintains its databases on MySQL. The Java programming language is used because it is efficient and well supported by the developer on the computing platforms. And Perl does language scripting in the best way. They use MySQL since it is simple to use and inexpensive, reliable and very fast. The choice for Linux is due to its free services and operates just fine. (Essay Help on KAYAK and Intelectual property: Revenue Structure, Technology, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Properties)
The revenue structure for the platform
The services provided to the travelers are entirely free but the company generates revenue from advertising and referral fees from travel agencies. The revenue structure is broken into distribution revenue, sending referrals to travel agencies after a customer after a customer makes a choice on any itinerary. Most of the travelers will always complete the booking before the web site or mobile applications. The distribution revenue is paid on the basis of cost per click or cost per acquisition. Advertising revenue, advertising placement on its web pages and mobile apps like display advertisement, compare units and sponsored links. Other advertisements on its websites consist of hotels, airline packages and vacation packages providers. The payment is on cost per click basis or cost per a thousand impressions basis. The websites allow the advertisers to respond to messages and placements according to the parameters used by the end users in terms of origin, destination and desired travel dates. With this parameters advertisers are able to frame their message in the most appropriate way to direct the customers to their websites and when the travelers click on the advertisement KAYAK directs this details to the advertiser increasing the chances of purchase on the website. (Essay Help on KAYAK and Intelectual property: Revenue Structure, Technology, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Properties)
The platforms’ technology and infrastructure
The platforms use technology to enable the websites and applications to search through the high complicated and distributed range of data from travel industries to prevent a comprehensive and relevant query reports to the users. The software platform is designed in a way that it can support the growing number of users and placements without frequent restructuring that can cause extra cost. The technology platforms analyze parameters for placement of queries in the websites and checks which website and databases contain the appropriate information then sends queries to the sites in parallel. The analysis involves prioritizing and standardizing then detecting for any result inaccuracy to determine the most useful and desired results.
The company designs its websites and mobile applications through a combination of its own software and different open sites and public domain technology to enhance speed, integrity and reliability. The public domains are widely used and satisfied by the engineering group and end users and provide efficient and reliable environment and infrastructure for the development of websites and apps which are stable and free. Most of the software used by KAYAK are commercially free, therefore no additional licensing fees is incurred when the download of the mobile apps grow. Websites are hosted on hardware and located on third party facilities and uses network deliveries and domain names to maximize routing and the speed of the websites. KAYAK uses multiple hosting facilities that are highly secured to increase bandwidth and redundant power. The mobile applications are available on iphone, iPad, Android and window 7 phone platforms. The apps have functionalities such as trip itinerary management, visual flight status, airport map guides and locations. Mobile-optimized website is offered to serve those users who prefer using their web browsers rather than downloading a separate app for the same services. (Essay Help on KAYAK and Intelectual property: Revenue Structure, Technology, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Properties)
Intellectual properties important to KAYAK
Intellectual properties are the protection of any creation that have moral and commercial values and contains the laws that allows the designer of an intellectual creation to enjoy and benefit from it. The IP protection is intended to optimize human mind creativity for the benefit of all and ensure that the owner of the creation also benefits. Intellectual property allows an enterprise or entity to block others from the use of its creations and allows the entities to publicize, distribute and disclose the creation to the public rather than keeping it secret. Examples of Intellectual property, patent, Trademarks to identify the goods and services, protection against unfair competition and trade secrets. KAYAK needs has to optimize the use of patents, trademarks, registration designs, service varieties and copyright to curb the challenges that it faces from its competitors and other related companies. It can go into a healthy competition by commercializing its creations to the benefit of others and itself and expanding its service varieties to the users. KAYAK is a technology-driven company that depends on frequent innovations to provide tools and services to the travelers hence it has to exercise its rightful protection for patents, designs, trade secrets, confidential information to prevent any harm that may (Essay Help on KAYAK and Intelectual property: Revenue Structure, Technology, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Properties)
References
Evans, D. S., Schmalensee, R., Noel, M. D., Chang, H. H., & Garcia-Swartz, D. D. (2011). Platform economics: Essays on multi-sided businesses. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1974020
Weyl, E. G. (2010). A price theory of multi-sided platforms. The American Economic Review, 100(4), 1642-1672.
Cornish, W., Llewelyn, G. I. D., & Aplin, T. (2013). Intellectual property: patents, copyright, trademarks & allied rights.
