Just now catching upon this thread.
I guess what started this thread was issues with points.com's transaction processing and customer service. But like many here, the biggest obstacle preventing me from using them is the cost.
I'm curious about the idea of creating a competitor. Would you see competing at the wholesale level (fighting who gets to sign up the airlines, perhaps exclusively) or retail (both companies work with the same airlines, and consumers get to choose)?
Either way, it seems to me like a crappy business, but maybe that's just me projecting my "I'd never spend that much" attitude.
But I looked for more, and here's some of what I found.
Points.com is owned by Points International Ltd, which trades publicly on the Toronto Venture exchange (PTS.TO), and what I guessare ADR's on the US Pink Sheets (PTSEF.PK).
Latest stock price is 93 cents, and the market cap looks like about $50-60 million. Recent quarterly revenues were about $2M. Net loss was about $2M, with EBITDA loss about $1M.
IR Page:
http://www.integratir.com/homepage.asp?ticker=t.pts
3Q04 results:
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041110/105283_1.html
Some interesting nuggets:
- They claim "Strong recurring revenues, as 92% of Points.com's revenues were recurring". Not sure what this means, except that I'd guess that a large part of the revenues are coming from the travel companies and not consumers.
- In the quarter, Points powered the cumulative online exchange, sale and transfer of 6.5 billion points and miles.
- The [average] transaction size of each exchange increased to 18,041 points per exchange, up from 15,663 in the third quarter of 2003, and 15,060 in the prior quarter.
Finally, this:
In addition to ongoing efforts to establish additional partner relationships, the third quarter saw the company begin development on the next version of its consumer experience at the website
www.points.com. In the second quarter of 2005, several significant changes to the Points.com consumer experience will be launched.
The company is working closely with its partners, and industry experts, on the development of the next version of the Points.com website, which represents a major enhancement in the relationship with both reward program partners and consumers.
Today, the consumer interacts with a site that centers on a single feature: Exchange. The new Points.com website will broaden its offerings, and present each consumer with a personalized view of their reward program universe.
"As a result of this personalized view, Points.com will help consumers realize more value from their favorite programs, and "Get More Rewards, Faster(TM)". This is accomplished by adding new mile and point management tools such as ways to purchase and earn more miles or points in their favorite programs. In addition, the system will be driven by an Amazon-style associative relevance suggestion engine that will use the consumer's unique program, reward goals and point balance mix to suggest ways to use the earn, buy and exchange tools to "Get More Rewards, Faster(TM)", stated Mr. MacLean
The result of these changes is the evolution of Points.com to a "reward management portal", providing a more comprehensive and engaging consumer experience.
This reward program management utility will add new revenue streams to the Points.com business model,
including a focus on subscription membership. Management anticipates accessing significant revenue streams from the additional functionality on the site.