On the other hand, if a start-up can play the same game, scale may not provide a significant advantage unless there is a massive difference in scale. For example, when Airbnb was blitzscaling, it was competing with HomeAway, an established player that had much greater scale. However, HomeAway had achieved its scale via a string of twenty-one acquisitions, which meant that all of its acquisitions were running on different technology platforms and serving different clienteles. Indeed, HomeAway’s scale was actually a disadvantage! HomeAway itself was later acquired by Expedia, as part of that
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