Booking.com: Anatomy of the Machine and Platform Capitalism

The article analyzes Booking.com not just as a reservation service, but as a 'Machine' – a system of permanent optimization based on mass A/B experiments and the psychology of persuasion. The author examines the transition from improvised beginnings (bricolage) to an advanced data infrastructure that turns user behavior into measurable streams of information. The text highlights the paradox of emancipation: the platform provides growth tools for hoteliers and convenience for travelers, while simultaneously making them dependent on its own algorithmic logic. In the context of Max Weber's and Herbert Simon's theories, Booking.com is presented as an example of a modern organization where human intuition gives way to hard data from experiments, and power is redistributed in favor of the owner of the digital infrastructure.