I interviewed with OpenTable in 99/2000. I got into an argument with their tech lead during the interview and sadly was not offered a job! hahaha<p>I will always remember OpenTable because apparently they had built a great system on Java and Oracle (all very cutting edge at the time) and it worked great. However they were switching to Microsoft's DNA platform because they had a VC who was in bed with M$. Nice!<p>I liked their CEO and I'm betting that their success is almost entirely due to leadership, not technology or lack of competition. Also, while I'm sure there's room for competition, their kind of business is heavily tied to relationships which they have no doubt cultivated for many years. An excellent and well-earned high barrier to entry.
Part of the beauty, for me at least, is that 'restaurant reservations' is a likely-to-be-overlooked problem in the Web 2.0 era. I mean, where's the social networking component?! Can you friend other reservers?! Oh wait, you're going to eat dinner with people? Oh.<p>How many more problems like this are out there? Reminds me of DHH's "Fortune 1,000,000".
I've long admired OpenTable. They've slipped into massive dominance of a large and growing industry, and done so almost entirely unnoticed.<p>Also once in place, there's huge inertia preventing a restaurant from switching to a competitor, even if a good enough one emerged. Truly impressive.
Let's see how they fare in the coming cool-down eh?<p>I have an OpenTable account and they are nice even if you don't regularly reserve tables through the service -- you can get a very good idea of how ridiculously inaccessible a 'hot' restaurant in Los Angeles is, for example. (1 month out? 1 week out? 1 day out?)
> "If it books 80 percent through its restaurant partner sites, that means it charges 25 cents on about 2.4 million seated, and then charges $1 on the remaining 20 percent, or 600,000 seated, through its own site. So OpenTable is making $2.4 million a month...."<p>0.25 * 2.4 million + 1 * 0.6 million = $1.2 million /mo.<p>Still serious money, but off by a multiple of 2.
I've had the opportunity to discuss OpenTable with the founder on several occasions - The specific plan he put in place and the lessons the company have learned are helping it spread internationally. It's got such a market grip. It'll take serious grit to beat it in the market.
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I like this company pretty well, in that its service is really convenient. And it works.<p>(Disclaimer: I know some people who work there, including some at the exec level. But I'm mainly biased because I've used it for years.)<p>There may be room for competition, especially since they are slow to roll out obvious features like mobile access (DUH, guys) and social/recommendation features. Other opportunities abound, and they're not taking advantage of them.<p>Problem with competition: if you take OpenTable's approach, you're talking about physical hardware in someone's restaurant.<p>OTOH -- who said you needed anything other than a PC hooked up to the net and a webapp? Hmmmmmmmmmm.