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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · E-business: value chain

Quickfare, an established airline, sees customers moving to a travel comparison website that lists all airlines. In response, Quickfare launches its own comparison-style website under a different brand, which also lists rival airlines' fares. Which strategy is Quickfare using?

Quickfare is using countermediation. It has launched its own branded intermediary, a comparison site, to compete with the independent comparison website that threatens its direct relationship with customers. Disintermediation would involve bypassing intermediaries, not creating a rival one that lists competitors.

  1. ADisintermediation, by selling only through its own website
  2. BCountermediation, by creating its own intermediary to compete with the new online intermediaryCorrect
  3. CMarket penetration, by lowering fares on existing routes
  4. DBackward integration, by acquiring a fuel supplier

Explanation

Countermediation is when an established firm creates its own intermediary to rival new online intermediaries. Disintermediation would mean bypassing intermediaries altogether, but Quickfare is building a rival one that lists competitors too.

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