Often, only the special offers are fully documented and specified. Being a differentiated, 'information-intense' industry, the travel industry offers huge potential for intelligent agents in every stage of the market process. Better need identification, product and merchant brokerage, and cost reduction will be the main added value made by intelligent agents. Books Online book selling has turned out to be a huge success. This has forced the Dutch Internet book industry to react to the foreign threat.
Portals appear to play a major role in the search for a book.
This search is limited by exclusive supply via these portals. Therefore, booksellers compete for few exclusive positions on portal sites. Increasingly, independent shopping sites provide price comparisons between a broader range of booksellers. The Internet book market has provided first movers with lower costs and scale-benefits on an early market. In building an online brand, first movers seem to take the bulk of the benefit.