Welcome to the bigs, Booking.com. We know you’d rather not be here. 

Last month, the European Union announced that it had added Booking, the online travel agency started in Amsterdam in 1996, to its list of “digital gatekeepers,” thereby anointing it Big Tech — which means extra scrutiny under its new Digital Markets Act legislation. Normally, getting lumped in with Meta, Apple, and Amazon might be seen as a compliment, but Booking is pretty steamed that it has to abide by the new DMA rules for gatekeepers, which CEO Glenn Fogel delicately referred to as “dumb regulation” at a Financial Times event on Thursday.

Big Fish

Booking isn’t the only company that’s balked at the EU’s decision to include it on the gatekeepers list. Last year, German e-retailer Zalando filed a lawsuit to get itself taken off the list. According to the EU, Booking qualifies as an “intermediation platform,” putting it in the same category as Apple’s App Store and Amazon Marketplace — platforms that cater to third-party vendors — which, in Booking’s case, are hotels and other vacation accommodations.

Booking now has six months to prove to the EU that it’s abiding by the DMA regulations, which prescribe how it’s allowed to deal with vendors on its platform. Under the new rules, for example, Booking must allow hotels to offer lower rates for their rooms on their own websites. Fogel’s reaction was to hint that Booking might not stay in the EU if it has to abide by too many constraints:

• Asked whether he would consider relocating Booking’s headquarters outside of the EU, Fogel replied, “I never say no to anything that is possible.” Airbnb’s Europe division is probably putting champagne on ice somewhere.
• Fogel added: “We need Brussels and the member states to think very hard. How do we create a climate to make sure Europe is a leader in technology?” Booking is based in Amsterdam, but it is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings, a US firm, so its European identity is an ever-so-slight smokescreen.

A Place in the Scam: While it’s trying to prove to the EU that it operates with an abundance of fairness and consumer protection, Booking simultaneously has to contend with a fresh wave of scams on its platform. Marnie Wilking, Booking’s chief information security officer, said at a conference in Toronto that over the past 18 months, Booking has seen a 500% to 900% increase in travel scams, per BBC. She attributed the sudden algae bloom of scams to the rise and availability of generative AI tools, saying “the uptick started shortly after ChatGPT got launched.” She recommended hotels and holidaymakers use two-factor authentication to avoid scams — because nothing says “I’m on vacation” more than a piña colada and a vanishing, randomized PIN.

South of the border, down Mexico way, is where investment capital is going to stay. 

While most of the world faced a decrease in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, Latin America stood as a strong outlier, according to the United Nations’ latest World Investment Report published Thursday. It isn’t hard to understand why.

Point Your Compass South

With everything going on in the world — from war in Europe and the Middle East to anti-espionage laws in China and spy-vetting in Silicon Valley — Latin America is looking pretty enticing to investment groups: 

• FDI remained stable in Latin America in 2023 per the UN, with the region drawing in $193 billion thanks to demand for commodities and critical minerals for clean energy technologies. In 2022, The US accounted for the largest share of Latin America FDI inflows at 38%.
• Last year, Morgan Stanley expanded its business assets in Latin America by 6%, to roughly $120 billion, Bloomberg reported. Latin America is important for “reorganizing supply chains and accessing everything from food and industrial metals to transition fuels and pharmaceutical ingredients,” John Moore, head of Morgan Stanley’s Latin America operations, told the outlet. 

We Saw ‘Em First: Other economies have their sights set on Latin America, too — namely, China. One out of every 10 cars sold in Mexico last year were from Chinese automakers, Reuters reported, and Chinese investment flow to Latin America increased between 2022 and 2023, bolstering the solar, wind, and hydropower sectors, according to The Diplomat. In response to China’s growing presence, the US Congress introduced the Americas Act in March; it would help facilitate more free trade deals between the US and Latin America. The US really doesn’t like seeing its nemesis get all buddy-buddy with its next-door neighbors.

You’d think the biggest election year in history would be good news for pollsters. 

In the case of YouGov, you’d be wrong. The UK-based polling company announced on Thursday that it’s lowering its profit guidance for the year. The announcement dismayed investors; the company’s share price fell nearly 45% following the news.

Alright, Guv’nor

This year has seen more elections held around the world than any other in recorded history (we can’t speak to Paleolithic democratic processes). Although YouGov is based in the UK, it operates in a wide range of regions, including the Americas, the Middle East, India, and Asia Pacific. It polls on a variety of subjects like entertainment (how often do Brits go to the theater?) and consumer issues (how much money should you spend on a wedding gift?), but polling voting intention is a pretty bread-and-butter part of its operations.

So why is YouGov performing worse than expected just when the world is going to the polls? The company said this year has not quite panned out the way it hoped:

• YouGov said it had assumed the second half of 2024 would be a major revenue boon, but it’s now feeling a little less optimistic. 
• This year, YouGov was supposed to be looking to America for growth — it announced last year it would focus on the US. We regret to remind our readers that a US presidential election is taking place this November, and it seems YouGov hasn’t yet got enough of a foothold in the US to maintain its previous optimism.

Who Cares What Everyone Thinks? US pollsters are also gearing up for November, and they’re trying to shake off the specters of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections — both years in which US pollsters were more off-the-mark than usual. US pollsters held a conference last month to try to agree on how best to poll voters this year, and specifically how to make sure they reach enough Republican voters, ABC reported.