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In less than ten years, co-founders Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd had transformed HomeAway from just another Internet startup into the leading vacation rentals marketplace in the world-a global online platform that linked customers seeking vacation home rentals to the property owners and managers who supplied them. The case traces HomeAway's origins through IPO and beyond, documenting the company's acquisition-led growth and the core elements of its subscription-based business model. By 2014, incumbent travel giants and high-profile startups like Airbnb began to take notice of the vacation rentals sector. To stay ahead, HomeAway initiated a pilot collaboration to show some of its listings on Expedia's site. Sharples was also considering a new commission-based revenue model that promised to attract a broader swath of property listers but risked undermining HomeAway's existing business.

Qihoo, one of the largest Internet companies in China today, was founded in 2005. The company started its business by offering a security software product, and quickly dominated the market in China after its unusual move of giving its product away for free in 2009. Later, it expanded its offering to cover a broad spectrum of Internet and mobile security products. In 2012 the company launched its own Internet search engine called So.com. By August 2013, So.com captured 18% PC market share, and had posed a threat to Baidu, China's largest and most established search engine provider. Yet to compete against Baidu and other Chinese Internet giants in the long run, Qihoo needed to find a way to replicate its PC market success in the mobile market. How could Qihoo continue to evolve its search engine business and what was the best mobile strategy to help the company grow?