The costs of servers scale extremely well, while the costs of airplanes and jet fuel don't. So web companies have much higher potential profits than airlines, and they're consequently worth a lot more.
...that was the point all along.
So web companies have much higher potential profits than airlines, and they're consequently worth a lot more.
This isn't a competition between tech companies and airlines. Airlines merely act as an example an industry which, at least as of 1995 when Buffett first brought them up, had a net loss over the entirety of the industry's existence. What's the net lifetime profit of the tech sector? What will be the lifetime profit of social websites in another ten years?