Generations of software. So TikTok quickly became attractive to these users. In response, Facebook launched a nearly identical standalone app called Lasso, but it hasn’t received much attention so far.
Or, a large tech company might just be trying to acquire a company that threatens itself. But this also does not guarantee success. Acquisitions are sometimes very expensive, and as the number of threats increases, acquisitions gradually become an incorrect choice. Facebook did want to buy Snapchat but was rejected. Microsoft also wanted to buy Slack, and it failed.
In these cases, it was the founders and investors of the startup that rejected these acquisition proposals. Amazon is arguably the least enthusiastic company among tech giants. It has historically preferred internal development over external acquisitions.
I have been pursuing the approach I suggested in startups, and this approach has had varying degrees of success. In order to use the advantages of large technology companies to fight them and avoid being plagued by imitation, you need to solve these problems:
1. Does your opponent have a core advantage that leads to its success?
2. Can you find a niche, featured, formatted product that is valued by a large number of customers, but product delivery is more difficult to achieve due to the above advantages?
3. Will these big rivals imitate your products hurt their main business?
4. If the products you provide are ultimately attractive in the market, do those large competitors necessarily have to give up their advantages in order to copy your products or compete with your products?
If you can answer “yes” to these questions, then you may have found a way to prevent blatant copying, and you have found your own way to success. Of course, no single strategy can always bring advantages. For the company to prosper, you need to constantly create innovations that are difficult to imitate.
Author
Thales S. Teixeira
Taylor S. Teixeira is the co-founder of Decoupling.co, a digital disruption and transformation consulting firm. Previously, he was a professor at Harvard Business School for ten years. He is the author of “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Separation Drives the Disintegration of Inherent Consumption.”