Ask HN: Do you worry that your product will be killed by one of the tech giants?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12533747

by shanwang • 10 years ago

8 13 10 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Today Google released Google trips https://get.google.com/trips

Not to say it's definitely going to be successful, but it must be a bad news for people building travel apps.

These days big companies like Google and microsoft roll out small products like trips from time to time, with so many resources to spare, they have a bigger chance to succeed than startups.

If you are building a internet product, do you worry that one day a tech giant will crash you? If so what can you do about it?

p333347• 10 years ago

Not at all. It seems these bigcos in their desire to diversify either produce an inferior version of pre existing hit software which will eventually fizzle out (or kept under life support), or simply buy out a viable competitor to the said pre existing hit software. So, unless you are trying to compete with bigcos' A game software products, you shouldn't worry. I don't. One might even look to create a viable competitor and seek a buyout, enjoy the spoils for a while and move on to next idea. Again, I don't.

mrg3_2013• 10 years ago

I do. This may not be popular opinion - but the mere fact that they can build what you can after you have "proved" the market for them is always risky IMO. Ofcourse, bigcos may not be able as nimble as you are - so there's hope. Incidentally, I asked a question today due to the fear of same thing.

codegeek• 10 years ago

I wouldn't hold my breath with google. Lets see:

- Google Wave (dead)

- Google talk (dead)

- Google Voice (dead)

- Google trips (...._

If anything, google may offer to buy you out if they like your product good enough. So if that counts as being killed, then yea may be.

dhruvkar• 10 years ago

Is Google Voice considered dead?

It's been my primary number for ~4 years now, and yes, it's not 100% reliable (spotty forwarding once in a while), it's still serving me well.

recmend• 10 years ago

Do not worry about things that you don't control. Our job as innovators is to find opportunities that we believe in and give our best, independent of the outcome. Moreover, Tech giants cannot focus and move as fast as a tiny startup.

endswapper2• 10 years ago

Couldn't agree with this more, "Do not worry about things that you don't control."

And I'd like to add that there are plenty of things to worry about. Channel your energy there.

shanwang2• 10 years ago

In theory you are right, but in reality, when you are faced with multiple choices of startup ideas, shouldn't this be a major factor on deciding which one to act on?

cureyourhead• 10 years ago

But you can control it. Adopt a strategy resilient to big company interference. Don't think of yourself as a fake victim of big companies. There's always things you can do. Have you forgotten the even basic lessons of MS vs IBM, you fucking idiots?

shanwang2• 10 years ago

watch your language

toast0• 10 years ago

Google releasing their product brings visibility to the market. If you have a travel app, now ou can say "it's like google trips, but we launched last year" and people will have some idea because of the google hype cycle. Instead of saying "it's like yahoo travel trip planner, except we didn't shut down"

taprun• 10 years ago

The more specific your audience, the less likely that a big company will replicate your solution.

Building a faster database? You're going to get clobbered.

Building a better system for managing small postage stamp collections? You're probably safe.

irremediable• 10 years ago

I'm not in a start-up at the minute, and I should make it clear that I've not yet worked in a senior role at one. That said, I feel like most start-ups would be happy to reach the level of success where this is a problem!

Ask HN: Do you worry that your product will be killed by one of the tech giants?

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