In today’s world, when we talk about starting any business in a field/sector, we either talk about the disruptive aspect of this new business and its unique ability compared to the established players in the market. If no one is in the field, we will have the “first mover advantage“.
This first-mover advantage gives lots of benefits to the business: early customer adaption, loyalty, brand image, and a lot more. This could be used to dictate the market and very importantly become the dominant player in related streams easily compared to startups. For instance, take Google (though second-mover, let’s assume it is first) – you could see how it monopolized the entire market and eventually entered into all related streams making it more and more powerful – either an internet browser or a free mail account or making it mandatory to have their email to run the biggest mobile phone operating system on the planet.
Let’s talk about the Indian market, on-demand delivery service is the new race in the town. Dunzo has been one of the early movers in this segment, now this market is flooded with big and heavily funded firms like Swiggy, Zepto, and Blinkit. If you take Swiggy, they were one of the early startups in the food delivery business in India and have an established rider network. This rider network and user data are super helpful to enter this on-demand game and can now make promises like 10-minute delivery without delivery fees.
The point I am trying to make is – having the first-mover advantage in the market will have many benefits. Likewise, if you think about the world, the West has unparalleled first-mover benefits. You can say – they were an independent nation for way too long, or WW-II, or whatnot. But, the past is gone time, the present is now time. West has been able to set an example with its unique first-mover advantage. Now, they are dictating the development perception to currency domination – everywhere and anywhere.
This doesn’t mean that the domination is constant. History is a great teacher, which reminds – us that first mover advantage could help you take over the competition/control the market – but you still need to act and work. Else, as said above Google (a second-mover beating Yahoo) will make itself look like a first-mover in the end!
Thoughts are never linear!
Peace!
engineeringvsme 