Who is really your product's competitor?

It's very likely not the obvious, similar product

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Who are you really competing against? You are likely wrong about who you’re competing with. Your idea of "competitors" is probably wrong because you think “products” instead of behaviours.

Here’s a couple of non-obvious competitors to some of the most famous products in the world:

1️⃣ Biggest competitor to Netflix? Not HBO. It’s Fortnite. Netflix is competing for your entertainment time, not your “I’m going to stream some movie” time. Gaming is stealing the most valuable “entertainment” time from Netflix.

2️⃣ Biggest competitor of the News? Not websites or news apps. It’s TikTok. Most young people get world facts from TikTok in short video format. Are these edited, curated and well delivered? Maybe, maybe not, but that's what people consume.

3️⃣ Biggest competitor to Google? Not Bing, Yahoo or other search engines. It’s Amazon. The most valuable searches for Google are product purchases. But what happens when you already know Amazon has what you want? You search directly there, and skip Google.

4️⃣ Biggest competitor to books? “Oh nothing competes with books…”. Twitter does. You want to get knowledge in a world where nobody has time or attention? Jump into Twitter threads and “learn anything in no time”. Is it the best knowledge? Probably not, but that’s what users are choosing to read.

5️⃣ Biggest competitor to the traditional office space? Not WeWork or fancy decorated locations. It’s Zoom, Slack or MS Teams. It’s staying home, not commuting in traffic, not wasting time distracted by everyone else.

People don’t think about “your competitors”. They think “what can I use that gives me the dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins I need to solve this problem and live my best life?”