Once digital brands scale enough, their cease to be disruptors and become a full-blown competitors to incumbents in the market they are operating. Their strategy revolves around the definition of who they are competing with. Having clarity about the key competitor protects digital entrants against a) being copied by this competitor and b) being acquired by it.

The quote below is from Netflix’s “Long Term View”:

“The network that we think is likely to be our biggest long-term competitor-for-content is HBO. In the USA for example, HBO recently won long-term exclusive domestic movie output deals with Universal and Fox. HBO bids against us on many original content projects though is not currently a bidder against us for prior-season television from other networks”.

Netflix is already on it, but AirBnB, Warby Parker, Uber, Spotify and others should take note: Who are you competing against? Who is your absolutely key competitor?

*The above quote is by Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix