First Mover Or Last Mover : Who makes a better entry?

Founders often make reference to their existing biggest competitor or introduce themselves as someone being the first one to launch something like that(the product). Can I say in the first case the founder is one amongst the late movers and in the second case the founder is one amongst the first movers.?

(I am not saying last mover, because literally, can we “never” have someone else who will still enter the industry with something new ?)

So in any market, you are either the first few startups that launched and monopolized or the later few startups that are entering to disrupt the existing market.

Ola and Uber monopolized while BluSmart and other newer mobility startups are entering with a different value proposition.

As an Early Entrant, Ola and Uber had better brand recognition and kind of monopolized the space with increasing market share, tier 2 & 3 expansion and early customer loyalty. They had the potential to mold customer behavior. You can say, they are defining the rules of the industry segment.

Someone like BluSmart, came with an EV segment to disrupt yet appeal to a differentiated need. (Not to forget, EV is the new Blue.)

By the time a late entrant enters, in some cases the existing startups are listed and the amount of market thesis available about the segment is huge. This means late movers get the advantage of knowing the customer behavior, having a fair idea about the market size (till so far defined and captured by early movers), which reduces their operation costs due to industry enablers presence and better planning.?

Early Movers are fairly the pizza (the hard work of bringing something into existence ) while Late Movers are the appealing Toppings (the unique propositions and extra things you always needed to have better experience).

Let's look at some popular startups that fully utilized their first mover or late mover advantage

The First Mover

OLX , an online marketplace that allows people to buy and sell second-hand goods launched in Argentina in 2006 and has since expanded to more than 40 countries around the world, including India, Brazil, and Nigeria.

Being First Mover gave it a large user base and a well known brand that made it difficult for its competitors to attract users. Another thing that helped was its user friendly interface, as early movers need to educate the process and an easy interface does the task.

The Last Mover

Facebook, a social networking site (do I even need to introduce this?) launched in 2004, several years after other social networking sites such as MySpace and Friendster. Despite not being the first mover in the social media space, Facebook was able to leverage its second mover advantage to become the dominant player in the market.

MySpace and Friendster had both encountered various problems, such as slow loading times, cluttered interfaces, and a lack of privacy controls. Facebook was able to take note of these issues and design its platform to address them, resulting in a more user-friendly and secure experience for users.

Should you be the First Mover or Last Mover?

Practically speaking, you don't choose this. You rather solve this. In case you are a first mover, you keep yourself prepared from the next movers. In case you are the late movers, you utilize your strong points.

Industries where the first movers tend to be successful are those where there are high barriers to entry and where early investment in research, development, and production facilities can create a significant advantage over later competitors such as pharmaceuticals, Automobiles and Convenience items.

Industries where the late movers can be successful are those where the initial investment required to be a first mover is high and risky, and where there is room for innovation and improvement on the original offering such as fast-food chains, video streaming, technology and social media.?

Market Sizing the Movers

All this discussion gave a false belief of the industry fighting amongst each other. (Looked like a tug of War between First Movers and Late Movers!). As if, the market means the startups in the industry and not the users in the market.

When asked about Market Size, You don't tell the number of competitors in the Market. You suggest the number of potential users in the market.

That said, No matter whether you are a first mover or late mover, your end goal is to work on the user segment and keep building products that make an impact, change the experience and fulfill aspects.?

User > Competition (Obviously!)

Share this newsletter with your colleagues who are planning to start a startup that can face similar issue.

Markoknow & Kaushiki .