This is installment number 3 of why you shouldn’t build your business around another company’s product for which you have no contractual relationship. For prior posts on this subject, see:
This time, Twitter provides the example. From Tech Crunch, Twitter releases Blackberry app and acquires Tweetie.
Way back in February the writing was on the wall: Twitter would compete directly with third party developers who were creating Twitter apps. Twitter investor Fred Wilson reiterated that threat just a few days ago when he said most of the apps that third party developers had created were merely “filling holes,” not truly creating “something entirely new on top of Twitter.”
That sure sounds ominous. And then, BOOM. Twitter released its own Blackberry app and acquired Tweetie, which has a popular iPhone and desktop app. The threats are over, Twitter fired missiles at its developers.
You cannot build a business by simply adding a feature to someone else’s product without a partnership with that other company. While it’s possible to make some money this way in the short run, if you are OK with staying small, or perhaps (and this is a very long shot) by getting bought by the larger company, in general this strategy is not going to work for you. They will copy you and crush you. Every company is going to do this. It would be dumb of them not to. That’s how business works. Never forget this.
