>a larger software company (or open source project) just replicating their entire product.
Agreed for products that are specific service, but if your product is driven by a users(facebook and twitter for example), it's damn near impossible for other companies to push you out of the way and achieve the same results once you reach a large enough user base. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, especially between generations of software, but usually not concurrently. (google+ vs facebook?)
Therein lies roughly the same problem though.
It's not really practical for anybody to start a new social network unless you think you can compete with the likes of facebook / google+ etc.
It's a go big or go home type game and requires a fair amount of risk. It's not really a career choice in the same way as doing a trade would be.
Agreed for products that are specific service, but if your product is driven by a users(facebook and twitter for example), it's damn near impossible for other companies to push you out of the way and achieve the same results once you reach a large enough user base. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, especially between generations of software, but usually not concurrently. (google+ vs facebook?)