"Two standards" isn't much different from "no standard" in this context. JSON was successful because it had a simple spec that almost anyone could implement for

"Two standards" isn't much different from "no standard" in this context. JSON was successful because it had a simple spec that almost anyone could implement for any language with virtually no ambiguity. It's not ubiquitous because it's good, it's good because it's ubiquitous. It's another episode in the long history of "worse-is-better".