4 ms·

Ask HN: What kind of startups can challenge Facebook, Google and Amazon?

PaulHoule 9y ago
Google has advanced A.I. for a general market but they are not good at specializing to the needs of particular customers. For instance, the more specialized a text analysis system is the more tractable the problem of getting it "good enough" for commercial use is. Company X needs something trainable for company X's universe and will find that training for other things will at best cost money they don't have, at worst, distract from good performance on the X universe. Much of the "AdTech" biz centered in NYC is there because Google has never wanted to play the high-touch sales game in advertising.
dawnbreez 9y ago
None. There are no startups that can simultaneously challenge companies that provide 3 different services to the average consumer. And the only way to compete with the datamining end of their business models is to have access to even more data, which may not even be feasible. Could a startup challenge one of these companies individually? Yes. All three at once? No.
- omarchowdhury 9y ago
  The intention was to stimulate discussions on startups that could challenge all 3, even if individually, in one topic; not necessarily one startup that challenges all 3. I've revised the title to a plurality. But I don't see why there couldn't be a search, social, and shopping startup. Success is not necessarily taking dominant market share.
alttab 9y ago
A company that can distribute very mentally elastic quick learning biped robots that respond to voice driven learning.
petra 9y ago
Google sells ads that lead to products. In some(or maybe many) cases, a marketplace is a strong alternative to ads(altough it may use some ads, i'm guessing that much less). Amazon kinda proved it(and hurt Google along the way) , but maybe there are many niches, globally, and ways to aggregate them(or just help), to continue with this trend. In a sense that may also apply to facebook(ads), maybe. Amazon's main strength is warehouses and fullfilment. Flexe, through a new, low capital biz model, similar to airbnb, have created a large fullfilment network across the US. There's potential there, maybe to hurt Amazon. Also, this will be expanded globally, and hurt Amazon further. it's just a question of when, i think. Altough , on the other hand, Amazon's seller-fullfiled-prime may be a good antidote. Also wish.com(cheap good directly from china,maybe opening a US warehouse) does interesting things in trading quality/speed for low price, and there might be a path for them to retain low prices while improving quality/speed. Startups that will help Walmart to challenge Amazon, could also be a great help. so there's that startup that made a robotic parcel locker , much bigger with higher package density. or any new tech that can help walmart with their giant parcel lockers for groceries(including chilling , etc).
maxsavin 9y ago
So long as these companies maintain their dominant positions, and no major market shifts happen (such as introduction of the global computer network), it's not likely that someone can challenge them directly. However, they are being challenged by groups of smaller startups. For example, Facebook is losing its appeal due to apps like Snapchat, Houseparty, etc. Amazon is being nibbled away by direct-to-consumer companies, like Casper and Dollar Shave Club. Google is getting challenged by voice assistants, chatbots, and so on. A good way to think of it is not as who can challenge these companies, but which human needs can be served better.
Nomentatus 9y ago
I'm amazed that DuckDuckGo is going from strength to strength. But that may be due to some algorithmic stumbles by Google. I've switched to DuckDuckGo because Google's AI would rather fantasize a different question than answer mine. Previous tech history suggests that the big ones (like WordPerfect) go down when they stumble or just ossify and refuse to improve for a long time.

Google has advanced A.I. for a general market but they are not good at specializing to the needs of particular customers. For instance, the more specialized a text analysis system is the more tractable the problem of getting it "good enough" for commercial use is. Company X needs something trainable for company X's universe and will find that training for other things will at best cost money they don't have, at worst, distract from good performance on the X universe. Much of the "AdTech" biz centered in NYC is there because Google has never wanted to play the high-touch sales game in advertising.

dawnbreez 9y ago

None. There are no startups that can simultaneously challenge companies that provide 3 different services to the average consumer. And the only way to compete with the datamining end of their business models is to have access to even more data, which may not even be feasible. Could a startup challenge one of these companies individually? Yes. All three at once? No.

omarchowdhury 9y ago
The intention was to stimulate discussions on startups that could challenge all 3, even if individually, in one topic; not necessarily one startup that challenges all 3. I've revised the title to a plurality. But I don't see why there couldn't be a search, social, and shopping startup. Success is not necessarily taking dominant market share.

alttab 9y ago

A company that can distribute very mentally elastic quick learning biped robots that respond to voice driven learning.

petra 9y ago

Google sells ads that lead to products. In some(or maybe many) cases, a marketplace is a strong alternative to ads(altough it may use some ads, i'm guessing that much less). Amazon kinda proved it(and hurt Google along the way) , but maybe there are many niches, globally, and ways to aggregate them(or just help), to continue with this trend. In a sense that may also apply to facebook(ads), maybe. Amazon's main strength is warehouses and fullfilment. Flexe, through a new, low capital biz model, similar to airbnb, have created a large fullfilment network across the US. There's potential there, maybe to hurt Amazon. Also, this will be expanded globally, and hurt Amazon further. it's just a question of when, i think. Altough , on the other hand, Amazon's seller-fullfiled-prime may be a good antidote. Also wish.com(cheap good directly from china,maybe opening a US warehouse) does interesting things in trading quality/speed for low price, and there might be a path for them to retain low prices while improving quality/speed. Startups that will help Walmart to challenge Amazon, could also be a great help. so there's that startup that made a robotic parcel locker , much bigger with higher package density. or any new tech that can help walmart with their giant parcel lockers for groceries(including chilling , etc).

maxsavin 9y ago

So long as these companies maintain their dominant positions, and no major market shifts happen (such as introduction of the global computer network), it's not likely that someone can challenge them directly. However, they are being challenged by groups of smaller startups. For example, Facebook is losing its appeal due to apps like Snapchat, Houseparty, etc. Amazon is being nibbled away by direct-to-consumer companies, like Casper and Dollar Shave Club. Google is getting challenged by voice assistants, chatbots, and so on. A good way to think of it is not as who can challenge these companies, but which human needs can be served better.

Nomentatus 9y ago

I'm amazed that DuckDuckGo is going from strength to strength. But that may be due to some algorithmic stumbles by Google. I've switched to DuckDuckGo because Google's AI would rather fantasize a different question than answer mine. Previous tech history suggests that the big ones (like WordPerfect) go down when they stumble or just ossify and refuse to improve for a long time.