> I could see a service like Parse being useful, 
    > but it would need to be owned / operated by a 
    > nonprofit in order to gain any adoption. 
    > Otherwise, it's just another proprietary 
    > platform that will get shut off or changed once  
    > Facebook (or whoever) pivots to another 
    > business model to address that market. 

It's not that companies that lock their business customers in wouldn't be successful. In my experience the vendor lock-in argument is always low on the list of arguments, sadly.

    > There's certainly demand, but I think most 
    > developers are wary about putting their 
    > company's tech stack at the mercy of a profit-
    > driven company that may abandon them.

Developers, sure they know better because service migration is their work and it's boring and unrewarding. Management is a different story.