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Re:How Mapbox Is Winning Over Developers to Challenge Google... by wheaties on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @11:36AM (#17021689)
That's probably a good business strategy for the future of Maps. The fewer clients you have, the more focused you can be in terms of product development and pricing. This is true in many businesses, actually.
Re:How Mapbox Is Winning Over Developers to Challenge Google... by Retric on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @11:44AM (#17021781)
It's risky to leave customers out that will feed your competition.
Re:How Mapbox Is Winning Over Developers to Challenge Google... by csallen on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @11:53AM (#17021875)
Every business decision carries risk. The question is whether or not the risk is acceptable.

If you don't want to serve any customers making under $10M, then other companies serving those customers are not your competition. At least not today. Is there a risk they might take their broader customer base and use it to compete with you upmarket some day? Yes. But that's why you do things like build a brand, relationships, technologies, and other competitive advantages within your niche.

Fancy steakhouses generally don't worry about McDonald's. (Not that this is a perfect analogy to Google vs MapBox. Just speaking generally here in response to your general point.)