The only people who threaten this are Facebook and Twitter. Twitter _actually_ could clone it or buy a competitor. But, look at Twitter’s history of that. They literally KILLED a TikTok by buying it and shutting it down. They are in the process of killing a live video competitor to twitch and youtube called periscope.
Don’t be afraid of The Big Bois.
Facebook does a damn good job of sinking ships.
The only two survivors I can think of are TikTok and Snapchat. And Snapchat pivoted.
the ones you’re referring to were social photo/video plays which FB was perfectly setup to enter. FB doesn’t have an audio product as far as i know.
Giants are more likely to buy the entire project with a small amount of shares
Neither option is likely to turn out well, but at least the founders could be rewarded
Giants can clone the entire product with a small team.
I'm worried about this exact problem.
Edit: First thought that comes to mind is filing a few patents and then throwing 50% of funding into a lawsuit against the first giant to clone you.
This is traditionally not the way, but with the incumbents so nimble and readily able to pick off good ideas, it seems like it might be the only defense.