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A comment on OpenAI Is Just Another Boring, Desperate AI Startup. Parent comment

Re:OpenAI Is Just Another Boring, Desperate AI Startup by hluska on Friday October 03, 2025 @03:27PM (#45466804)
The concept of ‘moat’ comes out of marketing - it was a concept in marketing for decades before Warren Buffett coined the term economic moat. Brand moat had been part of marketing for years and is a fully recognized and researched concept. It’s even been researched with fMRIs.

You may not see it, but OpenAI’s brand has value. To a large portion of the less technical world, ChatGPT is AI.

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Re:OpenAI Is Just Another Boring, Desperate AI Startup by poopiokaka on Friday October 03, 2025 @03:52PM (#45467076)
Still not a moat tho
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Re:OpenAI Is Just Another Boring, Desperate AI Startup by tim333 on Saturday October 04, 2025 @05:02AM (#45471870)
A moat can be being the largest in a field, often the case with Buffett investments eg. Coca cola, Apple, Geico.
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Re:OpenAI Is Just Another Boring, Desperate AI Startup by smcin on Saturday October 04, 2025 @03:51PM (#45476169)
Nokia's global market share was ~50% in smartphones back in 2007. Remember that?

Comparing "brand moat" in real-world restaurant vs online services where there's no actual barrier to changing service is silly. Doubly silly when they're free users, so they're not customers. (And then there are also end-users when OpenAI is bundled or embedded, e.g. dating/chatbot services).

McDonald's has lock-in and inertia through its franchisees occupying key real-estate locations, media and film tie-ins, promotions etc. Those are physical moats, way beyond a conceptual "brand moat" (without being able to see how Hamilton Wright Helmer's book characterizes those).

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