My cousin had some idea about some app related to health care and she was worried about someone stealing the idea. I said nobody is going to take your idea and steal it because they would hold all the risk.
But if you went through with the idea and it makes money that's when people will steal the idea because you took the risk and it panned out and so investors will come in and pay for a competing product if they are locked out of the idea.
Thank you. I agree, both on the market and esp. on the nature of ideas. Though before there is a market you have a technology adoption model (TAM) where pioneers evolve the technology base and thereby prime the market that will eventually exist, then early adopters follow, etc. For #fediverse we are still in this very early stage, even though some products e.g. Mastodon are quite mature. And able to influence the type of market, market conditions. Take the #Flohhmarkt project, for instance, aimed at an audience of individuals buying, selling, bartering stuff via classified ads. They also receive @nlnet support, and the technology they R&D might be such that is isn't directly attractive and applicable for hyperscalers, allowing early entrants to establish good positions and mature services that allow them to compete should a hyperscaler enter the market as a laggard.