I am often surprised by founders who choose to enter channels already crowded with bigger players offering similar apps in the same markets.
Yes, it can work. You can still break through. But it is a much tougher game.
Here is why.
When UGC turns into a scale driven game inside a vertical, the biggest operators gain a major advantage.
They can track everything you do, replicate your formats quickly, and outscale you fast, especially if they have (talented) creators who can execute many different styles.
We have seen this clearly in study apps and language apps.
Apps like StudyFetch and others in the space constantly copy each other’s formats and feature formats.
A feature format is a product feature designed mainly to become a viral TikTok or Instagram concept. A good example is the coughing podcast format used by StudyFetch or Studley.
The power of scale
Scale matters because hooks and formats are hard to protect. If you have more than 100 creators and you actively track every breakout idea in your niche, you can quickly spot what works and replicate it.
At that point, it becomes an execution game. You scale operations and move fast on cloning winning content.
The real advantage of scale, though, is speed of testing.
If you are publishing 200 videos a day, you can dedicate 30 percent to testing and 70 percent to scaling. That gives you 60 daily experiments and 140 videos pushing proven winners. Over time, that compounds.
But scale also creates pressure. If everyone is copying, you end up in a constant race. If you only innovate, your ideas get copied fast. You need both.
Take the crying format we created for Pingo. It was copied thousands of times, and we were not even the ones with the highest views.
One single video reached 60 million views. Altogether, the format drove between 3 and 5 billion views, and we captured less than 5 percent of that.
You could say innovation is pointless in that scenario. It is not. Being first still gives you a strong share of the upside, even if you do not own the majority of it.
Pre content market fit
Competing in an already crowded space has one big upside. Content market fit is already there.
You do not need to validate demand from scratch or run heavy traction experiments. The market has already proven it works.
The real edge comes from execution. If you can enter and perform better, you can still win.
The Ick is a strong example. It joined the Instagram stalking niche after apps like RecentFollow and CheaterBuster had validated it, and still scaled past 200,000 dollars in revenue.
No content market fit (yet)
The highest upside often comes from opening a new vertical and capturing virality first.
But this path is riskier. You need sharper instincts or the patience to test until something clicks.
Look at vibe coding apps such as Lovable, Rork, Vibecode, Anything, and others.
Most of them used similar formats and generic messaging, and very few broke through.
Instead of repeating the same playbook, they could have studied why earlier attempts failed and positioned themselves differently.
Tactical positioning
Tactical positioning is about choosing a smarter battlefield. Instead of competing directly, you pick a different vertical.
If everyone is chasing Gen Z, maybe the better opportunity is with people over 40.
Look at Noise versus Home From College and other similar apps.
While others focused on Gen Z, Noise built 500 accounts targeting stay at home moms and dominated that demographic. They won by going where no one else was paying attention.
And if you are based in Germany and the United States market already has 10 clones of your app, maybe the best move is to win on German TikTok first.
When not to join the party
Just as important as knowing when to compete is knowing when not to.
I recently spoke with a language app that targets an older audience and has a more text focused product. They assumed a certain channel would work for them because competitors were performing well there.
But that logic can be misleading. Their product and audience might be better suited to other channels where they already have traction. Sometimes the smarter move is to double down on your strengths instead of following the crowd.
Conclusion
Market research matters because it helps you position yourself for maximum virality and lower acquisition costs.
Before committing fully, take the time to:
- Map out the entire landscape, especially competitors using multi account strategies.
- Break them down by the audiences they target, including age groups and locations.
- Assess how much scale each player has and where their real advantages lie.
- Decide carefully whether entering that space makes sense for you.
- If you choose to compete, move fast and build enough scale to become a leader.
The gap between acting blindly and acting with clear insight is bigger than most people think.
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