Marc Andreesen in The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgment:

First, I believe startups often overfocus on their competitors. It's the easiest thing in the world to orient yourself in opposition to another company in the same market, and to plan your actions based on what will cause damage to the competitor or block the competitor from getting business.

In the startup world, that often leads to multiple competitors engaged in a shooting war in a market that's still too small for anyone to succeed.

I think it's much better for a startup to focus on creating and developing a large market, as opposed to fighting over a small market.

Why did the japanese succeed with QR Codes? Because they focused on creating and developing a large market.