Apparent Competition
Two SaaS companies both vulnerable to AWS price cuts.
You're hurt by another's success through a shared third party.
Apparent competition: Sharing predators or parasites that limit both populations. Think of two antelope species sharing a water hole. More of Species A means more predators visiting the water hole. Those predators kill more of Species B - even though the antelope species never compete directly for resources. That's apparent competition: you're hurt by another's success through a shared third party.
Business Application of Apparent Competition
Two SaaS companies both vulnerable to AWS price cuts. One's success growing the cloud market attracts AWS competition. That harms both companies - even though they never competed directly. Twitter experienced apparent competition: the more social networks existed, the more users experienced 'social media fatigue,' limiting growth for all platforms. Natural selection doesn't distinguish between competition types. All three exert selection pressure.
Apparent Competition Appears in 3 Chapters
Apparent competition operates through shared predators - Species A's success attracts predators that harm Species B, even without direct resource competition.
Apparent competition explained →Two SaaS companies vulnerable to AWS price cuts experience apparent competition - one's success growing the market attracts the threat that harms both.
Apparent competition in markets →Shared predators create indirect negative effects between prey species, potentially driving extinction without any direct competitive interaction.
Indirect predator-mediated effects →