How can a new company fend off competitors?
I'm building an app (in public beta). I'm worried that larger businesses like Facebook, Snap, etc. might rip off my ideas and ship them to millions of people. To compound this issue, I don't have many users at all right now. How have you or the company you work at built software products while fending off competitors?
How Snap stopped IG Stories would be a good case study for you
I'd worry about making a good product first before worrying about getting ripped off. There's no way to avoid getting ripped off but if your product gets big fast and sucks up a lot of users before the competition can release their own, you have a bad start and can pivot the app to do more than originally intended.
*head start not bad start
People don't steal apps with no userbase, they either buy out apps with a userbase or copy it well after you're established. There is a chance they'll copy it before you have a HUGE userbase but thats why apps tend to go live big and pour as much as they can into advertisement and engagement right out the gate. establish your userbase quickly and you won't have anything to worry about. if you fail at that either it wasn't a good idea or you didn't expand quickly enough.
Did you consider paying to patent the idea?
I like to think of Netflix and blockbuster video. blockbuster copied them but they forgot to innovate. so innovate, don't immitate.
You just have to execute better. Get closer to the customer/user than the competition. There is no secret formula. You have to accept that your idea isn't valuable at all. Let Facebook steal it. What's valuable is your ability to improve your user's life in some way.
I'm sure nobody has done this before.