[peterwwillis]

Again, I don't think this actually happens. Look at Toothpaste brands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_toothpaste_brands). The ones that aren't around anymore basically had a defective product, and the rest got bought out by the more established competitor.

Car ride-sharing business isn't a monopoly, and it also isn't one-eats-the-other. Uber and Lyft are competitors but they both still exist, even though they do the same thing, because (1) they both have strong brands, and (2) they both implement their business in different yet complementary ways. It's obvious that not every competitor cuts the legs out of the other competitors at every opportunity.

Likewise, not every start-up is going to steal the tech from its rival, even if your "friend" keeps suggesting you do it. And even if you did have your competitors' source code, source code isn't a brand, it isn't a development team, it isn't support, and it isn't sales. If you don't execute all the business aspects better than your competitor, the source code is useless.

[vinceguidry]

If you want to convince people building software enabled businesses to keep their source open and free rather than closed, a better rationale is needed than "I've never seen it happen so you should definitely bet your business on it never happening to you."

[AsyncAwait]

The "Uber for X" mentality exists, but as OP admitted, it exists without the source code. Uber is not open-source, nor is Twitter etc. and yet, they still get cloned. So did Reddit, as an idea, but I don't think the availability of that code helped the clones much.