[igorsyl]

What is Gumroad's competitive advantage? It doesn't look like it's its technology but its brand.

[hansef]

Brand and product simplicity, elegance of implementation. What is Dropbox's competitive advantage, or Instagram's?

[rudiger]

Dropbox and Instagram both have much stronger network effects.

[joering2]

well, if Gumroad is first of its kind, or the biggest one, and will not turn out a rip-off, don't you think that people who recommend it would be a "network effect" ?

[abhaga]

Network effect means that the more people use a service, the more useful it becomes. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

But there is the built-in marketing aspect since every user must send a lot of people around them to Gumroad in order to benefit from it.

[pbreit]

Like most competitive advantage: great execution.

[dkrich]

Um, that's not a competitive advantage. Patents, huge barriers to entry, distribution channels. Those are competitive advantages.

[pbreit]

The ability to execute is absolutely a competitive advantage.

[bira]

Jessica Alba for Honest.com is another great one.

[zashapiro]

Gumroad's advantage is the obnoxious ease of use compared to similar players in the space. For anyone currently using Paypal, Amazon or Google's comparable services, Gumroad's simplicity makes it a no-brainer.