[herbturbo]

Thats a business agreement not a moat. And you might have rights to generate the characters but they still need to do something. You only have to look at the repeated Disney flops to see they themselves have no ideas.

[jklinger410]

And if you're the only company with that business agreement. As long as you still have it, it's a...moat.

[herbturbo]

Well that’s the thing with moats - they don’t just disappear one day.

[alephnerd]

These kinds of parternships also throw in free inference with MFN clauses, which make a mutual moat.

A moat doesn't have to be a feature, and equity stakes have been fairly successful moats (eg. Much of AWS's ML services being powered by Anthropic models due to their equity stake in Anthropic).

[herbturbo]

A moat is a permanent feature protecting a castle against attack. That’s the metaphor. If it’s not their own device intrinsically protecting them then it’s not a moat in my book.

[alephnerd]

That is not how we use the term "moat" in this context, because competitors eventually converge on offerings within 1-2 years.

I don't need some stuck up HNer telling me about stuff I deal with in my day-to-day job.

Edit: can't reply

> a business deal that can be transferred to a new partner the second it expires is much more temporary

Generally, these kinds of equity deals include an MFN clause.

[afavour]

> That is not how we use the term "moat" in this context, because competitors eventually converge on offerings within 1-2 years.

Then I guess we need a new term because that's not how I interpret the term moat either. To me, ChatGPT chat history is a moat. It allows them to differentiate their product and competitors cannot copy it. If someone switches to a new AI service they will have to build their chat history from scratch.

By comparison a business deal that can be transferred to a new partner the second it expires is much more temporary.

[jimbokun]

No business moat is permanent.