Will the idea spawn copy-cats?

There is a big difference between being the only game in town, and having a virtual lock on the target audience. By that I mean YouTube.com has a virtual lock on video hosting. But imagine how insanely huge they might be without Google Video, Yahoo Video, DailyMotion.com, Veoh, Youku.com, Tuduo.com and the millions of other YouTube wannabes that have emerged over the past 2 years since Youtube first came on the scene. The fact youtube has so many copy-cats is not a bad thing. In fact, a good idea will encourage copy-catting (if that is a word).

And for website originators, what do you think is easier: being the only guy in the world preaching about how awesome it can be to host videos online? Or being the first of 15 sites preaching the same message? And how much more likely do you think you have to succeed as the originator vs. being a late entrant? The fact is, if you are a late entrant and have an email address that ends in something other than google.com or microsoft.com, all you are going to accomplish is to further the business of those who came before you. In the video battle, even Google could not overcome the second to market stigma and finally gave up - opting to acquire YouTube.com in spite of the fact they already had a video brand.

Being the first to market, then having your idea copied...well you simply cannot script it better than that.