Hacker News Reader

Love to look stupid.. as foreign speaker and after reading all comments and also all translations in the dictionary, I still have only a vague meaning of "moat" in this context. Could someone define precisely please?

Things like "network effects" vs "1-3 team moat" vs "human written text" now totally confused me.. what will protect it? What will be the most precious? Who succeeds?

View on HN

In this instance 'moat' simply means an advantage that will prevent direct competitors from undercutting your business.

Makes sense, thanks for superquick reply :) Then I'd say nothing even close to certain..

To make it more explicit, the term comes from “castle moat” - a form of defense that makes it more difficult for others to attack your castle (or in this context, more difficult to compete with your product/company).

in this context, a moat is something that only you can do, and no others can copy it. If I make a product with a feature that no one can copy, then no one can take it away from me and I'll always be able to make money off of that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com