Moats are the logistic network that Amazon has.. ok spend $10bn over 5 years and then come at me - if I didn't sit still...
Moats are what Google has in advertising... ok, pull 3% of the market for more money than god and see if it works..
brand/ux is not a moat, it's table stakes.
1. Status symbols - my Lambo signifies that my disposable income is greater than your disposable income
2. Fan clubs - I buy Nikes because they do a better job at promoting great athleticism, and an iPhone to pay double for hardware from 3 years ago
3. Visibility bias - As a late adopter I use whatever the category leader is (i.e. ChatGPT = AI, Facebook = the Internet)
What you describe sounds more like market power resulting from a monopoly
Technology enables UX. When the underlying technology is commodity—which is often the case—it's easy for competitors to copy the UX. But sometimes UX arises from the tight marriage of design and proprietary technology.
Good UX also arises from good organization design and culture, which aren't easy to copy. Think about a good customer support experience where the first agent you talk with is empowered to solve your issue on the spot, or there's perfect handoff between agents where each one has full context of your customer issue so you don't have to repeat yourself.
Their value proposition almost entirely relied on selling for cheaper than their more famous, at the time, competitors. e.g. Ferarri, Adidas, etc.
It’s only after many years of slowing building up credibility did the brand value start to matter.
Except for the technical advantage of M-series macs that's like all of the Apple moat. Apple brand and UX is what is selling the hardware.
They make the UX depend on the number of Apple devices you have, so a little bit of network effect. But that's mostly still UX.
Lots of people, these days, just use ChatGPT to search the web these days. I've actually never understood google search ads, as I have never clicked on one, even by accident 10+ years. If I want to buy something I search within Amazon for it.
YouTube however, yeah, that is a stellar advertising platform.