Brave sits in a unique position as it is highly differentiated from existing competitors. The main element that I find distinct about Brave is the likely path for long term sustainability of their competitive advantages.
Given that transformation occurs, Brave can tap into a large portion of the Communication Services Sector as defined by Fidelity. The Entertainment and Media Industries currently sit at around $4.7T. Brave, the first privacy centric ad provider spanning across all online media sources, is on an exponential path to prominence in the industry.
Competitive Sustainability
The sustainability of Brave for me has two main factors.
First
The adaptation of cryptocurrencies. If cryptocurrencies become commonplace BAT will likely appreciate. Brave rewards BAT to users and thus would draw more incentive as users see appreciating value. Being the first browser to issue a digital currency, Brave and BAT has established an advantage. A network of users is already developed and BAT has appreciated over 10x already. Brave has established partnerships such as Uphold (Wallet Services) and Binance (Exchange Services). These are cementing Brave as a part of the crypto currency infrastructure creating a huge separation between future competition.
Second
Brave is not simply a browser but on a mission to provide privacy and currency as a service to users across the internet. Brave states in the Introduction to Brave’s In-Browser Ads after describing that the industry’s goal is to drive conversions,
“This practice often leads to persistent and privacy-invasive browsing and behavioral data collection to feed into analytics models”
Brave cites the Privad and Adnostic academic proposals as inspiration. These are the work of business technology leaders (Microsoft) and top institutions (Stanford and NYU). The articles cover the infringements on privacy and define practical architectures for the future that were defined over 10 years ago. Brave, however, is the first such system to be produced and made available. Brave’s proprietary technologies such as Brave Today - (a privacy-preserving news reader), Brave Ads - (a privacy-preserving ad platform), and Brave Firewall + VPN (protection from device surveillance) provide Brave unique capabilities.
As a result of early technological establishment pioneering for the browser industry, Brave sits in an advantageous position. While Brave may not be known by everyone at the moment they are likely to be an industry leader in the privacy centric future.