Etherium was made after Bitcoin was made, meaning that the etherium was designed with additional features and application that bitcoin doesn't have. So basically, with all it's features and applications, it  is a threat for bitcoin. But let us not take it as a drawback for bitcoin, competition for every market is healthy. Just like the smartphone developers out there trying to beat each other. One of them can never just lie down on their beds because if one is delayed developing their tech someone will get left behind. Same as this altcoins trying to beat bitcoin, with the dominance of bitcoin among all of this coins in terms of established trust and good market, developers are really trying to beat this one so they are making more unique features and applications for their coins. So in that case, with everybody's​ trying to beat it, new technologies are emerging which is an advantage for the users.