First to Market is Usually Not Best in Market
There is a very common misconception in the innovation world that being first to market translate to being best in market. However there seems to be a much more decisive factor to being best in market and that is best-fit-implementation.
You are conflating companies/sites/applications with protocols, with the latter benefiting greatly from being first to market with a large userbase.
Sites and applications are just as likely to benefit from being first with large userbase as a protocol. LOL.