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.
I agree they both benefit , but protocols in which many people, businesses , and systems are dependent upon benefit far more from the network effect and are thus much more difficult to supplant than simply switching to a different website.
I.E... Even if the community wants to and needs to move off an old protocol we still cannot after over 30 years -- IPv4