Slightly drunk so if anything is incoherent I apologize. I think I've made enough posts here to prove I'm not some shill.
So yeah... Title question. What the fuck? I legitimately don't understand this at all. I get that AlphaBay has been around for a while so it has the most variety of products and most potential customers but still, is migration so hard?
Every other fucking day someone makes a complaint about the shittiness of the support system, major vendors, small-time vendors and buyers alike. I cannot personally attest to this myself, but when vendors as big as Pelican are complaining, isn't this a cause for concern?
And then there's the payment system they use. ABSOLUTE FUCKING GARBAGE. It takes HOURS for coin to deposit, and oftentimes by that time the value has dropped and you're fucked. DHL (okay someone inform me, is it still open registration as of today?) and Hansa have safe, smooth-as-silk transactions that don't force you to come back 10 hours later, hoping your coin has finally deposited. You order, you pay, and your work is done within 15 minutes.
And after saying all this, I STILL use AlphaBay, albeit as sparingly as possible. Why? Because almost all of the most fire deals are there (especially in regards to weed). Because it's the only place I can cop 2C-B and affordable ketamine. But why? Why can't vendors open up shop on better markets like Hansa and DHL? Clearly there's demand, why stick SOLELY to such a sketchy, frustratingly designed marketplace?
Momentum and the feedback loop. B/c AB has been around so long and thus has the advantage of building its user base, its own momentum carries it forward. And the feedback loop - AB has the most vendors and therefore the most buyers, which encourages new vendors to join AB since it has the largest customer base, which in turn, further builds the customers. Its a near-monopoly in some sense. Like any other business with no competitor in its class, it takes a lot to take them down and for competitors to make a dent.
But this ecosystem also has the disadvantage of exit scamming. Nothing around here is absolutely trustworthy but thus far, AB hasn't exit scammed. They've built up some form of trust. When AB goes down unexpectedly, the fear of them exit scamming isn't as strong as it would be for a newer market. Nothing is forever and one day AB will go down and not come back up. But longevity means a lot around here.
A competitor needs to come in and not just replicate what AB is doing. They need to think more revolutionary and offer something truly compelling. Until then, competitors will have a hard time taking any meaningful business from AB.