Is market research nothing more than copying competitors?

Pretty sad imo

Have been an entrepreneur since college days. Went full time on same idea and worked on it for a good 4 years full time before starting something new, raising some money, later pivoting (fucked up here) and eventually shutting shop last year. Life has been tough since then since there is no clarity on what to spend next 2-5 years on - acquisition offer falling apart, tried looking for jobs but didn't finalise and later did a bit of consulting (good pay but didn't really work out). I now have a few good conversations going on right now - leading product & EIR/Founders Office. What do you suggest would be an ideal thing to do? Profile - Solid Generalist. Non tech. Money ain't really an issue right now but can't stay dependent on savings for so long - its stupid. PS - If you or someone you know is hiring, please reach out. Happy exploring ideas as well.

I might sound stupid here but please hear me out. The market is crowded with so many startups in every domain. Older startups are much more stable, on track to become profitable or are already profitable with a huge market share. Not to forget the legacy companies with deep pockets and years of R&D and experience. Along with the competition, funding is another major pain point now because of various reasons we all know of. Also, somewhere I feel we don't face a lot of burning problems we faced a few years back which gave birth to a lot of startups who were actually solving some problem. Most of the new age startups out there are not really solving any problem but just offering premium products or services targeting just the high earning individuals. Most of the new ideas are repetitive with no major differentiation or value add. Because of all these reasons, I feel we might see very few new startups in future let alone successful ones. Share your thoughts please!

https://m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/non-chinese-lending-apps-including-payus-lazypay-kissht-blocked-on-meitys-order/articleshow/97656552.cms

For me - Mokobara, Chaayos, Chumbak Looking to understand Indian brands that have done really well, and understand if it's the product being superior or brand/marketing being an outlier

Is this true or is it just me? I feel at this point there are no moats in consumer fintech. The framework seems to be in a rut, everybody is doing the same thing. Account aggregator, spend insights, personal loans, credit card, mutual funds, indian stocks, us stocks, etc etc. If 5 different apps have literally the same features, with no meaningful edge over the other, what would you go for? How do they stand out? Customer support? Onboarding? Branding? Picking a niche TG? Wanna hear what other product folks think about this.