It is so massive that I can't help but think about what happened with Google Maps API a few years ago where they had extremely low pricing for years then hiked the price by 1400% once enough people were locked into applications based on that API.
That's exactly what's going to happen. Low prices now, wait until your business becomes dependent on it, then jack it up to whatever you need it to be.
Didn't happen with Google maps. Mapbox is definitely not 1400% cheaper. And many many people use Google maps before and after the price change. So I would disagree on both points.
Google maps has a bigger network effect and has a way bigger barrier to entry. You can train a new LLM for a few million. Good luck collecting map data on the entire world for that much.
Obviously, that's business 101. Consumers should consider that ultimately all these cheap too-good-to-be-true offers cost them more than if they initially paid a bit more, but had more long term competition in the market. Amazon was the same way, they lost money for years but now have a quasi monopoly in many countries. There's a general trend towards such ventures supported by backers with deep pockets. And so the few extremely wealthy people get richer and richer.
