ALC (Augmented Learning Collaboration) represents a huge new market, which could threaten many established players with considerable means and overwhelming commercial reach, including but not limited the GAFAM. Competition in this space seems to be a battle between David and Goliath (in most cases, Goliath wins).
But remember the mythical fight between David and Goliath - David won. That's because he was more agile and focused on his formidable opponent's weakness.
We want millions of people to design new collaboration practices, and thousands of partners to integrate their technologies with ours. And perhaps this will be more appealing to our giant competitors than trying to fight SymPlace. If you can't beat them, join them. After all, we are trying to build a collaborative commons, a community + a platform, that works for everyone and belongs to no one - the commons are very fashionable; there's a good chance that many others will jump on the SymPlace train rather than try to stop it.