Red Ocean vs Blue Ocean

The Hotpot | January 2026 | By Lisanne

11.1

Most markets are crowded.
Not just with products, but with opinions of people telling us what works.

That’s the Red Ocean.
A place where the rules are clear, the benchmarks are visible, and the competition is loud. You know exactly what “good” looks like—because everyone agrees on it.

The Blue Ocean is different.
There are fewer guarantees. Often no clear language yet for what you’re building. You’re not competing as much as you’re explaining—sometimes even to yourself.

What’s interesting is that the Red Ocean often feels safer. There’s proof. There are examples. There’s a path you can follow.
The Blue Ocean feels more risky because it asks you to decide what matters before anyone else confirms it does.

But many things that feel obvious now didn’t start that way.

Airbnb started as a classic Blue Ocean player, before “home sharing” was even a category. Starbucks was such a player too, before coffee was a place to linger.
This is exactly what Apple did by creating the iPad as a new category in between phones and laptops.

What they offered wasn’t immediately legible—it had to be taught.

Blue Ocean is the option you want to explore if the Red Ocean is too crowded.
When beating the competition turns out to be a zero-sum game that’s better rendered irrelevant by creating new demand.

What’s interesting about Blue Ocean thinkers is that they don’t accept the market as fixed.
They look for ways to redefine it.

Thank you for reading. The journal prompt of today:

Is there something you can think of that doesn’t exist yet — but should?

Let me know in the comments.

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on entrepreneurship. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.

Footnote

Thank you W. Chan Kim and Renee A. Mauborgne, for writing this ​incredible book.​