Full Answer

Data becomes a moat when three conditions are met: it's proprietary (collected and owned by you, not rented from platforms), it compounds (each month adds depth that makes predictions and personalization more accurate), and it's non-replicable (competitors can copy your pricing or features overnight, but they cannot copy three years of your customer behavior data). This flywheel effect means businesses that start collecting first-party data early create an accelerating advantage that widens over time.