What to do if you find out that the project / startup you are doing has already been implemented?

Question

Web development

The situation is this - I made a project for myself that solved one of my problems. On reflection, I decided that not only I have such a problem, and perhaps it will also come in handy for someone. I googled a little (as it turned out later - weakly) and did not find a similar service. In general, I decided to stick a simple design and open it to the world ...
But yesterday, before going to bed, by chance (reading q & a) I discovered that there already exists a project with similar functionality, and apparently quite successfully in terms of the number of users. After getting out of sadness, I decided to think about it - should I continue to refine my service or score? Actually, there are practically no ways to monetize. What to do - refine and come up with some zest or forget this project and think about the next one?

Answer 1

Continue for sure! And throw all the pessimism out of my head. If you need it and are interested, of course. You live for yourself. And it's up to you to decide how you spend your time.
PS And think about the next one ;-)

Answer 2

If the project is for fun and the ways of monetization are not visible, then there is no difference to continue or score - so you won’t get money like that.
If you continue - you can get some experience. If you have free time - I think it's worth modifying.
If there is no free time and monetization is not planned, do better monetized projects.

Answer 3

Look at their mistakes and do better, put them online, write in “I'm promoting” and then you can think further. The one who was first does not always win, the iPhone is an example of this.

Answer 4

Analyze your competitor. Find what you know how to do best. Read what they write about him on the forums, what they want to see in him. Good luck!

Answer 5

Curl up. No need to compete where there is no money.

Answer 6

don't languish already.