The Platforms Text Sells ThroughThin moat

Text (TXT) — moat facet

Microsoft, Google and OpenAI distribute Text's products and build competing ones.

Text's newest distribution channels are owned by three companies that also build customer-service agents.

Who owns each step to the customerMicrosoft marketplace - Feb 2026Google Cloud Marketplace - Jul 2026ChatGPT marketplace - Aug 2026Google cloud infrastructure - Jul 2025All four also build customer-service agents; Text names partner policy change as a risk
Four routes to market, none of them owned, all of them run by larger competitors.

Within seven months Text placed its products in the Microsoft marketplace, on Google Cloud Marketplace as "Text - Enterprise AI Agent", and in the ChatGPT marketplace1. Each is a genuine route to buyers, and each belongs to a firm with its own offering in the category — and with vastly more capacity to fund one.

Text discloses the dependency as a risk in its own terms, naming Google, Shopify and BigCommerce, and warning that the loss or reduced effectiveness of an important channel, including through a partner changing policy or introducing aggressive monetisation, could significantly reduce customer growth over a period2.

The exposure runs deeper than shelf space. Text migrated its entire infrastructure to Google's cloud in July 20253, so one of the platforms is also its landlord, and it reports that cloud prices rose regardless of provider and that completing the migration did not reduce costs4.

The counter-argument is that this is the trade every software company of Text's size now makes, and that Text is making it deliberately and early. If buyers increasingly ask an assistant rather than a search engine — which Text separately identifies as a threat to its historic acquisition channel5 — then being inside the assistant is not optional.

It also means Text's fortunes now partly depend on remaining useful to firms that could replace it.

Nothing here is visible until Text publishes new recurring revenue by source, which it does not. The proxy is customers added per quarter with no price change behind it.

Moat trajectory: Narrowing

Text added three platform dependencies in seven months and moved its entire infrastructure onto one of them, while naming partner policy change as a risk to customer growth in its own filings.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Platform channels Text depends on but does not own
3 marketplaces, plus its cloud provider

Microsoft, Google and OpenAI distribute Text's products and each builds customer-service agents of its own; Google is also Text's infrastructure supplier since the July 2025 migration. Text's risk factors name partner policy change - citing Google, Shopify and BigCommerce - as capable of significantly reducing customer growth over a period. Nothing here is visible until Text publishes new recurring revenue by source, which it does not.

Source: Text Group Management Board report for the financial year 2025/26 ↗
References
  1. ReportedWithin seven months Text placed its products in the Microsoft marketplace, on Google Cloud Marketplace as "Text - Enterprise AI Agent", and in the ChatGPT marketplace.
    Text Group results for the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, published 28 August 2026 (revenue of PLN 83,20m, down 1,9% year on year and up 4,1% on the previous quarter; net profit PLN 29,11m down 6,2%; operating profit PLN 31,36m down 11,0%; EBITDA PLN 38,56m down 7,4%; revenue in US dollars of 22,61m up 2,1%; MRR of USD 7,46m at 30 June 2026, up 4,0% year on year and 7,6% on the previous quarter, giving ARR of USD 89,52m against the USD 100m goal, with the chief executive attributing the growth largely to the completion of price grandfathering for LiveChat customers; a record PLN 77,2m of deferred revenue and net operating cash flow up 22,2% to PLN 41,5m on a high share of annual payments; margins of 69,6% gross, 37,7% operating, 46,4% EBITDA and 35,0% net; SOC 2 Type 2 attestation in May 2026; the new visual identity and Go-To-Market start in May 2026; purchase of the livechat.ai domain and a seventh US patent in June 2026; a Klaviyo integration and Google Cloud Marketplace listing in July; a MarTech Breakthrough award and an official ChatGPT marketplace listing in August; and the annual general meeting of 6 August 2026 allocating PLN 109,7m to dividends, PLN 4,26 per share) — Q1 2026/27 · publ. 28 August 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedText discloses the dependency as a risk in its own terms, naming Google, Shopify and BigCommerce, and warning that the loss or reduced effectiveness of an important channel, including through a partner changing policy or introducing aggressive monetisation, could significantly reduce customer growth over a period.
    Text Group Management Board report for 2025/26, risks and key factors (currency risk arising because revenue is generated in US dollars while a significant portion of costs is incurred in Polish złoty, affecting reported results and the dividend, with the company not hedging its open foreign exchange positions; competition risk from more innovative or cost-effective solutions and from rivals allocating far greater funds to development and promotion, and from AI changing how software is developed and marketed in a way that could erode the advantage derived from the company's technology and experience; distribution risk from the loss or reduced effectiveness of channels such as Google, Shopify or BigCommerce, and from traditional search engines being replaced by LLM models or AI assistants in a way that may harm the SEO activities of the company and its affiliate partners; product concentration risk, since Text generates almost all revenue from LiveChat products; and risk from entities using patents to enforce compensation) — FY2025/26 · publ. June 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedText migrated its entire infrastructure to Google's cloud in July 2025, so one of the platforms is also its landlord, and it reports that cloud prices rose regardless of provider and that completing the migration did not reduce costs.
    Text Group Management Board report for 2025/26, corporate events (the Text App suite reaching first existing customers in June 2025 and opening on text.com in August, with the first new customers acquired organically in the following quarter; full migration of infrastructure to Google cloud servers in July 2025; SOC 2 Type 1 attestation in December 2025 and Type 2 in May 2026 audited by Sensiba, described as significant support in acquiring enterprise-class customers especially in the United States; Meta Business Partner status in January 2026; products introduced to the Microsoft marketplace in February 2026; a partnership with Golden Whale for the iGaming industry in April 2026; the closure of the traditional sales department with responsibilities assumed by the customer support team; the new visual identity and Go-To-Market campaign in May 2026; and the end of price grandfathering, with LiveChat Team and Business prices raised in September 2025, customers on older price lists notified in March 2026, monthly payers transferred from April 2026 and annual payers transferring as their subscription periods expire) — FY2025/26 · publ. June 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedText migrated its entire infrastructure to Google's cloud in July 2025, so one of the platforms is also its landlord, and it reports that cloud prices rose regardless of provider and that completing the migration did not reduce costs.
    Text Group Management Board report for 2025/26, corporate events (the Text App suite reaching first existing customers in June 2025 and opening on text.com in August, with the first new customers acquired organically in the following quarter; full migration of infrastructure to Google cloud servers in July 2025; SOC 2 Type 1 attestation in December 2025 and Type 2 in May 2026 audited by Sensiba, described as significant support in acquiring enterprise-class customers especially in the United States; Meta Business Partner status in January 2026; products introduced to the Microsoft marketplace in February 2026; a partnership with Golden Whale for the iGaming industry in April 2026; the closure of the traditional sales department with responsibilities assumed by the customer support team; the new visual identity and Go-To-Market campaign in May 2026; and the end of price grandfathering, with LiveChat Team and Business prices raised in September 2025, customers on older price lists notified in March 2026, monthly payers transferred from April 2026 and annual payers transferring as their subscription periods expire) — FY2025/26 · publ. June 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedIf buyers increasingly ask an assistant rather than a search engine - which Text separately identifies as a threat to its historic acquisition channel - then being inside the assistant is not optional.
    Text Group Management Board report for 2025/26, margins, costs and cash (gross profit margin on sales of 67,6%, operating margin 38,6% and net margin 35,4%; cloud infrastructure costs rising, the migration completing in July 2025 after more than a year of duplicated cost, and completion not translating into cost reductions because of price increases regardless of provider and a deliberately expanded scope of purchased services; increased consulting, legal and public relations costs; fourth-quarter costs falling on cloud optimisation; a warning that more intensive use of artificial intelligence may cause further cost increases and that rising AI costs should press hardest on competitors offering free or freemium products; operating cash flow of PLN 161,6m and PLN 62,8m of cash; and a dividend policy of allocating the highest possible part of profit to shareholders) — FY2025/26 · publ. June 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026