No... it's Amazon ML and Azure ML trying to catch up with BigML. They copied many things from our service but forgot to copy the ease of use. Services like Azure ML, Amazon ML and even Google Predict API work like a black box, and lock your model away, making you extremely dependent on their proprietary service. With BigML, you can easily export your models and use them anywhere for free. If the goal is to democratize machine learning, then the ability to extract your models and use them as you see fit is essential, and only BigML offers that level of freedom.
I just try out BigML and look awesome. I use Google Prediciton API to fill a value on form of a web request. I need the result immediately. Why BigML require two web request and take so long to get a prediction of a trained model?
If you use BigML's web forms, the first request caches the model locally so that all the subsequent predictions are performed directly in your browser.
Azure ML also supports R and Python custom code, which can be dropped directly into your workspace.
And this was even before Microsoft acquired Revolution Analytics. Amazon ML seems to be less flexible in regards to importing your own models:
Q: Can I export my models out of Amazon Machine Learning?
No.
Q: Can I import existing models into Amazon Machine Learning?
No.
http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2014/06/16/microsoft-azure-m...
https://aws.amazon.com/machine-learning/faqs/
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/machine-learning/