Xero is only competing with one of Intuit's products - Quickbooks online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuit#Products
Intuit has really stepped up their game by making QBO 'harmony' beautiful and robust. On top of that, they've launched a full-blown counter-attack in Australia:
http://cloudaccountingbuzz.wordpress...ey-travelling/
Sustaining/defending rapid growth in Australia won't be easy or cheap. Chances are that QBO will crush them there in the long run. They just have more resources to develop and sell the product. At the very least, it eliminates Xero's room to hike prices since they already can't compete on price.
The US is a different beast. Some of the features that QBO needs to develop for Australia are not an issue in the US. Clearly, it's the better product for Americans and it's cheaper. Poking people on Facebook to flip them won't cut it. Intuit does not only have a better product, a cheaper product, more developers, more sales staff and more money; they also have more elbows:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuit#...s_and_lobbying
Anyway, good luck riding the next TradeMe to 100 billion.