The Hive code base was developed from the BitShares code base. For example, they still share the same p2p code today (this was the part of the code that my team wrote for BitShares). So it's hardly surprising that devs from the two chains have done work on both chains at various times and I view that as synergistic.

And there are many BitShares users who are active users of Hive, because BitShares focuses on being a decentralized exchange whereas Hive has a very different focus. I certainly don't view them as competitors.