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These days there is much hype about one of the perils of the startup business – clones !! These clone companies are spying the popular web platforms, analyze them till the core, design a ditto skeletal, develop them, find a new market for such a service and then launch a clone company in the new identified market.
No body likes copied ideas, of course for the obvious reasons, but what I admire the most is the perfection these clone companies have in building those existing ideas and their unmatched flawless execution. Yes, you heard me right, execution is probably their (Clone Companies) biggest strength.
An entrepreneur will most certainly understand the importance of execution, execution is the bridge between an idea and the final product, if we talk in context of techpreneurs. And one may argue that the whole internet world is based on the ideas which were already existing. Certainly, copying is not new, but what really becomes a scoop is when a copied idea becomes so popular that the discoverer or the inventor of the original idea starts taking notice of the clone. Also, one cannot deny the fact that the internet is virtually an open source world, if someone created a website, you too can, hence, even though it might be copying; if you can develop a better website than you will have more traffic, simple isn't it? Well, it might be simple if it were just a website, but when it comes to web platforms such as huge business, it becomes dirty.
I cannot stop myself from mentioning the Samwer trio who have been labelled as the German clone machine for churning out web startups in European markets that are being copied from American web based platforms. Alexander, Marc, and Oliver Samwer are the three German brothers behind the infamous incubator Rocket Internet. Internet heavyweights like Pinterest, Amazon, Fab, and Groupon have all fallen victim to the Samwer brothers, of course I beg to differ and I don't claim anyone to be anyone's victim, and going by the speculations "Square" is next !! Samwer brothers have been tagged as the startup clone machine, what media especially love to call them, but trust me they are hardly the only ones involved. Russian-based Fast Lane Ventures has also been known for doing so. It’s home to PinMe – one can easily guess what that is – and a Zappos clone is sold to another larger Zappos clone called Sapatos (vicious circle??).
I consider Samwer brothers unarguably intelligent, business-minded, and tech-savvy, but many consider them to be nothing more than pirates of the web startups who rake in the millions. Most importantly, they (the Samwers) don't deny the fact that they copy ideas. I think deep down every business associated to the internet knows that copying is part of the internet era, if one has to name it as copying, but what probably differentiates a successful clone company from the unsuccessful one is the flawless execution. Personally, I really applaud Samwer brothers and their incubator Rocket Internet for being a specialist in starting an already existing (as in outside Europe) business in the European market and then making it such a huge success that the original company had to pay money to acquire their European clones. Yes, we can call a lot of names for copying the ideas, but hey, no one beats their execution. In fact, in some cases they have done better than the original ideas in a very short span of time. So, give some credit for their business skills at least !!
As far as the cloning of web startups is concerned in the year 2009, Facebook sued StudiVZ. The site was a complete copy of the early Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg sued it on the grounds of intellectual property theft. Facebook lost the case badly!! It’s a perfect example that with all the fame in the world and a formidable case, it is still incredibly difficult to win in these situations. So, looks like it came down to the reality that internet world is no one's property. Good or bad, the argument will continue, but i tried to pick the best out of the current scenario in this article. In any case, do leave a comment about what you think of the whole situation.
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