Obviously a parody, but it underscores a historical trend of overseas investors pouring money into clones of US companies without any substantial innovation or changes.
One question I'm struggling with... Is a clone a legitimate (abstract) business if the differentiator between clone and U.S. original is the experience working with European / Asian customers and catering to their needs specifically?
Doesn't really matter. Our goal was to get some early attention. Once we build the community up we can change the name and turn it into something real.
Right now it's just an idea and the only platform we had to generate the sufficient early interest was a ridiculous name and launch.
With a German American background, I hear that like someone with a strong accent mispronouncing the word "the" as "zee". It adds another dimension of humor for me.
Um, not really what I was thinking. To me that sounds less harsh/strong than what I had in mind.
I guess it depends. I am imagining a very harsh accent. Some folks in my family pronounce ich like "ish", others closer to "ick" and then some do a more gutteral sound like you find in loch (a la loch ness monster). So, uh, maybe.
Well, I'm not Silicon Valley. I just don't like the concept of simply copying someone else's idea as a business model, because you're piggybacking on someone else's idea, and it's uncreative.
I wonder what is your opinion about barbers, shop-owners, car manufactures or basically any business outside of the internet. I think that there's big difference between copying the business model and the product/service itself.
It's more copying a company, its business model, idea, everything down to the fine details that bothers me. Not so much copying a business model or an idea.
I think there is a difference between copying an idea and improving on an idea.
A good example of this would Google who made a better search engine even though the idea of a search engine wasn't an original idea in it self, they just made a better one. Hence; execution.
html and css source is not execution. Getting distribution, partnerships, sales, etc. right is execution, especially since they don't clone tech-intensive companies (or at least not the tech-intensive parts)
I don't see it as sad at all. Limiting the target audience is a perfectly legitimate way of starting an MVP business. When they copy the idea, they apply huge amounts of process and local business knowledge (local laws, relationships, etc), which they then sell for profit. Everybody wins.
24 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 74.5 ms ] threadOne question I'm struggling with... Is a clone a legitimate (abstract) business if the differentiator between clone and U.S. original is the experience working with European / Asian customers and catering to their needs specifically?
Timing of it may have something to do with our little stunt yesterday: http://ncombinator.com
Right now it's just an idea and the only platform we had to generate the sufficient early interest was a ridiculous name and launch.
I guess it depends. I am imagining a very harsh accent. Some folks in my family pronounce ich like "ish", others closer to "ick" and then some do a more gutteral sound like you find in loch (a la loch ness monster). So, uh, maybe.
A good example of this would Google who made a better search engine even though the idea of a search engine wasn't an original idea in it self, they just made a better one. Hence; execution.