In 1998, 3 German brothers, Marc, Oliver, and Alexander Samwer saw the rise of a new platform called eBay.
It sparked a thought: if eBay was gaining traction in the U.S, why couldn’t a similar platform work in their home country.
So they approached eBay with an idea: bring the platform to Germany and hire us to run it.
Despite their passionate pitch, the eBay executives turned the brothers down.
Returning to Germany the next year, they launched Alando, an eBay clone for the German market.
In a shocking twist, just a hundred days after launching, eBay acquired Alando for a staggering forty three million dollars.
Sensing they were on to something, the brothers used the money to launch Rocket Internet, a venture studio dedicated to the art of ripping off US companies.
The blueprint was simple: duplicate successful US businesses, launch them in foreign countries and eventually sell them to the original company.
Over the next few years, the Samwers targeted several major platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Amazon. Each time selling their clone for hundreds of millions.
Today, each brother is worth around 1.2 billion dollars.
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smart
Businesses can compete in the following ways:
- Cost
- Differentiation
- Focus
They chose focus. A perfectly legitimate mode of business, and they executed it brilliantly.
Great story.
Jin Yang did the same from Silicon Valley
I think it’s great
> The blueprint was simple: duplicate successful US businesses, launch them in foreign countries and eventually sell them to the original company
Nothing new about copying business models from another country and bringing that back home. This probably happened in Roman times! More recently see the development of Japan after WWII. Many other examples. Chinese entrepreneurs copied the Silicon Valley model 20-25 years ago (of course now they have their own approach to tech sector).
Ikea aren’t worth anything, it’s only execution that matters. They took the fast follower approach and reolictwed a new business model In a region not yet exploited.
Aldi for the internet
Not sure I understand the angry title. They took the risk of copying an idea in a different geography. Made it so successful that the original company liked and paid for it. It’s not so easy as it sounds, but they still did it like an entrepreneur
Calling it stealing is not accurate
This isn’t stealing, this is being smart.
It’s called the FREE MARKET and this is exactly what right libertarians all want. May the fastest and least scrupulous pirate win!
Does this work mostly in the e-commerce space and social media? Are there other industries where entrepreneurs in Germany or Korea or Japan have been thriving by cloning US companies?
“Finding the patterns that link successful business is like decoding the secrets behind a win. That’s essentially what you’re doing when you’re copying - you’re looking for the patterns that got your competitors on the top”
- Nathan Latka, How to be a Capitalist without any Capital
I always wondered, how is it that when someone invented the cd player, every manufacturer like Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Sanyo, LG, etc immediately had a CD player to sell. Same thing for every other major electronics appliance like the VCR, the walkman, the mouse, a flat screen tv, blutooth headphones, etc. How is it that whichever company that invented these incredibly popular products didn’t hold a patent to dominate the market by being the sole manufacturer of such products like the iPod, or the playstation. I understand that you can make the argument that there was the Zune and other mp3 players, but when it comes to a cd player or a flat-screen tv; every manufacturer is doing the same thing essentially, while a playstation 5 and an Xbox One are completely separate devices.
I knew a guy who worked for Rocket Internet. He was a very arrogant person.
Can’t say there’s anything “wrong” with this business model, though.