

Ask HN: Cloning a US startup for a european country ? - al_

Hi everybody,
I was wondering what do you guys think about cloning a US startup for a european market ?<p>There is this american startup that has a great product, but there isn't any equivalent in my country ( France ). I'm thinking about cloning it because I felt in love with the product and think it could be a success in my country. Originally I didn't want to "clone" any product, but seeing this one really made me want to develop it.
Anyone has done it before ? What are the different things to consider before starting such a project ? Would it be viewed as "bad" to do such a thing ?
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david927
It happens all the time and it's a great business model.

There have been a lot of successes with this. I'm shocked it doesn't happen
more often.

There's no moral imperative saying it's "bad". In fact, quite the opposite.
Just don't violate copyright.

~~~
shpxnvz
_Just don't violate copyright._

Or trademark, or patents, for the sake of completeness.

~~~
troels
although software patents would be ok to violate.

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antirez
I (and a friend of mine) cloned digg/reddit (it's something like a mix between
the two) about 4 years ago, as there was nothing alike in the Italian market.
It worked very well and the product (called Oknotizie,
<http://oknotizie.virgilio.it>) did a successful deal with Telecom Italia.

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jkaljundi
Go for it, just do it! If it's an useful service, you'll make people in France
happy. They are your customers. No reason to feel bad because the US services
don't want to provide their services locally in European countries (and no,
translation does not equal localization).

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_delirium
It's probably fine as long as you stick to mainly cloning the idea or
functionality, ideally perhaps modifying or extending it to fit your
understanding of the local market.

The main place people go wrong is also cloning the look-and-feel, or making
the name be an obvious pun/derivative/translation of the original. Not only
for legal reasons (though it matters for those too), but it can make the clone
feel _too_ derivative, like it's a generic-brand knockoff instead of a product
in its own right.

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forcer
It can work but you need to evaluate the local market and see the differences.
I had a few projects were this strategy failed because the market was
different and I ignored it because was so convinced it must work. Also, I have
one project which I still think will work but will take time (maybe years)
before it can start to be profitable as the market is not mature enough.

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swombat
Please don't sign your posts. It's against the guidelines. If people want to
know more about you they can click on your username.

See: <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

_Please don't sign comments, especially with your url. They're already signed
with your username. If other users want to learn more about you, they can
click on it to see your profile._

~~~
forcer
Sorry, my bad. Signature removed.

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revorad
Please clone mint.com :-)

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al_
For this I would need an equivalent of Yodlee in France ;)

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sgdesign
I'm french too, and currently involved in "cloning" (although there will of
course be some differences) a US concept, so I just hope it's not the same
one!

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al_
Drop me an email, check out my profile ;)

~~~
l0stman
There's no email in your profile. You should put it in the ``about'' field,
the ``email'' field is not visible to other users.

~~~
al_
Corrected. Thanks for noticing.

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fbailey
Go for it, some will view it as bad but just ignore them.

Interestingly enough we thought about offering localization services for
international startups, the complete set (marketing, strategy, translation,
management, sales, partnerships)as a package to get started at least far
enough to make the market entry for clones unviable.

Any thoughts on that?

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3KWA
watch Fabrice Grinda at TedXParis <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJK3_vpfoQc>
(in French) - implementing ideas taken from one country into another is what
he does for a living.

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medianama
Go for it. Just make sure you are not violating the copyright.

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gizmo
Cloning a concept is fine, but cloning the (entire) interface is not.

As with all things moral, the moment you have to ask if it is moral, guess
what, it isn't!

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pkirk
I often think about that many times. But I believe the best solution is to get
in touch for a collaboration.

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ndc
How about contacting the original site, maybe you can become its affiliate in
France?

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klozetgeek
This has been in my mind too, in another european country not France.

