Ask HN: Have you tried copying successful business to another language/country?

7 points·throwawaynay··6 comments

I'm kind of looking for a shortcut to a small successful boostraped business.

I'm wondering if any of you had any success(or interesting failures) copying an existing online business to another language.

Do you have any interesting insights to share?

I know it's probably not the most beautiful way of launching a business, but it seems like of the most easiest way.

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Rocket Internet may interest you, if you haven't already heard of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Internet

They've had great success doing pretty much what you're describing.

Thanks, I heard of them yes, but I was thinking about doing it on a much smaller scale with a very small team or as a solo founder

Finding businesses that could be copied is easy, figuring out if it's worth replicating them is more difficult. When I stumble on an average website,the information about their profitability isn't alway available. I've seen shiny, slick businesses that make less money than I pull in doing my day job,while there are some shabby outfits with 20 years old websites that are real cash cows for their owners.

I worked on a product that was basically "Plaid for [another country]". The company is doing fantastically well. I highly recommend this strategy.

"shortcut"

No such thing. That is the wrong way to try and do something in business. It may seem like a shortcut to copy the business model BUT you will have to deal with challenges in the country you are trying to implement it. It is surely possible and works but don't think there a shortcut to it.

Basically my plan right now, I'm from a poor african country where everything has to be built. So I'm studying / researching western companies from the last 50 years and how they became successful, in order to maybe replicate them here.

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