Pinterest knocked off by Samwer brothers | Hacker News Reader

Pinterest knocked off by Samwer brothers

pinspire.com

13 pointspitdesi13 comments

The Samwers hit it big with MyCityDeal ($350m-ish) and seem to be trying to replicate its success. Wimdu, their Airbnb -clone is doing well and offers a very decent alternative to Airbnb. (There are differences: Wimdu pays affiliates 10% of bookings, Airbnb doesn't).

But there's a difference between a Groupon clone and Wimdu and Pinspire - Groupon is a local business. It doesn't matter if Groupon has the whole world dominated, if you can dominate your own country then Groupon are fucked. People aren't looking for deals all around the world, they are looking in their own backyard. So MyCityDeal got people on the ground and dominated the UK/German markets. Brand outside these areas was unimportant. It was cheaper for Groupon to buy them than build their own teams.

Wimdu - Slightly similar, but not really. Properties can be (and are) listed on both sites. It's a global business - people from any country in the world travelling to any other country. Brand and global coverage is essential here - US travellers won't use Wimdu to travel to Europe. Likewise, Europeans will find poor coverage of the US on Wimdu.

Pinspire - No advantage whatsoever. The European sites similar to Facebook have taken a good beating (even, and especially those that were there first). I can't really see Pinterest buying Pinspire.

Sites that I think would be ripe for them to clone though: Etsy, Tutorspree, possibly Twilio.

The idea is to get traction before the original company can. The idea has already been validated in one market and in theory introducing it to another market will work as well. When the original company is ready to expand to those other markets then they'll have to consider buying the clone. It can work for any type of company really.

http://andrewdumont.me/post/15813416151/pinterest-clone-pins...

for etsy there is dawanda.de which is basically the same thing

Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but this sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Be first or be best, I guess.

There is absolutely zero respect or dignity from what these guys do. Regardless of their personal financial success that might stem from this tasteless work, I would never support them, do business with them, or use their knockoffs.

It would be great if you explain reasons why you feel that way.

Their site (pinspire.com) is a copy of pinterest.com

How are either of these sites making money? I see that pinterest has raised 37mm (!!!), but I see no current way that they're monetising their users.

swindsor, it looks like you were hellbanned 100+ days ago.

It's not a business decision (ie. Gee, one can make profit by imitating a competitor very closely), it's purely out of principle. I would never attribute building a Great Company purely from the imitation of other ones. Be original, even if it nets you less profit for more work versus ripping off someone else's work.

You do have to keep in mind what the Samwer brothers are doing is executing a fairly well known business strategy, taught in all introductory management courses. They are essentially letting others (Pinterest in this case) find the product-market-fit, then they launch their own version in other respective markets. Say what you want, but don't blame them, thank the education system.

Oh, I know that it is taught. I am also very aware of the strategy myself. I fully understand how I might start to go about ripping off an AirBnb or other startup. In fact, I would theorize I might be good at it. But despite it being something could turn a profit or that might even be easy (for me or the Samwer brothers) doesn't mean I am going to go off an do it. As my other reply says as well, it's about the principle of the matter. I don't value imitated or copied work, even if it means not doing it nets me less profit.

From an economic standpoint, this is probably irrational. For me, though, purely from an ethics and moral standpoint, I find it repulsive. Go off, be innovative, do something original. That's my internal compass, I guess.

I wanted to try Pinterest but after I got the invite I found I had to sign up with either Twitter or Facebook. Not for me. I then heard about Pinspire, who let you create a seperate log-in. So I signed up.

If you want to fend off imitators you need to remove usage barriers.

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