Home Cloning vs Originality

Cloning vs Originality


A flickr clone; pic by
izreloaded

In an interview with
AlwaysOn, Fox Interactive president Ross Levinsohn talks about innovation and wanting to
be more than a company that clones other products. He takes a couple of swipes at Yahoo
in the process, for example:

“The world doesn’t need another Yahoo; Yahoo does a great job. We want to create
the next thing.”

He ends up referencing one of my own posts (!) to further make his point:

“Yahoo has sort of raised the white flag and surrendered to Comcast. Just yesterday, I
read that Yahoo has basically
turned their video service into YouTube
. This doesn’t sound like Yahoo the innovator.
Instead, it seems like a desperate move—which is interesting for one of the most
innovative, spectacular success stories in the history of the Internet.”

He pretty much accuses Yahoo of cloning YouTube with their Y! Video service. To be fair, in that post (from early
June) I noted some differences in Yahoo’s approach – although at the time I preferred
YouTube’s product.

Levinsohn pushes back on cloning when asked what advice he’d give to budding Web
entrepreneurs. He replied:

“I’d say, ‘Don’t copy the original; be authentic.’ There’s a place for
original and authentic ideas in the marketplace.
It’s a fantastic time to be an
entrepreneur because there’s much more thirst from all of the companies out there,
but you need to be smart about how you build your business. We’re looking for
innovation, but it doesn’t have to come from a $500 million company. It could be a
great idea that might work better inside a News Corp. or Yahoo or Google than as a
stand-alone giant company.”

(emphasis mine)

Cloning in international markets

Cloning is one of the biggest themes to come out of my series on international
web markets
. I’ve noticed that every country has its set of ‘web 2.0’ clones –
bookmarking sites that look like delicious, photo sharing sites like Flickr, community
news sites like digg, etc. Occasionally I find a very nice original app, such as Moltomondiale in Italy – a
special automatic semantic news aggregator that became popular in the World Cup. Or
Cyworld in Korea. Or dirty.ru
in Russia.
But these are far outnumbered by cloned apps.

And even in America of course there are a lot of clones. New Netscape = Digg
is one high-profile example.

There’s no doubt there’s a lot of money to be made cloning web apps, particularly in
huge, growing markets like China (where there is A LOT of cloning of web 20 apps). So
it’s much riskier to create something innovative, untried. You have little idea how it
will turn out and if there will be a market at all for it. Whereas with cloned apps in a
foreign market, you have a well established product template and there are a lot of
opportunities for ‘localized’ clones.

Innovative web apps is where it’s at!

But I agree wholeheartedly with Levinsohn’s sentiment that there’s a place for
original and authentic ideas in the Web marketplace. In fact that could very well be the
motto for this blog!

What do you think – is cloning web apps here to stay? Or is originality and
authenticity still worth chasing in today’s Web? Personally I hope the latter is true,
because that’s the raison d’etre of Read/WriteWeb.

About ReadWrite’s Editorial Process

The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the gambling and blockchain industries for major developments, new product and brand launches, game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to in-house staff writers with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Get the biggest iGaming headlines of the day delivered to your inbox

    By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe anytime.

    Gambling News

    Explore the latest in online gambling with our curated updates. We cut through the noise to deliver concise, relevant insights, keeping you informed about the ever-changing world of iGaming and its most important trends.

    In-Depth Strategy Guides

    Elevate your game with tailored strategies for sports betting, table games, slots, and poker. Learn how to maximize bonuses, refine your tactics, and boost your chances to beat the house.

    Unbiased Expert Reviews

    Honest and transparent reviews of sportsbooks, casinos and poker rooms crafted through industry expertise and in-depth analysis. Delve into intricacies, get the best bonus deals, and stay ahead with our trustworthy guides.