经济学人下载:克隆入侵网络公司

Airbnb is now firmly in the Samwers’ sights. In June, the American firm bought Accoleo, a start-up in Hamburg, as a way into the European market. It faces stiff competition not just from 9flats but also from Wimdu, a clone backed by the Samwer brothers and staffed with experienced hands. Arne Bleckwenn, the boss of Wimdu, is on his third start-up for the Samwers. Gamegoods, his first, was a rare flop. The second, GratisPay, a virtual-currency platform for internet games, was sold last year to SponsorPay, a German rival.

Airbnb现在就被Samwer兄弟瞄上了。在6月，这家美国企业买下了在德国汉堡的一家创业企业Accoleo，借此进入欧洲市场。它所面临的严峻竞争不单来自9flats，也来自Samwer兄弟投资的另一家拥有经验丰富的员工的克隆企业Wimdu。对Wimdu的老板Ame Bleckwenn来说，这已经是他的第三次创业了。他创业的第一家企业Gamegoods是一次十足的失败。第二家是专为网络游戏提供虚拟货币的平台网站GratisPay，在去年卖给了德国的竞争对手SponsorPay。

Wimdu is no shoestring  operation: in June it raised $90m from its core investors. In July the Samwers raised more money for Zalando, an online shoe-shop that resembles Amazon’s Zappos. Both Wimdu and Zalando may ultimately be snapped up by other firms, though the Samwers could choose to hang on to  them or to take some equity in the buyer—a strategy Rocket Internet adopted when it sold CityDeal, an online-discount firm, to Groupon last year. Rocket Internet has been helping to develop Groupon’s international business, along with two of the Samwer brothers. It stands to make more money from Groupon’s planned stockmarket listing .

Wimdu可不是小本经营，仅在6月它就从核心投资者那儿获得了9千万的投资。在7月Samwer兄弟又为Zalando带来了更多的投资，这是一家在网上卖鞋的网站，和Amazon的Zappos类似。不管Wimdu还是Zalando，最终都可能会被别的公司收购，虽然Samwer兄弟可以选择是自己经营还是从购买者那保持一定的股份——在去年将CityDeal（一家在线团购网站）卖给Groupon时，Rocket Internet就采取了后一种策略。Rocket Internet和Samwer兄弟中的其中两位决定帮助提升Groupon的国际业务，这样他们就可以从Groupon的上市计划中获利更多。

Florian Heinemann, the boss of Rocket Internet, is unrepentant about cloning. Internet ideas are rarely patented and rightly so, he says: patents create a temporary monopoly which tends to stifle  competition. Mr Bleckwenn at Wimdu also defends copying good ideas: “BMW didn’t invent the car,” he observes. German mechanical engineers are brilliant at improving existing inventions. From their perspective, the Samwer brothers are simply applying that same genius to the internet.

Florian Heinemann，Rocket Internet则对克隆企业的做法不以为意。互联网的创意大都没有申请专利，并且他认为专利会造成一时的垄断，扼杀竞争。Wimdu的Bleckwenn也认为模仿好点子的做法合理。“宝马公司也不是汽车的发明者”，他说道。德国的机械工程师们很擅长对已有的发明进行改进。对Samwer兄弟而言，他们也仅是将自己的这一天赋用于了互联网而已。

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but some of the imitatees can’t take a compliment . They hate having to buy back their own ideas at a hefty premium. And they gripe about the clone troopers’ aggressive tactics. Airbnb claims that clones have sent people to rent its properties so they can give owners a sales pitch . Such tricks make Silicon Valley types choke on their freshly squeezed  mango juice. But they are perfectly legal.

模仿这一说法也许是最真诚的恭维方式，但对一些被模仿者却不愿领情。他们不想要再以额外大量的费用买回原本就属于他们的创意。并且他们抱怨这些后来者咄咄逼人的策略。Airbnb就埋怨说那些克隆网站会派人去租他们的公寓，这样他们就能向房屋所有者推销他们的服务了。尽管这些伎俩会令硅谷的榜样们被他们的鲜榨芒果汁给呛着。但他们这样全是完全合法的。