经济学人下载:克隆来袭

Business
商业

Internet companies
互联网企业

Attack of the clones
克隆来袭

ON AUGUST 1st Airbnb, an online marketplace that helps people rent rooms, admitted that it had mishandled a complaint from someone whose apartment was ransacked by one of its renters.
8月1日，Airbnb，一家在线房屋租赁公司，承认他们错误的处理了一起客户投诉，这位客户的公寓被其中一名租客洗劫一空。

Brian Chesky, the firm's boss, begged forgiveness and announced that from August 15th Airbnb would cover up to $50,000-worth of damage caused by its customers, subject to certain conditions.
公司的老板Brian Chesky恳求客户的原谅，并宣布从当月15日起，客户所遭受的损失，只要符合一定的条件，Airbnb将会为他们买单，承担高达5万美元的费用。

Soon afterwards 9flats, a rival based in Berlin, said it, too, would offer insurance.
随即，一家总部在柏林的竞争对手9flats也宣布他们将为客户提供保险。

An Airbnb executive gripe s that such behaviour is typical of 9flats, which he says copies much of what Airbnb does.
Airbnb一位高层抱怨称这是9flats的一贯手法，对方已经抄袭了Airbnb的很多做法。

Other American web superstars, such as Groupon, a discount firm, and Kickstarter, which crowdsources funding for arts and technology projects, have also been attacked by clones.
其它的美国互联网明星企业，像Groupon和Kickstarter，也同样受到了克隆企业的困扰。

As the cost of computing power plummet s and the prices of hot start-ups soar—Airbnb was recently valued at an eye-watering $1.3 billion—the clone wars will get bloody.
由于计算机计算成本锐减和热门创业企业受到的热捧—Airbnb最近就被估计市值高达13亿美元，这场反克隆的战争将会愈加血腥。

One battleground will be China.
其中一个战场就是中国。

There, opaque rules have kept many American firms at bay , leaving the field open for Chinese ones to develop similar services.
在那，一些不透明的规则使许多美国企业发展受阻，为中国的本土企业发展相似服务提供了很大的空间。

Diandian, for example, resembles Tumblr, an American blogging platform. Zhihu, a question-and-answer service, looks a bit like Quora, an American firm.
例如，点点就是模仿的美国轻博客社区Tumblr。知乎，这家社会化问答网站就和美国的Quora如初一辄。

Another battleground will be Germany, where three brothers, Alexander, Oliver and Marc Samwer, have become the copycat kings of Europe.The brothers have a knack for spotting good business models in Silicon Valley, and then quickly starting something similar in Europe.
另一个战场会是德国，那有三兄弟Alexander，Oliver和Marc Samwer，他们是欧洲著名的抄袭之王。

They later sell these clones, sometimes to the firms on which they were modelled.
他们的本事就是能很快的发现来自硅谷的好的商业模式，然后迅速在欧洲发展相似的业务。再卖掉这些克隆企业，有时就卖给被他们抄袭的企业。

The Samwers scored their first success in 1999 with Alando, an online auction house which they sold to eBay.
Samwer兄弟在1999年觅得了第一桶金，他们在成功成立了一家相似的网上拍卖行Alando后，又回卖给了eBay。

They have notched up several other big deals since then.
那之后，他们还完成了若干项别的大交易。

In 2007, beside their investment vehicle, European Founders Fund, they set up Rocket Internet, an incubator that uses its own pool of experts—now around 90 people—to help launch several start-ups a year.
2007年，除了他们的投资工具—瓯洲创始人基金，他们还成立了一家名为Rocket Internet的公司，这是一家创业孵化器，主要依靠自己的专家—现在大概共有员工90名，每年帮助若干企业创业。

Kinnevik, a Swedish investor, has a stake and also invests in its portfolio .
来自瑞典的投资人Kinnevik就有在该公司的股权，并参与了其他的投资组合。

Airbnb is now firmly in the Samwers' sights.
Airbnb现在就被Samwer兄弟瞄上了。

In June, the American firm bought Accoleo, a start-up in Hamburg, as a way into the European market.
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。

It faces stiff competition not just from 9flats but also from Wimdu, a clone backed by the Samwer brothers and staffed with experienced hands.
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。

Arne Bleckwenn, the boss of Wimdu, is on his third start-up for the Samwers. Gamegoods, his first, was a rare flop.
对Wimdu的老板Ame Bleckwenn来说，这已经是他的第三次创业了。

The second, GratisPay, a virtual-currency platform for internet games, was sold last year to SponsorPay, a German rival.
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.
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。

In July the Samwers raised more money for Zalando, an online shoe-shop that resembles Amazon's Zappos.
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。

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.
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CityDea卖给Groupon时，Rocket Internet就采取了后一种策略。

Rocket Internet has been helping to develop Groupon's international business, along with two of the Samwer brothers.
Rocket Internet和Samwer兄弟中的其中两位决定帮助提升Groupon的国际业务，

It stands to make more money from Groupon's planned stockmarket listing .
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.
Florian Heinemann，Rocket Internet则对克隆企业的做法不以为意。

Internet ideas are rarely patented and rightly so, he says: patents create a temporary monopoly which tends to stifle competition.
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。

Mr Bleckwenn at Wimdu also defends copying good ideas:BMW didn't invent the car, he observes.
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。

German mechanical engineers are brilliant at improving existing inventions.
德国的机械工程师们很擅长对已有的发明进行改进。

From their perspective, the Samwer brothers are simply applying that same genius to the internet.
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 .
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。

They hate having to buy back their own ideas at a hefty premium.
大量的费用买回原本就属于他们的创意。

And they gripe about the clone troopers' aggressive tactics.
并且他们抱怨这些后来者咄咄逼人的策略。

Airbnb claims that clones have sent people to rent its properties so they can give owners a sales pitch .
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。

Such tricks make Silicon Valley types choke on their freshly squeezed mango juice. But they are perfectly legal.

他们不想要再以额外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。

Fred Destin, a venture capitalist at Atlas Venture who has worked in both Europe and America, sees a double standard.
来自Atlas Venture的Fred Destin，作为一位在欧洲和美国都工作过的风险投资家，他发现了其中的双重标准。

When something works in America, he says, eight companies immediately go after the same opportunity and venture capitalists fund them.
当一些企业在美国兴起时，他说道8家相同的企业会立马获得相同的机会，得到风投们的支持。

But nobody calls them clones.
但是却没有人说他们是抄袭。

The fact that Groupon has been willing to work with the Samwers on building its business is another sign that some of the outrage is overdone.
事实上， Groupon愿意同Samwer兄弟合作发展业务的意愿就给了我们一个信号，来自克隆企业的冲击太过分了。

Still, start-ups do need to think about the threat.
然而，创业企业们还是得考虑一下这些威胁。

Suing clones is hard, says David Goldstone, an intellectual-property specialist at Goodwin Procter, an American law firm.
要想控告这些克隆企业很难，来自美国律师事务所的知识产权专家David Goldstone认为。

Registering patents in many countries is both costly and time-consuming, and they may prove hard to enforce.
在很多国家，注册专利费钱又费时，很难进行。

A better bet is to out-innovate the opposition.
一种更好的博弈就是在创新上超越对手。

Firms that can harness powerful network effects,in which users encourage friends and family members to join them on a particular service, may be best placed to fight off the clones.
那些能够打败克隆者的，往往是能有效利用强大的网络影响，让用户们鼓励亲朋好友来使用它的某种特定服务的企业。

Others will just have to draw their light sabres and hope that the Force is with them.
而其它的企业则只能手执佩剑，希望自己也能拥有这样的力量。

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