Archive of TheNextWeb.org
Written on November 13, 2008 – 9:36 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
I’m touring around China with bloggers. I hope to give you as many updates as possible about this land of endless opportunities. Thanks to Spil Games for sponsoring me.
The China 2.0 train stopped at the HQ of 51.com this morning, one of China’s largest social networks. Last month, they counted 130 million users of whom 38 million paid the site a visit. The average users logs in eleven times a month and then surfs around for 41 minutes. On a daily basis, the 51.com adorers upload eleven million pictures, write three million blog posts, and watch 35 million music clips. These last numbers prove that entertainment is rather important at 51.com, hence the company launched an open applications platform.
Monetizing applications
VP Andy Yao told us that 51.com launched the platform last August. Since then, 149 applications have been developed. Third party developers are responsible for 130 of these nifty little apps. Every app gets used around 2 million times a day. So how do these third party developers profit from providing 51.com with their creations?
- Google Adsense - developers can place Google Adsense blocks on their pages. They can keep the revenue, as 51.com gets an introduction fee from Google for every developer that signs up.
- Via SMS premium payments, 51.com users can buy 51.com coins. These coins can also be spend on applications - revenue will be split.
Human trafficking
Beyond photoblogs and other native apps, most popular 51.com apps are entertainment-oriented. When Yao gave “Sell your friends” as an example - which obviously is a Facebook rip-off - some funny remarks about human trafficking were made. This example perfectly shows that copying Facebook really pays off in China.
Facebook-copying skills
51.com isn’t the only company who masters the Facebook-copying skills. Earlier this week, we met the founders of social network Kaixin001 - China’s hottest start-up. Their grow curve looks like a hockey stick. They went from 5 to 2000 servers in less than six months. Kaixin001 owes its success to smart copying. The founders noticed Facebook’s most popular element is the entertainment apps category. Thus they improved the top entertainment apps and launched a social network focused on white collar workers. Yao: “These visitors were shocked by all the funny little things they saw. Thanks to a smart emailing system (read: SPAM, EJP), their product spread rapidly.”
So yes folks, the copy-cat approach always pays off. Even in the rough Chinese market.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on November 3, 2008 – 7:34 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
After the huge copy-cat success of Nasza-klasa - a FriendsUnited rip-off -, a new (and original) project is aiming for Polish Internet fame. Nasz-parlament.pl (Our Parliament) invites its users to become members of an e-parliament, voting on current affairs and new bills.
In a way, Nasz-parlament exposes the Polish wisdom of the crowd. Maybe the “real citizens” active in the community strongly disapprove of Polish latest bills. As Sylwia Presley from Global Voices Online highlights, some members of the e-parliament strongly disapprove on say, a law about torture and terrorism:
I think it’s time to deprive humanity of the basic freedoms using a dishonest excuse of terrorism. We’ve never had any terrorist attacks in Poland. God save us from the lies ruling the West, where people are losing their rights and freedom after every said-to-be terrorist attack. (Bozena)
Last month, 636 members started 128 threads and posted 722 reactions.
Initiatives like Nasz-parlament stir up discussions about the people versus the expert. Tessa Sterkenburg addressed this discussion on The Next Web earlier, asking whether the majority is always right, or that experts know better. One of the examples she gives concerns the death penalty in the UK.
In 1995, a poll on capital punishment in the UK showed us that 76% of British respondents supported the death penalty the UK. Yet, I am very glad that the British government then decided not to re-instate capital punishment.
In this light it’s fair to ask: what do the Polish citizens know about these complicated political issues? They’ve chosen experts as representatives, now leave it up to them.
For now, I think I’ll ignore this discussion and look at it this way: Nasz-parlament.pl exposes the Polish wisdom of the crowd, which is bloody interesting. Every citizen can now compare the parliament’s decisions with the opinions of his fellow citizens. I wish I had that possibility in Holland.
Written on September 12, 2008 – 10:43 am
Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Is Google finally becoming serious in approaching the Korean market? Blogging platform TNC has been acquired by Google today; making them the first acquired company by Google in Korea. (who’s counting anyway) TNC offers a blogging platform similar as Automatic. It’s fairly easy to use, and works close to the open source community. Biggest difference is that Wordpress is fairly unknown here, so they represent a big blogging market, being used by a lot of nation’s A-list bloggers.
Chang W. Kim, co-founder of the company explains that Google is the underdog in this region, but Korea is the worlds sixth largest market in terms of Internet users. The Korean users mainly use Yahoo-style portal services to do everything on the web. With the acquirement, Google created a new way to get to the customers.
The exact number on the contract stays unknown, but is claimed to be the first major Google acquisitions in the entire Asia by Chang. Another successful entrepreneur with the copycat approach!
Written on July 19, 2008 – 7:35 pm
Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Facebook has started to take action against their copycats, and filled a copyright lawsuit against German copycat StudiVZ, in what they claim is an infringement of Facebook’s “look, feel, features and services”. This claim is filled a month after Facebook won the accusation filled by ConnectU, claiming that Mark Zuckerberg was a copy cat and stole the social platform idea in 2004.
Facebook in Germany
Facebook has launched a German version of their social network a few months ago, but has problems to attract visitors. StudiVZ claims to have 10 million users, and call themselves “the most successful social network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland”. Their website is not only similar in usage, it also looks a lot like Facebook. The biggest differences are the color conventions and that the copy does not offer an English interface. Techcrunch reports that StudiVZ was acquired this year for about $100 million. (€ 63 million)
Other copycats are next?
Washington Post reports that there are nine other facebook clones out there, and expects Chinese owned Xiaonei, with an exact duplicate to be next. Facebook has to protect their brand and experience, but a but a laugh every once and a while is important too, let’s hope that parodies as Crackbook, Arsebook and Rightwingfacebook are taken with some sense of humor by the Facebook’s lawyers. As entrepreneurs, the people behind estudiLN have cashed their successful copycat approach.
Written on June 11, 2008 – 3:25 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Although the Germans have a patent on the copy-cat approach - Freundefeed, anyone? -, Spanish entrepreneurs recently proved to master this unique skill as well. And now there’s 24-year-old computing student Maciej Popowicz from Poland who also seems to get that the best business plan is to import a brilliant idea from abroad. He built Nasza-klasa, a Polish version of Britain’s Friends Reunited, France’s Copains d’avant, and Holland’s Schoolbank eighteen months ago. What came next, is well described by IOL Technology:
It has taken Poland’s Internet world by storm, and claims 11 million users, giving it widest coverage and penetration in this country of 38 million people, well ahead of YouTube’s 6,4 million Polish-based users.
To complete this entrepreneurial fairy-tale, TechCrunch reported earlier today that Estonia’s Forticom has acquired a majority stake in nasza-klasa for 200 million PLN, or 60 million Euros. From now on, Forticom will reach 7.5 million monthly users.
Although it isn’t the classiest way of making money, copying a successful service from abroad does make sense. People generally have the same needs - in this case: connecting with old classmates -, so why not offering them a localized version?
If you liked reading this post, you might want to subscribe to our RSS feed to read more European tech news. We cover Poland quite often. Did you know for example that Poland is Firefox heaven?
Written on May 30, 2008 – 1:48 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Every once in a while, our Web Tipr’s mail us a round-up with interesting start-ups from their country. Yesterday Victor Cruzate sent me a quick update from Spain. Here are three new start-ups that take a shot for eternal Internet glory.
Planetaki
Planetaki is a RSS reader and web bookmark service that allows you to create your own version of the web. Which, of course, you can share with others. Well, planet is actually is a big word, as it’s more a fancy-looking list of your desired sources. That’s exactly though what the team has in mind: “We are a small group of people who believe there is beauty in simplicity and that there is indeed a great need of simplicity on the web.”
Wolpy
On Wolpy you can share your opinion of your visited places, keep track of all the trips you’ve made, explore new hotspots and see where your pals have been. To sum it up: it’s the kind of site where you go for the anticipatory pleasure and the nostalgic feelings afterwards. The service - developed by two geek friends who met in a LAN party - is currently in Alpha.
BuBok
Every Spanish speaking user that has the ambition to become a writer can make his or hers dream come true on BuBok. They can upload their book, give it a nice and professional look and then make it available for sale. If you don’t feel the need to pick up a pen, you can always check out books of aspiring writers on this well-designed site.
The Copycat approach
The three services all look very nice, and the ideas are well executed. Yet the last start-up, BuBok, is basically a Lulu rip-off. This is actually pretty smart, as a Spanish site probably appears more trustworthy and accessible to people from Spain. I’m sure Dutch people from my parents’ generation would prefer a Dutch service as well.
The other two start-ups copy part of an idea from respectively Netvibes and Dopplr…, in English. Netvibes talks about an Universe, Planetaki calls it a Planet. Dopplr, Tripit, and a dozen of other travel services track your trips, so does Wolpy. I’m not sure whether these two Spanish start-ups will get some traction as there already are some excellent alternatives for them.
BuBok’s approach is safer: try to copy the copy cat style of some German entrepreneurs like the Samwer brothers. Just clone an English service and conquer your home market. For Spanish start-ups, the potential is even bigger as millions and millions people all over the world speak Spanish.
However, from a creative and adventurous kind of view, trying to conquer the world is more exciting. But with tons of new start-ups launching every day, the chance of becoming the next Twitter or Friendfeed is small. Good luck to these brave Spanish entrepreneurs who are willing to take it.
[WebTipr: Victor Cruzate]
More Spanish Web 2.0 news (in Spanish) on Loogic
51.com, adsense, china20, copy cat approach, facebook, google, Kaixin001, social network, Third-party developer
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