Nasza-klasa: Polish example of the copy-cat approach

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?