The ethics of cloning: Why ‘original’ isn’t always essential
People love to hate clone artists like Berlin’s endlessly cash-hungry Rocket Internet, but is this really a clear-cut debate? And where should we draw the line? Read more »
Rocket may clone Stripe to beef up payments portfolio
Rumors suggest the Samwer brothers are prepping a clone of hot payments startup Stripe to add to their copies of Square and BillMeLater – though it remains to be seen whether this would be a quick-sale ploy or a long-term play. Read more »
Samwers kill their Fab clone after just six months
Just months after Germany’s notorious Samwer brothers courted controversy by cloning design sales site Fab.com, they are about to close their copycat site, Bamarang, down — folding it into its more successful stablemate, WestWing. Read more »
Rocket caught copying Fab code in Nigerian push
The fact that Germany’s Rocket Internet is launching another clone should come as a surprise to no-one. But even with their copycat reputation, cutting and pasting code for their new Nigerian online store seems more than little bit lazy. Read more »
Brainstorming site Tricider falls victim to outrageous clone
One Berlin startup has just discovered it has a Russian twin with the same layout, business model and even the same name — a surprising situation, given that Germany is better known for being the copier rather than the victim. Read more »
Revealed: the full extent of the Rocket clone empire
Germany’s Samwer brothers are notorious as Europe’s chief cloners of web companies through their Rocket Internet vehicle. But we discovered their empire of e-commerce copycats is increasingly global, with companies operating in more than 50 countries worldwide. Read more »
Now Samwer brothers look set to clone Square
German clone factory Rocket Internet, the incubator run by the controversy-courting Samwer brothers, has reportedly chosen its next target: white hot payment service Square. Read more »
Rocket lieutenant jumps to clone-free rival incubator
Florian Heinemann, long-time marketing chief for the infamous Samwer brothers, has joined other ex-Rocketeers at Project A Ventures — an incubator that has been explicitly set up as a move away from Rocket’s copycat model. Read more »
No joke: Facebook clone champions Russian innovation
Russian social network VKontakte has built a billion dollar business by cloning almost every aspect of Facebook for the local market. It seems a little rich, then, that founder Pavel Durov says his long-term ambition is to prove that Russian products can be global leaders. Read more »
Psystar Returns From the Dead, Offers New Apple Knock-Off
If you thought bankruptcy would keep the industrious folks at Psystar from making any more Mac clones, you were sorely mistaken. Like a zombie rising from the dead with an insatiable thirst for lawsuits, the little clone-maker that couldn’t is advertising a brand new model of […] Read more »
