Many a time in the world of the web, technopreneurs can’t seem to come up with a fresh idea.
Sometimes you come up with a “brilliant idea” only to find its been done before.
Even though it is an obvious thing that something fresh and new to take the world by storm is always needed, but then you come across many websites providing the same sort of services and functionality, and all seem to be making it work and making it big!
For example, you have hotmail thats been around since ages and was considered the top FREE email provider even before Microsoft had acquired it, then how come Yahoo mail or Gmail still survive and grow?
You have Twitter, the “micro blogging” service provider, then how come services like Yappd, which is being called the “visual Twitter clone” are popping up? Not only that, the Samwer brothers, the well-known European trio of entrepreneurs, invested in Frazr, an exact duplicate of Twitter in the year 2007.
That they did after they backed Studi-VZ, the Facebook in Germany, in 2005, shortly after Facebook became a major success. So does that mean that web based startups dont necessarily need to be completely different in order to make it big?
Is it okay to be the “big fish” in a little pond?
Maybe these “clones” of famous websites such as Facebook work because theyre targetting their specific geographical regions as starters and then hope to become as big as their global counterparts somewhere in the future.
But then one wonders, is it okay to be the “big fish” in a little pond? Even if it means that you’re a clone of something else that is already out there?
I for one say yes! But thats given you keep a few things in mind, like for example, you’re struggling with to come up with a new and fresh world changing idea, but can’t, and somehow you feel very strongly about something that is already out there but you see a niche for it in your locality, in your country… I say go for it!
Perhaps you’ll be the next Tech crunch or Mashable for your region
Sure, you risk being called “just another copy” and fail to impress your fellow “technopreneurs” since you just did the same old thing again, but maybe once you’re on your way, you’ll start to fork your way to better things in the same service. Maybe you’ll come out with a new and improved version of Digg! Perhaps you’ll be the next Tech crunch or Mashable for your region and while you’re at it you’ll fill in the gaps that you thought these sites forgot to fill in! Where’s the harm in that?
Perhaps thats what is meant to happen in order for you to take the first step in the world of the web and help you grow!
Heck, Guy Kawasaki even has a feed aggregator website running called Alltop which is “inspired by popurls” and its acknowledged!
If you go to popurls.com you can see what he means by it.
Oh and if you don’t happen to know who Guy Kawasaki is, well then just visit his website www.guykawasaki.com and you’ll know who I’m talking about.
So I guess it’s okay to actually use “someone else’s idea” and build off of it.
There are even websites out there from which you can buy clones of these top websites such as Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Elance, Gmail, Paypal, TinyURL and so many more! (you can see a list of these websites at the end of my entry)
But the wrong thing to do would be to not innovate and to think that if you’ve managed to clone someone else’s idea and make it big, that thats the way to go always. You should always be on the look out for newer and fresher ideas, keep challenging yourself, be the best of yourself, keep impressing yourself…..and in the process..without any doubt, you’ll end up impressing the world. 🙂
A couple of websites where you can find clones of your favorite scripts:
websites mentioned in this post:
mail.yahoo.com
faizanlaghari.wordpress.com 
Recent Comments