Talking about plagiarism

Entrepreneurs are demand-driven, but the copycat is only a profit-driven, the latter basically can not understand the product's soul is what. But someone copied it, and it worked, probably the only reason: The copycat had a similar idea, and was more mature than the first one, and knew how to implement the idea.

Last week, there was a lot of talk about Pickride's anti plagiarism. Although I tried the pickride product, I feel that I did a bad job, but I still support the Pickride founder's condemnation of plagiarism, the pursuit of their own rights and interests behavior. But today we're not going to talk about it, but it's a different story, just to say what I think of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is available everywhere, including the Internet. Plagiarism has become a deeply ingrained view of the mainland Internet from Apple copying Xerox, Microsoft copying Apple, and now the most reviled topic in China's Internet. And this is especially thanks to a bunch of internet big guy, for example, by copying the Tencent, not only let the Chinese see plagiarism can also be successful, but also opened the Chinese Internet plagiarism history of the prologue.

In the past, plagiarism is indeed a very high success rate of a way. This is mainly because the network is not so developed now, information is blocked, different countries, user habits are serious, user localization is obvious, and before the Internet users are in the early stage, so a good product can quickly get users, regardless of whether he is plagiarism.

But now, the rapid development of the network, each country is increasingly open, many products in the beginning of the face of global users, the above mentioned all the gaps are decreasing, the user's level of awareness and product requirements are also increasing, so if a product is plagiarism, most users will not go with a similar product. This plagiarism also has no meaning, the likelihood of plagiarism is getting higher.

In fact, divided up, plagiarism has three kinds.

The first is direct competition plagiarism, is in the same market, the basic logic of the product is the same, but the UI color and other details are not the same. This kind of plagiarism is almost certainly dead, and now not many people are stupid enough to do such a thing. If there is success in such plagiarism, there is only one reason: unfair competition. For example, when Microsoft used IE bundled to defeat Netscape, belong to this category, Tencent series of products are also so.

But now, even through unfair competition, it is hard to succeed. For example, some time ago, Facebook played the name of the hacker spirit of plagiarism Snapchat made out of the poke, although on the day poke rushed to the first place in the free list, but soon the fourth day fell to 34, and Snapchat back to the top three of the list.

The second is in different markets, due to the user's use of language, cultural habits and other different, the birth of a localized plagiarism, such products are the most common kind of plagiarism. Europe Samwer three brothers plagiarism factory is so dry, China's Tumblr plagiarism, path plagiarism, such as a large number of products are this pattern of plagiarism. In fact, this kind of plagiarism seems easy, in fact, to succeed than local innovators more difficult, not only to complete understanding of the original product logic, but also to understand the local market and make adequate local improvement, these two conditions are indispensable, otherwise do not want to succeed. In this kind of plagiarism products, although there are many casualties, but there are several relatively successful, such as plagiarism Pinterest beauty, Mushroom Street, such as plagiarism WhatsApp, line and Talkbox micro-letter, such as copying Groupon's American Regiment.

The third kind of plagiarism is due to policy or restrictive conditions, such as China's unique local area network, but also spawned a large number of plagiarism products, such as plagiarism Facebook Network (everyone predecessor), plagiarism of Twitter and Sina Weibo, copy YouTube, such as Youku are such plagiarism. There is also the issue of policy constraints, such as the square involved in the financial environment, the market is only in the United States, and Europe's izettle from the local financial resources, then become a European square, there are many such as Chanfong, boxes to pay similar products. The latter in the global Internet plagiarism is not much, because it is a policy issue, product model is not its core competitiveness, so the relationship between unsuccessful and plagiarism is not very big.

There are tens of thousands of innovative startups each year, and only a few percent of success, and plagiarism is less likely to succeed. Copying from that percentage not only means that the likelihood of success is smaller (because that may be because it is lucky), but it also faces more intense competition (because of the number of people who copy it), as well as localized problems and user habits. And as users become more educated, we will increasingly recognize innovative products.

No matter what kind of venture, the chances of success are very small, but the product of plagiarism often has a more serious problem: plagiarism sequelae. Since there are successful cases ahead, the product of plagiarism may soon start to fire up, capital, users will continue to pour in, but this creates a false impression: the current heat is often the original product of the halo effect, but the next thing to do is not clear the copycat, so there is a strange phenomenon, The beginning is very hot, but with the development of time, the product more rotten (Renren), even this time is still someone else out of a you copy, not carefully operating products, users need to disregard, but also do not know what business model. To the end of user abandonment, capital exit, unlucky or entrepreneurial themselves.

A lot of copycats, see other people add what he added, such as someone in the picture of the sound, the copycat also add a sound function in the product. I personally despise this behavior, which means that the copycat he does not know what kind of products, he does not know what the user needs to meet, or according to the Chinese people like to do a all-inclusive thing. But the mobile internet era has not been so, users need simple, direct, to meet the direct demand of products, rather than the gaudy add a lot of, the results do not know what to use. (Of course, due to the high level of classification of Internet users in China Mobile, the low level of education users really like all-inclusive, flashy things)

Also need a problem, the product of plagiarism in now this everyone online, everyone spread the era, has been increasingly no advantage. Your things are copied from others, users hate you, the media hate you, so you naturally have no advantage. Originally may use the product is also relatively closed, we can not touch too much information, now information dissemination speed so quickly so widely has let the copycat have nowhere to hide.

And from another point of view, plagiarism is not good for entrepreneurs. Europe's notorious Samwer three brothers, who specialize in replicating American start-ups, then stir-fry the copied products to the highest point of capital through a variety of packaging and sell them. And those who do the product of the entrepreneur, actually did not gain much benefit, but fell a black.

Finally, I do not deny that there are still many products can be successfully copied to obtain users, but my article in the past has a time concept. Plagiarism is now very good, but netizens education level, information dissemination speed, spread breadth, the media's values are more and more correct, the whole market is more and more transparent, all the dark corners of the behavior will be exposed. So I would like to advise those fake entrepreneurs, investors who live by plagiarism, do not do such a stupid thing, now it feels good, but after a few years will not go on, you do not expect a few years to collect money?

Your idea, others are copied do not go, because the copycat does not know how to develop the logic behind the product and meet the needs of users. The entrepreneur is the demand-driven, but the copycat is only the interest-driven, the latter is difficult to understand the product's soul. And if someone else succeeds, there's probably only one reason: The copycat has a similar idea and is more mature than the first one, and knows how to implement the idea.