Tech Innovation Manifesto: Berlin Start-Up Fights Back Against the Copycats
For decades, Germany has been renowned as a center of innovation and creativity, and Berlin is emerging as the technology capital of Europe. But one start-up has slammed so-called copycats — clones of firms which have had success in the US. It is calling on tech entrepreneurs in the German capital to come up with more original ideas.
Young, trendy and — most importantly — relatively cheap, it’s no surprise that Berlin has emerged as the driving force of Europe’s booming technology scene. It ties in with Germany’s reputation for innovation and creativity, and educated young entrepreneurs have flocked to the German capital to put their ideas into action.
But for many within the tech scene, all is not as it should be. A pet hate for many company founders is the so-called copycats, clones of start-ups which have proved successful elsewhere, notably in the US. Simply take the same idea, call it something different and launch it in Europe, before selling it on to make a quick profit. Examples include accommodation finder Wimdu which “copycated” airbnb, deal-of-the-day website City Deal which aped Groupon, and online fashion store Zalando which followed in the footsteps of Zappos.
‘It’s Time for a Change’
In a world where creativity is everything, however, there has been a backlash against the copycats. In a recent blog post, Berlin-based start-up 6Wunderkinder celebrated what it says is a return to innovation in Berlin and the rest of Germany. “People recognize us European founders as great executers, but also for not being very creative at all,” the post reads. “There were simple reasons for this. Entrepreneurs could simply clone an idea right from the other side of the globe and they didn’t have to go through any leaps or bounds as it had already been tried and tested elsewhere.”
“So that’s the history,” the post continues. “Now it’s time for change.”
One of the authors of the post, 6Wunderkinder’s PR manager Jessica Erickson, explained why copycats are such a problem. “Founding copycat start-ups has definitely been a trend over the last four years,” she told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “It labels Germany as a copycat country, and gives it a bad reputation abroad among investors, opinion-makers and influential bloggers.”
A lot of European companies, especially in Germany, just want to make quick money, she explains. “They can take an existing idea and have the developers quickly get it up and running,” she says. “It is easy to take an idea that has been tested in the market. But if everyone copies each other, there would be no more innovation.”
Now, however, the winds appear to be changing. The blog post has attracted a lot of support, Erickson says, precisely because it was what many start-ups were thinking anyway.