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These guys made billions stealing startup ideas. (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by moltar211@alien.top to c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space

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In 1998, 3 German brothers, Marc, Oliver, and Alexander Samwer saw the rise of a new platform called eBay.

It sparked a thought: if eBay was gaining traction in the U.S, why couldn’t a similar platform work in their home country.

So they approached eBay with an idea: bring the platform to Germany and hire us to run it.

Despite their passionate pitch, the eBay executives turned the brothers down.

Returning to Germany the next year, they launched Alando, an eBay clone for the German market.

In a shocking twist, just a hundred days after launching, eBay acquired Alando for a staggering forty three million dollars.

Sensing they were on to something, the brothers used the money to launch Rocket Internet, a venture studio dedicated to the art of ripping off US companies.

The blueprint was simple: duplicate successful US businesses, launch them in foreign countries and eventually sell them to the original company.

Over the next few years, the Samwers targeted several major platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Amazon. Each time selling their clone for hundreds of millions.

Today, each brother is worth around 1.2 billion dollars.

(Shameless Plug) For more stories like this check out the 50 Greatest Business Success Stories along with our Instagram and tik tok

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[–] monitorcable@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

I always wondered, how is it that when someone invented the cd player, every manufacturer like Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Sanyo, LG, etc immediately had a CD player to sell. Same thing for every other major electronics appliance like the VCR, the walkman, the mouse, a flat screen tv, blutooth headphones, etc. How is it that whichever company that invented these incredibly popular products didn't hold a patent to dominate the market by being the sole manufacturer of such products like the iPod, or the playstation. I understand that you can make the argument that there was the Zune and other mp3 players, but when it comes to a cd player or a flat-screen tv; every manufacturer is doing the same thing essentially, while a playstation 5 and an Xbox One are completely separate devices.