The curse of the copycats has risen up once again, this time with a new twist – one of the most blatant clones of a German company from abroad. Berlin-based startup tricider (dot com) has been copied by a Russian firm called, wait for it, tricider (dot ru).
The German tricider is a free web service for brainstorming, decision making and voting online. Founded almost a year ago, it wasn’t until yesterday morning, while browsing the company’s Twitter page, that co-founder Stephan Eyl came across a tweet linking back to Russian website tricider.ru – a domain not registered by or affiliated with the Berlin-based platform.
One look at the Russian clone, and it’s clear to see they they weren’t just influenced by the name of the Berlin company – the entire product concept, website design, logo, and even the demo video is almost exactly alike on the Russian site. Not only was the same song used (which the Berlin tricider paid rights for), but the cloned video shows the same process and images.
While many might argue that the cloning of the type undertaken by Rocket Internet, the investment vehicle of the Samwer brothers, is justified as it builds on what others have done and helps the ecosystem in general, this is surely going a little far. Stephan said that stealing the name was a slap in the face to those startups who do work hard to create something innovative and unique.
However, the company is keeping a head-strong attitude. Co-founder Niko Kanitz told Silicon Allee: “Although it is frustrating to see that somebody steals not just our idea, but the whole design and even the name, we are confident to stay ahead of our competitors with our passion for innovation and developing our product along with the needs of our users and customers.”
So far the Berlin-based tricider are unaware as to who exactly is behind the Russian clone, but the question remains as to how this copycat will influence or hurt the original’s reputation.
It does seem, however, that the Russian site is planning to change – a notice on its homepage which appeared this afternoon seems, when run through Google translate, to be running a competition to find a new name for the website.
Update April 27, 2012
The Russian copycat changed its name to Fortox.ru
