The Guy Who Ran Microsoft And Google In China Clones US Startups

Kai-Fu Lee is one of the most prominent(显著的, 杰出的, 突出的) internet executives in China: he used to runMicrosoftand thenGoogle there. He now has an incubator(孵卵器, 早产儿保育器)/seed fund called InnovationWorks(创新工厂), which raised $115 million. What does InnovationWorks do? Invests in dozens of startups(启动, 电脑的开动; 开发组, 试图把一个想法付诸于产品并建起公司的人群), including some that are clones of successful US companies. When describing his incubator in the US press, Lee mostly talks about fostering(领养, 培养, 促进, 鼓励, 抱有) a culture of innovation and encouraging traditionally risk-averse(厌恶的, 反对的) talented Chinese young people to strike out and do startups. He talks about getting on the phone with anxious parents of high-achieving students and explaining them that no, they're not throwing away their life by going to a startup instead of a big company. And InnovationWorks has been extremely busy on the investment side: It has invested in 28 startups and applied for 15 patents. The startups include a mobile-ad company like AdMob, an HTML-5 authoring(创作) tool, and an auto-air-sync tool for smartphones. As entrepreneur(ˌɔntrəprə'nə:) Rakuraku Jyo writes on his blog, some of the startups funded by InnovationWorks are straight clones of US startups. For example, it funded DianDian, which is a carbon copy of Tumblr, and Zhihu, a Quora clone. According to Jyo, InnovationWorks is so clone-heavy that it has become a meme(弥母(文化基因, 文化传播的最小单位)) among Chinese entrepreneurs. By a Chinese pun(双关语), his new nickname is now "Start-Copy Lee," and a mischievous(调皮的, 恶作剧的, 有害的) entrepreneur created a parody(仿作, 拙劣的模仿) website called CopyWorks, which mimics(模仿, 模拟) the design of InnovationWorks' website. A couple things should be pointed out here:

• The "fast follower strategy" is a time-honored(历史悠久的, 古老而受尊敬的) tradition in the business world. As long as you're not doing anything illegal there's nothing "wrong" with it. From consumers' perspective it helps bring new products and business models to new markets faster. And from a business perspective, if the original comes in and whups(美俚]大胜) you, too bad, and if you get a good exit, well, the money's green. Good for you.
  快速跟随战略
• Almost all great Chinese companies started out as clones but then evolved into something original and innovative to fit the market. Tencent started out as an ICQ clone and evolved into a social network with games, whose social and virtual goods model was then imitated(仿效的, 仿造的, 假冒的) byZynga. Tudou started as a YouTube clone and has now evolved into its own media company, producing original content and original formats. So maybe that's what Lee is betting on.

Some people will grouse(松鸡#牢骚, 抱怨) about such a talented executive isn't using some of his resources this way. But China isn't the only place where the clone business is lucrative(有利益的, 合算的, 获利的). It's also alive and well in Europe and other places. Including the US--where there are usually many companies that jump into exactly the same business as an industry leader. http://www.businessinsider.com/kai-fu-lee-innovation-works-clones-china-startups-2011-4