By Lemchi Chidi
One of the ways to make money is to copy-right.
Yes, you heard me, copy-right.
This is the story of German billionaires, the Samwer brothers—Marc, Alexander, and Oliver. All siblings.
How did the three brothers become rich?
All they do is sit back, and wait for silicon valley to churn out a new product. And sitting in their house, in Cologne, Germany, they will reproduce the same thing for the European market.
This way, they have launched 30 start-up companies—all look-alike of 30 successful companies in America.
Note that American Start-ups usually target European markets. Any start-up that doesn’t penetrate the market in Europe will struggle to breakthrough. The brothers know this and use it effectively to their advantage.
In 1998, hungry for knowledge and bankrolled by their rich dad, the three brothers travelled to Silicon Valley and worked as interns. Working as interns in Silicon Valley opened their eyes to a world of opportunities available on the internet.
They travelled back to Germany and started the European version of eBay called Alando. Same thing, no difference.
In fact, their website looked like that of eBay.
Afraid not to be shortchanged of the European market, eBay bought out the brothers for $43 million.
Ohhh, and this was exactly 100 days after they started Alando.
Buoyed by this, they went on to create:
- a version of YouTube and called it MyVideo,
- a version of Twitter called Frazr,
- a version of Facebook called StudiVZ,
- and a version of Airbnb called Wimdu.
Then the created a monster start-up called Rocket Internet which is worth billions today.
The American founders of the companies they’ve copied will invite them to a meeting and buy out the company from them.
This is how these three brothers have become billionaires.
There is nothing wrong with copying, but always COPY-RIGHT.
Noted sir, thanks!