Nasza-klasa: Polish example of the copy-cat approach

Written on June 11, 2008 – 3:25 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Although the Germans have a patent on the copy-cat approach - Freundefeed, anyone? -, Spanish entrepreneurs recently proved to master this unique skill as well. And now there’s 24-year-old computing student Maciej Popowicz from Poland who also seems to get that the best business plan is to import a brilliant idea from abroad. He built Nasza-klasa, a Polish version of Britain’s Friends Reunited, France’s Copains d’avant, and Holland’s Schoolbank eighteen months ago. What came next, is well described by IOL Technology:

It has taken Poland’s Internet world by storm, and claims 11 million users, giving it widest coverage and penetration in this country of 38 million people, well ahead of YouTube’s 6,4 million Polish-based users.

To complete this entrepreneurial fairy-tale, TechCrunch reported earlier today that Estonia’s Forticom has acquired a majority stake in nasza-klasa for 200 million PLN, or 60 million Euros. From now on, Forticom will reach 7.5 million monthly users.

Although it isn’t the classiest way of making money, copying a successful service from abroad does make sense. People generally have the same needs - in this case: connecting with old classmates -, so why not offering them a localized version?

If you liked reading this post, you might want to subscribe to our RSS feed to read more European tech news. We cover Poland quite often. Did you know for example that Poland is Firefox heaven?

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About the author: Ernst-Jan is a blogger and journalist, who previously worked in New York to cover news at the United Nations. Next to writing, he's also a singer in the band Christina Five.

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6 comments/trackbacks to “Nasza-klasa: Polish example of the copy-cat approach”

Jul 30, 2008: TheNextWeb.org: Lies, damned lies, and statistics
[...] 1: Reality in Sweden: download a HD DVD in two seconds 2: 3 reasons why Knol will beat Wikipedia 3: Nasza-klasa: Polish example of the copy-cat approach [...]

By Tjeerd Kramer on Jun 11, 2008

How many shoeshops are there in Amsterdam? Do we call them copycats, simply because there is a shoeshop in Berlin as well?

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By Ernst-Jan Pfauth on Jun 11, 2008

@Tjeerd what do you think?

If there’s a shoeshop in Berlin with an unique concept, like free beer for everyone, and an Amsterdam store introduced this as well, I would say yes..

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By Sjors on Jun 11, 2008

Well, if he just copied the Polish version of Schoolbank, than maybe.. But he created a site that fulfilled a need that wasn’t served by any other company.

But I see your point, just makes me wonder why it are always the English sites that are copied by foreign sites. (Or is it that if an English site copies a Slovenian initiative, no one ever hears about it) and second why it seems so hard to roll out a global service from the start.. And last do we call things copycats because comparing them to existing English examples is the easiest way to understand them?

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By Yakov on Jun 11, 2008

See the Russian perspective on http://blog.quintura.com

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By Tjeerd Kramer on Jun 11, 2008

@Ernst-Jan: Even if the Amsterdam shoeshop does the exact same thing as the one located in Berlin, I would not call them copycats, which in my dictionary is a pretty negative thing to use on people.

Ofcourse it’s nicer to do a startup with a unique idea, or improve on something that already exists. But for many people working the web it is just a matter of making a living.

In this case it’s all about localisation, demand & supply - like with the shoeshops.

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