The story
Beijing, China-based startup, DianDian, has recently raised $10 million from big names like Sequoia and Ceyuan. With more than $1 million capital it seized from Kai-Fu Lee’s Innovation Works in Feburay, DianDian has raised a total of $11 million or more in just several months.
You might wonder what kind of service DianDian provides. Actually it is a Tumblr clone in Chinese. It is a high level of imitation and the biggest difference you can tell is that the website is in Chinese.
DianDian vs Tumblr
Check the screenshots below.
Comparing Login Buttons
Comparing “Editing a post” UI
Comparing Dashboard UI
The Discussions
After the news came out on April 7, people began discussing it on Zhihu, a clone of Quora which also got funded by Kai-Fu Lee’s Innovation Works. The users are quickly divided into 2 groups.
- Why would Innovation Works invest a 100%-copycat like DianDian?* Is plagiarizing UI admitted in China?
One group with Innovation Works’s co-founder, lawyer and senior managers are supporting Innovation Works’s decision, while most entrepreneurs and programmers are against that.
Jixin Huang, Senior Manager of Innovation Works responds (digest):
It’s coarse to call Diandian “a 100%-copycat”
Innovation Works invests in DianDian because they create something more than just cloning.
Hua Wang, Co-founder of Innovation Works responds (digest):
The discussion has no meaning because we are making our decisions based on the forecast of Chinese users, market and the industries.
Benjamin Qiu, Lawyer of Innovation Works responds (digest):
It’s hard to agree, but the conclusion is that UI is not protected by law, just because it is not artistic enough, not original enough.
The UI presented here means buttons, banner’s position, combination of color and etc. And all the elements have been used somewhere else before.
… If the percentage of the similarity is up to 90% it won’t violate any law in China, even in U.S.
While the opposite opinion is simple but powerful: the user called “Hi-iD” answers:
You can’t do that, unless you are a thief, a bandit or a mafia!
Whose Cheese Got Moved?
Although obviously Kai-Fu Lee is not the only one who made this happen. People began making jokes of his name on Twitter. One joke says Kai-Fu is really the short for Kai-Shi-Fu-Zhi Lee, in which ‘Kai-Shi’ means ‘Start’ and ‘Fu-Zhi’ means ‘Copy’.
And several hours ago, someone built a website called Copy Works using a theme ripped off from Innovation Works’s homepage. People began to register with user names like Kai-Shi-Fu-Zhi, Kai-Shi-Lee in Weibo, a Twitter-like service in China.
Screenshot of copy-works, a theme ripped off from Innovation Works’s homepage
Former VP of Google, Kai-Fu Lee is an icon of success in China. He had written six open letters to students in China and one open letter to their parents, and thus acknowledged as the mentor for students. He also runs a web site named Kai-Fu & Students’ under his own name http://kaifulee.com. His first open letter in year 2000 to students titled About honesty and integrity. You can imagine how you would react when someone who told you to be honest did something against common morality.
Till now, there’s no official statements or apologies from DianDian or from Innovation Works.
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Many thanks for @kimseong on proofreading this tip.
Source:http://jyorr.com/post/4622300101/former-google-vp-kai-fu-lee-got-a-nickname-start-copy