Online Clones Cash In On Popular Websites [Infographic]

Coming up with a new and successful online concept isn’t exactly the easiest of tasks. You can literally spend a lifetime trying to come up with something that could potentially make you a wealthy and creative business owner. Some people have a clever mind (and to some extent luck) to come up with something that becomes a worldwide success after just a few months in operation. But maybe you don’t have to come up with these concepts yourself. There are actually hundreds of online website clones that are making millions each year. The online clones have grown to become a business within a business if you will. Some have even sold for over $100 million within their first year of operation.

The most popular are the video sharing websites. They have grown in numbers over the years, and now YouTube has a huge 52 clones, each with a price tag well over $1 million. The business of pushing online clones has become lucrative to say the least. Maybe it’s not considered the most creative of endeavors, but for the people immersing themselves into these kind of business opportunities, it means a great deal of money in their wallets.

The thing is, the world is full of clones, not just on the Internet. It’s like Mark Zuckerberg once said, “A guy who builds a nice chair doesn’t owe money to everyone who has ever built a chair.” And, he is quite right about that. There are millions of things you can look at this way. There are millions of blogs on the Internet for example, but they aren’t all considered copies. Why? Because it is a concept and not a patented idea.

When it comes to online clones of popular websites, the world hasn’t seen the last of them. There will be more unique concepts launched, and online clones will follow them. It’s an ecosystem that has always made the Internet a place of choice. The founders of the initial concepts usually never have to worry since their idea will most likely always be the most popular one, depending on their level of innovation and ability to keep their idea or service fresh. In a way, it comes down to the saying, “You snooze you lose.”

In this fresh infographic from ReputationObserver called The History Of The Web Clone Industry, we get to take a closer look at just how many online clones are available to all of the websites valued at over $100 million. There are quite a lot of websites valued at that price. Actually, there are more than I thought existed, but the statistics are clear. Online clones are cashing in on the concepts of popular websites, and it’s unlikely that it will ever stop. Is it good or bad? Well, I guess it’s good that it gives us choices. As far as I know, that is always a good thing.