Last few days ago I got a request from a client to develop a website just like naukari.com. My first reaction for that was “yes! I can develop a job portal for you”. Then he replied “I want it exactly like a naukari.com”. So after that I requested him to give me the list of requirements. He said “I need all the features of naukari.com”. He just wanted me to clone the website! Realizing this I happen to explain him why this doesn’t work. Today I am writing a blog about the same.
Cloning a famous website will not help you to establish the business. The straight forward reason for this is that a person who wants to clone a website generally does not have a domain knowledge in which he is trying to establish the business. Want to realize this? -read the above paragraph again wearing the hat as my client. Read his replies and think of his approach to build a business.
We term such a kind of business as “me too business “. Mostly these kinds of businesses build all the features of a famous website without knowing the reason for that. In fact one thing these people fail to understand is the big websites found today were not big from day one. They started small, studied the market, established in market, found a problem to solve, built a product/business which solves the problem and adds the business value. That’s the right path to walk on.
The other reason that makes the “me too business” to fail is their lack of understanding of problem. These kinds of businesses try to solve the same problem what already existing website without understanding the depth of the problem. Building a product is not about giving many features; it’s about solving a real-time problem. In fact the software itself is worth nothing if it doesn’t solve the problem to the fullest extent. It’s not the software makes the product, the approach taken to solve a problem does.
That’s being said; when any client say me I want a website exactly like some famous website then I step back from taking up that project. Reason being, if the clients himself don’t know what exactly he wants, why he wants – How he will help me to understand the requirements. It is difficult to develop a software solution with vague understand of the problem.
Finally I would say, don’t clone site. They definitely do not add business value.