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>>"...and then decide to ignore, buy, invest." ...and then decide to ignore, buy, invest or copy.

• AndrewKemendo 9y ago
  True, though history seems to show that copy only happens after they aren't able to buy or invest. It's much riskier from a business perspective to copy than to buy usually.
  • TheBiv 9y ago
    Very good point! Thank you for the greater sense of context, as I wasn't trying to imply that Facebook was a bad actor for copying.
  • finnh 9y ago
    Only for really big things like Instagram that have a network effect helping them, and as such threaten the incumbent. For smaller features / ideas, it's much less risky to copy than to buy a company (for, say, 10-100M) and hope the acquisition goes well. Most acquisitions don't go all that well.