The Samwers hit it big with MyCityDeal ($350m-ish) and seem to be trying to replicate its success. Wimdu, their Airbnb -clone is doing well and offers a very d

The Samwers hit it big with MyCityDeal ($350m-ish) and seem to be trying to replicate its success. Wimdu, their Airbnb -clone is doing well and offers a very decent alternative to Airbnb. (There are differences: Wimdu pays affiliates 10% of bookings, Airbnb doesn't). But there's a difference between a Groupon clone and Wimdu and Pinspire - Groupon is a local business. It doesn't matter if Groupon has the whole world dominated, if you can dominate your own country then Groupon are fucked. People aren't looking for deals all around the world, they are looking in their own backyard. So MyCityDeal got people on the ground and dominated the UK/German markets. Brand outside these areas was unimportant. It was cheaper for Groupon to buy them than build their own teams. Wimdu - Slightly similar, but not really. Properties can be (and are) listed on both sites. It's a global business - people from any country in the world travelling to any other country. Brand and global coverage is essential here - US travellers won't use Wimdu to travel to Europe. Likewise, Europeans will find poor coverage of the US on Wimdu. Pinspire - No advantage whatsoever. The European sites similar to Facebook have taken a good beating (even, and especially those that were there first). I can't really see Pinterest buying Pinspire. Sites that I think would be ripe for them to clone though: Etsy, Tutorspree, possibly Twilio.