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Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Irishsteve 14y agoIf only we could build the airbnb user base up in a day as well.
- swah 14y agoI (and most here) can clone most sites, but can't create a business.
- vicks711 14y agoyou (and most here) cant clone most sites in a day! Creating a clone with zero traffic (well nearly zero) traffic is juvenile. Of course you can do it in a day.
- simonswords82 14y agoAbsolutely - Marketing first. Product second.
- tope 14y agoWhat the post is trying to achieve is to show people how easy it is to get the technology up and running. Especially with the tools available today. The tech shouldn't hold you back. But of course, if you build it, they won't come. The marketing is another ball game entirely
- diego 14y agoExactly. These "I built a clone of X in Y hours" posts seem to imply that a website or a mobile app are what makes a successful company. In reality they are just the tip of the iceberg. What you don't see are the countless hours of hustling, the distribution deals, the marketing, the organic growth of the brand, etc, etc. It could be like saying: "hey, I just built a clone of McDonalds; I made a burger with fries."
- lucian1900 14y agoThis is a demo of StackMob, AirBnB was probably chosen as a reasonably realistic example that isn't a todo app.
- _pius 14y agoIt could be like saying: "hey, I just built a clone of McDonalds; I made a burger with fries." Why troll? This is obviously a developer tutorial meant to show off a platform. I just can't believe you actually think the author claimed to clone AirBnB's whole business in this article.
- quandrum 14y agoDid you read the article? The title may be a bit misleading, but having read the article, it's obvious this is about how easy the tools they suggest make building (scaffolding?) an AirBnB app, not how easy it is to build an AirBnB business.
- xsace 14y agoIt was a joke..
- MIT_Hacker 14y agoIf only you could attribute your images properly. I can't find an attribution or mention of PlaceIt or Breezi anywhere. Example screenshot used in blog post: http://placeit.breezi.com/productshots/40 http://placeit.breezi.com/productshots/40
- SidneyAllen 14y agoThanks for catching that. We'll update the post with an attribution.
- MIT_Hacker 14y agoThanks! Haha, the only reason I recognized it so quickly is because I use their tool so often. It's really awesome and deserves a mentioned wherever used.
- SidneyAllen 14y agoAbsolutely. I was wondering how our guest author had created those cool screenshots. Attribution added!
- tope 14y agoYeah, I missed that. I always attribute to breezi on my blog. Thanks for the heads up :-)
- aculver 14y agoI hadn't heard of PlaceIt before. Thanks for mentioning it! I love how laid back their attribution policy is: http://breezi.com/blog/using-placeit-images-for-commercial-purposes/ http://breezi.com/blog/using-placeit-images-for-commercial-p... .
- OzzyB 14y agoIf there's a need to assign attribution then there isn't a need to use this tool.
- kailuowang 14y agoI don't think you can call this a 'clone'. It's at most a proof of concept. I can build a POC of Airbnb in Rails in an hour. It doesn't mean I should build an Airbnb clone in Rails.
- javawocky 14y agoPlease do so and write up a post about doing it with a link here on HN. It would give your comment more credibility.
- Irregardless 14y agoIn the conclusion, you say: > What’s next? Well you can extend your app by adding payment options, email notifications, user feedback. . . Aren't those core features of AirBnB? That's like saying "Next, you build the entire application." So you really haven't built a clone at all, you've just built an empty shell with a tiny fraction of the functionality.
- rmoriz 14y agoUsing Stripe, disquss etc it should be doable in a couple of hours/days. Of course the main feature of AirBnB and the large copycats is the market penetration. Nobody cares if you have a fancy backend or e.g. a node.js based mobile app. It's about active users and transactions.
- jenius 14y agoThis is absolutely true and I agree, but you also totally missed the point of the post, and this criticism is totally off-base. OP wrote this post as a demonstration of how to get a native ios app prototype up and running quickly using tools like app design vault and stackmob, not in order to make any comments about airbnb or to actually try to make a full business out of this clone. The basic Airbnb interface/data structure was simply used as an example framework for the author to show off the tools and workflow. I do think that an adjustment to the title would help to clear up the confusion around this -- this is not the only post in this thread making a similar criticism.
- snoman 14y agoThis just in: when you have a proven example application, an existing design, pre-fab content, known behavior... writing software is easy. I'm fighting the urge to say "no shit".
- Irregardless 14y agoMaybe the title should be modified to better fit the content of the post then? If I wrote an article called "How to build a Lamborghini clone for $2,500" but demonstrated how to put a look-alike body kit on an old Honda Civic, you would be justified in telling me that I didn't accomplish my stated intention.
- ___alt 14y agoMandatory http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/code-its-trivial.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/code-its-trivial.ht...
- andr3w321 14y agoI'm sure StackMob is a great product and time saver, but the title is incredibly misleading. I guess everyone does it these days to get the page hits. "I timed it and it took about 16 hours over the course of three days to get this app up and running." Lol. That's hardly one day then and as people have said it's not close to being a clone.
- siculars 14y agoIt never fails to amaze how so many tech folk are such pedants. For all of you who are whining about this not being a real clone for any number of reasons you are well and truly stuck in the trees. You've failed to notice that this is a demo of the StackMob API which is more than a common Hello World, Blog engine or ToDo list. There is a lot of great stuff here and the OP makes a great case for StackMob. Grow up.
- rhizome 14y agoWhy not title it, "How to use StackMob," or something like that?
- fuddle 14y agoAlso there is a free template worth $69 included: http://www.appdesignvault.com/stackmob-gift/ http://www.appdesignvault.com/stackmob-gift/
- flrpsrmblrb 14y agoYeah, but did you contribute to the campaigns of local politicians in order to avoid paying taxes that would impact your business model? (Reference: http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-illegal-san-francisco-2012-6 http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-illegal-san-francisco-...)