Comments on: Kenyan CopyCats Lurking Everywhere….

By: MamaMikes.com

MamaMikes.com — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:40:09 +0000

Competition is always good. It make consumers happier and willing to try new services and ideas. We wish there were more people providing these types of services.

For anyone interested in sending Airtime to Kenya. You will be happy to know that:

Airtime ordered before 5pm Kenyan time is topped up the same day
All phone numbers are verified before topped up (no making mistakes)
You can top up more than one phone in one order
Our service charge is now the lowest in the market. Only $2.49
And as usual we provide excellent customer support.

Many thanks!

By: kenyanentrepreneur

kenyanentrepreneur — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:16:46 +0000

Kinoo

Cracking jokes again? I CMA’d myself with that domain name i.e. (“covered my ass” and registered both names!) you won’t be stealing my shit negroe!

By: kinoo

kinoo — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:14:45 +0000

check out my new blog

http://www.kenyaentrepreneur.com

By: kenyanentrepreneur

kenyanentrepreneur — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 23:59:44 +0000

olomoti8

well…from the perspective of the consumer, competition is good because it brings prices down. However, from the perspective of the small business owner, it’s not good because competition will dilute your profits.

And there is generally an issue of Kenyans “following the herd” when it comes to business. Is that natural? yes. is it necessarily good? I’m not sure.

There is a difference between taking an old concept and finding a way to re-do it more efficiently. However, when a lot of people just start copying, (carte blanche) — what does that say?

By: olmoti8

olmoti8 — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 20:24:00 +0000

my bad if i miss understood. my issue was with this statement:

“This is the problem with starting a business geared to or for Kenyans – everyone and their mama is going to try and copy you ”

that and the term ‘kenyan copycat’ both of which i felt give a negative conotation to a perfectly legitimate practice that I think should be encouraged if the consumer is to get the best deal for his/her money. Im glad to see kenyans stepping up and bringing competition to the industry.

By: kenyanentrepreneur

kenyanentrepreneur — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 14:38:03 +0000

olomit8
I don’t think you read or understood my piece. I’m not against copying and I understand the way capitalism works. The piece (if you missed the point) is really to highlight the issue of similar businesses propping up one after the other, all trying to target quite a small market. So, then, the question becomes, how do you, the business owner, deal with that?

That’s why I said it must be Irritating for Mamamikes (not wrong, just irritating)

And it is an issue in Kenya because the buying power isn’t as huge as what you’d find in America or other richer countries.

By: entrepkik

entrepkik — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:34:44 +0000

I think it is very normal in business to copy ideas. The crux of success is always to be ahead of competition and I believe mamamikes most probably also got the idea from somewhereelse and finetuned it to kenya situation

By: olmoti8

olmoti8 — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:03:15 +0000

I have to say that i think your analysis of the situation is very naive to say the least. starting a site that does the same business as another has nothing to do with copycat-ism as you are putting it. If anything mamamikes should be happy that others have recognised its business model as viable.

First of all you are making the false assumption that mamamikes originated its business model. they might have been the first to implement it in kenya but that is a trivial matter considering that it is an internet business and geographical focus is not what it is in the brick and morter world.
There are numerious example of businesses that were engaged in the same business albeit in different locales and ill bet you that it was from observing the success of these companies that the founders of mamamikes got their inspiration for their project.

its just ubsurd to accuses mavuno of being a copycat and then attribute the situation to having kenya as ones market focus. If mamamikes has a supperior business model and better serrvice then they will survive. If the they don’t then quite frankly they deserve to be driven out by competition in the interest of better service to the consumer.

By: don

don — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:09:58 +0000

I believe warrent buffet puts it this way. You have to build a moat around your business that the competition cannot storm your castle.

The question is not with mavuno, but with mamamikes. They have had 5 years to solidify their products and services. If they did and have kept inovating, it’s all good. Otherwise… move over.

The only other option is to patent the idea in Kenya and start working on expensive court cases.

One more kateskikapu.com… these are now a dime a dozen… and I got a dollar. Does anyone smell the need for specialization?