Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day • Hacker News Board

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#21

Post by _pius » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 4:41 PM UTC

diego wrote: post #8

Irishsteve wrote: post #3

If only we could build the airbnb user base up in a day as well.

Exactly. 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."

It 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.

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#22

Post by ___alt » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 4:50 PM UTC

Mandatory http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/code-its-trivial.ht...

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#23

Post by quandrum » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 4:50 PM UTC

Irishsteve wrote: post #3

If only we could build the airbnb user base up in a day as well.

Did 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.

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#24

Post by barrynolan » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 4:51 PM UTC

Irregardless wrote: post #16

In 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.

It is what it is. A great demonstration of developer productivity. And the stack mob API is free.

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#25

Post by xsace » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 4:52 PM UTC

quandrum wrote: post #23

Irishsteve wrote: post #3

If only we could build the airbnb user base up in a day as well.

Did 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.

It was a joke..

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#26

Post by snoman » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 5:00 PM UTC

jenius wrote: post #20

Irregardless wrote: post #16

In 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.

This 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 s…

This 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".

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#27

Post by andr3w321 » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 5:20 PM UTC

I'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.

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#28

Post by javawocky » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 5:22 PM UTC

kailuowang wrote: post #14

I 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.

Please do so and write up a post about doing it with a link here on HN. It would give your comment more credibility.

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#29

Post by siculars » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 5:27 PM UTC

It 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.

Re: Build an AirBnB Clone in a Day

#30

Post by seivan » Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 5:33 PM UTC

Irregardless wrote: post #16

In 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.

Not to mention it's based on a third party vendor that not only has the API but also the schema.

Not to mention no time at all was spent (counted) on the app design and code regarding the logic for layouts.