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[German] Google buys the German Groupon competitor DailyDeal

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Re: [German] Google buys the German Groupon competitor DailyDeal

#3

Post by jensnockert »

sid0 wrote: post #2

I can't wait for this bubble to burst.

It seems like a reasonable thing for Google to do, while I agree that Groupon and friends are probably a bubble, I think Google could turn it into a feature that their advertisement customers want.

Re: [German] Google buys the German Groupon competitor DailyDeal

#5

Post by paulkoer »

Does it really make sense to have German posts on the HN frontpage? I am German and understand this one, but I think the value of the HN frontpage would be greatly reduced if half of the articles were in a language I can't understand (granted, there is google translate, but still).

Re: [German] Google buys the German Groupon competitor DailyDeal

#6

Post by badclient »

paulkoer wrote: post #5

Does it really make sense to have German posts on the HN frontpage? I am German and understand this one, but I think the value of the HN frontpage would be greatly reduced if half of the articles were in a language I can't understand (granted, there is google translate, but still).

if half of the articles were in a language I can't understand

My guess is that HN will worry more when that turns true.

Re: [German] Google buys the German Groupon competitor DailyDeal

#8

Post by Loic »

ethnomusicolog wrote: post #7
mhd wrote: post #4

Great. Now that's even more encouragement for German copycat startups…

that is something that I always found intriguing, with all their technical chops why germans are so good at producing copycats. Any Idea?

Look at the BMW, Porsche, Mercedes from the first one to the current one. Germans are incredibly good at refining and improving on top of a good idea. They do that with extremely rigorous scientific approach. So, the copycat is often better than the original, because they took the good idea and pushed it ahead.

This is what I understood from the German culture after living there the past 6 years.

Re: [German] Google buys the German Groupon competitor DailyDeal

#9

Post by MrKurtHaeusler »

ethnomusicolog wrote: post #7
mhd wrote: post #4

Great. Now that's even more encouragement for German copycat startups…

that is something that I always found intriguing, with all their technical chops why germans are so good at producing copycats. Any Idea?

I would be interested too, some ideas:

Less appetite for risk, less imagination, lack of critical mass for innovation, less cultural diversity, smaller language sphere. Much harder to go without income because of prevalence of longer termination periods for contracts, compulsory health insurance etc.

I actually heard an American say at a conference here in Germany recently, "you all get free health care, so it should be easier for you to quit your jobs and start a startup".

That doesn't seem realistic. We have to pay for compulsory health insurance. Lots of people get public which means it comes out of your wages or benefits (at around 13%!), or they go private and pay a fixed fee. Not having health insurance is not an option.

I went without income or benefit for one month here and people flipped out. It was not something that they had seen before, and freaked out mostly about health insurance. Turns out I was covered under my wife, but if I was not married I would have been in some existential black hole according to the authorities.

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