All insights Strategy April 16, 2026 6 min read

Translated from the Vietnamese original

Part 2 of 2 in our series on the copycat wars. Read part 1: What to do about the copycats

Most people see copycats as the enemy. Look closer, though, and the market doesn’t eliminate copycats. It runs alongside them. Newcomers copy incumbents. The big copy the small.

The market doesn’t reward you for thinking of it first. It rewards whoever controls how customers arrive and why they stay. That paradox isn’t a contradiction. It is how competition works. So what is really being competed for?

Following on purpose

You spend months educating the market on a new concept, and a few weeks later you see it everywhere.

Imitation, benchmarking or deliberate following usually starts from a weaker position. When entering a market, it avoids the testing costs the pioneer has already paid. In the growth stage, it lets you optimize faster instead of reinventing from scratch. During a restructuring, it is a way to read signals from those doing better than you.

So the question isn’t whether to learn from others. It is whether you can turn being second into an advantage, or whether you are simply behind with no way to win.

When copying becomes a strategy

In many industries, copying is no longer a competitive reflex. It can be deployed as a systematic strategy, a way of taking ownership of a market.

Rocket Internet is the classic example. It didn’t look for new ideas. It looked for proven models and rolled them out in other markets faster and with better execution. It competed not on product but on the speed of capturing the market: acquire first, scale first, lock it in before rivals could react.

In practice, watching competitors, taking what works and doing it better isn’t the exception. It is common practice, even at companies seen as the most innovative. In some markets such as China, the logic goes further: when manufacturing, supply chains and distribution are all fast enough, an idea being cloned almost instantly isn’t a risk but the market’s default state.

In that context, advantage doesn’t come from doing better once, but from the ability to renew your advantage continuously. The three patterns below show how copying works as a system of capture.

Three patterns of capture

1. Capture distribution

The follower doesn’t change the idea. It changes the speed and reach. Instagram didn’t create Stories, but launching after Snapchat, it put the same feature in front of hundreds of millions of users almost overnight. Same idea, different distribution, different result. With enough distribution, someone else’s idea is just raw material.

2. Keep the behavior

The follower doesn’t create new behavior. It keeps that behavior inside its own system. TikTok changed how people discover and buy. Shopee didn’t create that behavior, but quickly added livestreaming and affiliates to keep transactions on its platform. When the behavior stays, the data stays. When the data stays, the customer stays.

In Vietnam, it is easy to watch a concept appear and then multiply across many brands within months. The difference isn’t who did it first, but who captured the customer first, and who owns the data flow.

3. Reopen the field

The follower doesn’t copy exactly. It expands into the part of the market the pioneer hasn’t served. Samsung didn’t invent the smartphone, but it widened the choice of sizes, specs and prices for customers Apple didn’t serve. At that point it was no longer selling the same thing. Direct competition fell, but control of the market grew.

Capture distribution ExampleInstagram launching Stories after Snapchat What the follower controlsSpeed and reach: the same feature delivered to hundreds of millions of users almost overnight

Keep the behavior ExampleShopee adding livestreaming and affiliates after TikTok What the follower controlsTransactions and the data flow, so customers stay

Reopen the field ExampleSamsung widening smartphone sizes, specs and prices What the follower controlsSegments the pioneer didn’t serve

Seen another way, the difference between pioneer and follower isn’t the idea but the kind of value each controls. The pioneer creates use value. The follower, if fast and large enough, captures the network value that grows out of it. When that happens, the idea is no longer an advantage. It becomes infrastructure for others to exploit.

A line worth stating plainly

No pattern guarantees victory. Copying doesn’t create advantage on its own; it only gives you a better starting point. If you don’t capture distribution faster, keep behavior better or create a clear enough difference, you aren’t a smart follower. You are just clearing the road for whoever comes next.

Benchmarking is learning the logic in order to do better. Infringing copying is reproducing the surface in order to sell cheaper. The two look alike from outside but build completely different things. Crossing that line isn’t strategy. It is legal risk, and trading long-term reputation for short-term gain.

“There is no pure originality” is not an excuse for copying.
It is how the market works.

If you don’t control how customers come to you and why they stay, what you copy hardly matters. You aren’t building an advantage. You are only buying time before that advantage belongs to someone else.