I’m from Brazil and basically all the people who are active in my tree don’t understand English very well. Therefore, the Portuguese version of Genoom and Verwandt are quite appealing. But again: how am I going to tell every body to move to another service?

I guess it’s easier to demand Geni to translate their interface!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

As quoted the project was posted on: http://www.elance.com/c/rfp/ma.....d=12039961

Also attached to the requested project (readable if logged in) is::
“Please note: The plattform should be mult-lingual. The frontend will be in english but all text visiblie for the user should be separate from the code so the plattform can easaly translated into another language. For us quality and timing for completion extremly important.”

If you look at the developers feedback page you can see the feedback that was given by the project creator (Tobias??).
Looks like the project didn’t get off the ground as they would of liked.

06/26/2007 $4,800.00 Website Development - Clone
Category: Website Development > Other - Website Development
Buyer: Dirk07 (1 feedback)
We were not satisfied with the work. The Project was delayed by 150% and the specifications were not read or not understood: - Different DB enginge than specified - Code not commented - Partrally used Romanian variable names On top the code was monolithic. Although requested multiple times, code fragments werde not shown. They were presented, when it was too late to change (e.g. HTML user table layout). In general: Before assigning the project the team was very nice. We made very clear, that time is a very important issue for us but promised time lines were not kept - even short terms (e.g. “tomorrow”). We are sorry but we will have to code at least 80% of the software again to meet the defined requirements.

Provider Response: Cratima
Dear Tobias, Let me say that this was one of the most surprising and unfair feedbacks we have ever received. Let me break it down for you: 1. “We were not satisfied with the work.” - That is not what any of the press releases you posted on your homepage say. 2. “The Project was …Different DB engine than specified”: - You were the ones to insist on longer than needed bug testing; your feedback was terribly slow for this process, only a few bugs every week over an extent of few weeks. - The DB was rewritten only because you failed to provide a clear specification about the relations between relatives. You wanted to add more degrees of kinship than initially agreed upon in the contracts we both signed, not us. - Different DB engine is a reason to complain? When you changed the specification we had to adapt to your needs so we used a more expensive, more stable, more difficult to configure engine just to meet your requirements; all of this free of charge. (You were fair enough not to deny the fact that we adhered to your budget). Again we take the brunt, when in fact you should thank us. 3. “Although…when it was too late to change (e.g. HTML user table layout).” - the HTML can always be seen on a web page in any browser without having to get a hold of source files, and can be viewed in the source code; actually HTML code is client side, so it is entirely surprising a man in your position does not posses this elementary piece of information. 4. “We made very clear that…” - like I said, you also delayed the project. 5. “We are sorry but…” - you held press releases long before the site was launched, so you were sure that the code was alright; - you also had no hesitation in paying us at the end; so why would you pay for something you were not satisfied with if indeed the code was poorly written? That is all, I hope you can take some time to reflect and realize you have caused us a great injustice. Best of luck in the future,XcellenceIT

While to some extent I agree - and not a very large extent - you need to think in terms of the modern world and modern economy. We may still be somewhat segmented in economic clusters (or markets) but the clusters are closing on each other and overlapping. The borderlines of markets have been blurry for a very long time. Therefore, you really need to consider an international strategy rather than just a local one.

10 years ago I was pitching an idea to VCs that included an international strategy. Their point of contention was that you first needed to prove it in the US and then, expand internationally. The bottom line is that either they did not get it, or most likely, I did not explain it well and clearly. It is not about executing in all markets from the get go, but building the possibility of easy execution in multiple economic clusters. And once you get going on one market and get a little traction, you can start opening other markets.

Internationalization is easy. But I do agree that there are cultural differences that MUST be understood. But that is also not so hard either. Get the right people and it will happen easier than you expect.

Do I think that copying another’s idea VERBATIM is sick, wrong, greedy, immoral, dishonest? Maybe. But overall, we’re better off for it.

This would certainly cement the competitive advantage for the global platform.

Full disclosure at start: I am the co-founder of verwandt.de.

Sorry to people currently trying to sign up: Due to our “normal” growth AND being on Techcrunch we are currently experiencing some performance issues. We are aware of these and will fix them shortly!

To address some comment:

* To our best knowledge we are using the same metrics as Geni.com. So we do believe that one can compare the growth rates!

* It is well-known that we did some offshoring at start. However, given our growth rates and the resulting need to scale we have redone the whole platform since then.

* We are very happy with our reach and user base in Germany. But there is certainly room to grow left

Best, Sven
(http://www.itsourtree.com/)

It’s really difficult to place a real focus overseas when you’re yet to monopolize the market locally. Which battles do you want to fight? How do you properly prioritize?

Acquisition of international companies is also an option. Definitely not ideal, but what can you really do?

With friendly remarks from Germany,

Sebastian