In an ironic turn of events, U.S. technology companies have now started to copy Chinese companies, according to a report.
“Chinese technology companies have long had a reputation of being copycats of Western peers, but U.S. companies have recently begun to return the favor,” reported Fox Business on Friday. “China’s Internet titans such as Tencent Holdings Ltd. are influencing U.S. startups and majors alike, and many Chinese models are being replicated in the U.S.”
“LimeBike, a San Mateo, Calif., upstart backed by Andreessen Horowitz, adapted China’s dockless bike-sharing model for U.S. consumers,” they continued. “Also, Apple Inc. recently added payment services to its iMessage chat service, taking a page from Tencent’s playbook.”
Connie Chan, a partner at a Silicon Valley investment firm, spoke about the increase in U.S. copycats at the Wall Street Journal‘s D. Live Asia conference on Friday.
“I love this reversal of what ‘China copycat’ can mean,” Chan declared. “It no longer just means a Chinese company copying the States, it can mean a U.S. company copying China.”
Investor David Su added that “Unfortunately, because of the hyper competition among the big giants, often when one picks a big player, the other side almost compulsively will pick another competitor.”
“It’s created almost two blocks of warring camps,” he explained.
Last year, Apple lost the “iPhone” trademark in China, with a court ruling that a Chinese leather goods store would be free to use the trademark for their products.
Peter Navarro, head of the White House National Trade Council, discussed the issue with Breitbart Editor-In-Chief Alex Marlow on Breitbart News Daily in January.
“The biggest problem with China is its cheating and its currency problems. The cheating we just can’t abide by, and the cheating is pervasive,” explained Navarro. “It’s not just the fact that they dump into our markets things like steel and aluminum. It’s also the fact that they steal all of our intellectual property. This is a very serious matter.”
“A lot of people naively, in government and in the general public, think that we’re the greatest nation in the world, we have the greatest technology, and, therefore, we’re always going to win the economic battle,” he continued. “The problem there is if your strategic rival, like China, steals all your intellectual property and then is able to produce at lower cost because of government subsidies. They win the game in the end.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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