JioMeet launched yesterday and many people felt a strong sense of deja vu.
You can see the full thread here. It goes screen by screen and shows how JioMeet is a copy of Zoom
. Expectedly this triggered a lot of polarising reactions
Team “How Dare you”:
- This is plagiarism.
- It’s lazy work
- It’s IP theft
- A behemoth like Jio can do better Team “Copying is fine_”_
- Everybody copies, it’s ok
- Why waste time doing things from scratch
- Jio has distribution. They should not waste time and money on R&D
- Users can adjust to it more easily
- The user interface isn’t the critical part of the a video calling app
- Jio is not aiming to innovate I approach this as a maker and 100% pissed by this behaviour. All of the statements by team How Dare you are true. The copying is so blatant that there is no denying it . So much that the other side doesn’t even say no this is not a copy. Its more like Yeah this is a copy but …
Let me discuss the arguments one by one. Everybody copies, its ok Nope. Not everybody copies and it is not ok. The first distinction to be made is the spectrum between adopting best practices and outright cloning. All messaging apps have the same threaded UI but you can tell Whatsapp Telegram and Signal apart . All ride hailing apps have converged on the same flow but you can tell - Uber, Ola and Lyft apart. Basic similarities from sticking to an industry norm are not the same as ripping something off . We know where JioMeet lies on this spectrum.
Why is copying not ok? Because UX/UI/branding are the product of someone’s labour. I sense that there is a general disregard to the trouble that goes into making things just work or just right or consistent, especially for digital experiences . Somebody spent a lot of time perfecting the constructs, the flows and experiences that make a thing just work. It is hard mental/intellectual labour but labour nonetheless and copying that is theft . In a way, by stealing you admit that you could no better. Defending originality beyond this point requires going into the legal and moral domains. Not an expert on the legal domain but design patents exist and cases like Apple vs Samsung show that there are legal repercussions too . Moral lines are hard to draw, you can get away with murder too and we are only answerable to the laws of physics and our own conscience.
Also relevant to quote Jony Ive commenting on Xiaomi copying Apple.
“I don’t see it as flattery. I see it as theft,“ Ives said in response to what he thinks about Xiaomi, a Chinese startup that is often criticized for copying Apple designs. “When you’re doing something for the first time, for example with the phone, and you don’t know it’s going to work, and you spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it’s copied – I have to be honest, the first thing I think isn’t ‘Oh, that was flattering”
“All those weekends I could have had at home with my lovely family but didn’t, but the flattery made up for it,” Ives sarcastically added. “I think it’s theft and lazy. I don’t think it’s OK at all.” Why waste time doing things from scratch Why work when you can steal? And as explained above, copying has a spectrum there’s a difference between referencing and plagiarizing. Doing things from scratch is an activity associated with being close to your customers/users . Whether through someone personally seeing an opportunity or working closely with customers to spot one - It is the genesis of good products. And in the long term it’s bad for you . If you copy, you’re behind by definition.
“Jio has distribution. They should not waste time and money on R&D?” I get this one, my customers are not going anywhere. Heck do I care about originality and innovation. Public corporations have no choice but to maximise shareholder value and there’s nothing like giving a business a distribution advantage/monopoly . It’s perfect path to mediocrity when you don’t have to fight for anything. Through structural/contractual/other advantages, you can just inflict whatever you want on people . We’re wading into moral territory again but bear with me. Through tools we build or experiences we design, we have the opportunity to insert joy or add suffering to people lives . Infinite joy to users might bankrupt us and maximum suffering might enrich us, and where between those two extremes you want to be, is your choice.
Users can adjust to it more easily
Not an argument for stealing but definitely an argument for demonstrating how lazy the product team is.
The user interface is not the critical part of the a video calling app”
Ya ok.
Jio is not aiming to innovate”
Ok that part was obvious.
There’s a special place for Kevin Systrom who you could argue stole with grace
When talking to TechCrunch about the launch of Stories on Instagram.
“Let’s talk about the big thing. Snapchat pioneered a lot of this format. Whole parts of the concept, the implementation, down to the details…” “
Totally,” Systrom interrupted me.
“They deserve all the credit.” Fellow product guy Kevin Weil sort of said the same thing but mixed in the usual “this is the way things work” excuse. There’s a whole separate line of discussion about why India needs get rid of its service mentality and step up it tech chops but enough ranting for today.