Robert Levine of Business 2.0 calls them the kopy kat kids:
The Samwer brothers never been shy about borrowing ideas. The first company the Cologne-born trio founded was a German-language version of eBay. Later, as venture capitalists, they invested in European startups that were direct knockoffs of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.The brothers Samwer (Alexander, 36; Oliver, 34; and Mark, 32) are unapologetic about their fast-follower tactics — mostly because they work. Alando.de, the eBay clone they launched in January 1999, was snapped up five months later by eBay itself — for a cool $50 million. And they had early money in StudiVZ, a two-year-old European Facebook clone that reportedly fetched more than $100 million when it sold to publishing company Holtzbrinck earlier this year.