I have a few German friends, I understand them to be quite risk averse. However, what Samwers have accomplished in Germany is something far far more important and bigger than a clone industry - it is the spirit of taking risks, a willingness to aspire to be something other than traditional careers and a strong stance/philosophy on a type of entrepreneurship (clones) - stances such as these almost always lead to an ideological opposition and make way for others to engage in similar realms with differing philosophies. You can see that in Project A ventures, which is a reaction to Samwer's philosophy, and that reaction is good for Germany's start-up culture.
Erm... I don't think copying successful business is very risky. You can, of course, bork execution, but the key part - exploring the "needspace" and finding a viable business model - is already done. And even executing, when someone executed before, is rather easy.
You have no assurance that something that works in the USA will work also in Germany, Italy, EU or (even more difficult ) any african or asian country.
As said by others, there are language, cultural and legal differences.
EDIT (missed a piece): Execution is not only design and coding, it's also verifying the market, adapting the product to this market etc..
note: i'm not justifing them (at least not completely), just making some point.
True, they have to adapt the product, but, still, they start from the lessons the competitor already learned. Not all models adapt equally well to every market, but they appear to have a culture of "fail cheaply" sufficiently ingrained to lower risks. They are a very lean business.
And yet ironically, a lot of people will give up as soon as they see there's a competitor in the space where they were planning to start a business. "Oh, somebody's already doing that."
As a German I've never viewed it this way, but its true.
I'm working on creating a better Startup Community end Environment in my surrounding, not only because i'd like that to be here, but also because i'd like to show that there is a another, if not better, way to do this.
