Client: - How much is a copy of Facebook?

“How much does it cost to make a copy of Facebook (Avito, Yandex.Taxi, fl.ru ...)?” - one of the most popular questions from clients, to which we will give a detailed answer today and tell you how it looks from the people who have to do.

"Black box"

When we are given the task to copy some service, then for us it is a kind of “black box”. Absolutely no matter what the program is: website, mobile application or driver. In any case, we will be able to see how it looks from the outside, but we do not have access to what is inside.

This is approximately as if they showed us a car and asked to make an exact copy, but they did not give us the opportunity to look under the hood: we can only confine ourselves to an external examination and sit behind the wheel. And getting into the trunk is already impossible!
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Accordingly, we will be forced to solve the following tasks:
Suppose and come up with - and how inside is this "car", in which we see only the body?

Imagine what parts it consists of. To understand: any modern car is about 18,000 parts ...

Consider what kind of specialists are needed to create these 18,000 parts and how long it will take to create each.

Software development is a similar process: the system we create needs to be broken down into a bunch of small components. Think of how and by whom to create them, and how they will interact with each other. That is why “just copying” is a difficult and voluminous task.

"The tip of the iceberg"

Avito, Facebook, Yandex.Taxi ... If the client knew from the inside the business to which it refers, then he would have found that tens or even hundreds of programmers who have been creating the service for several years work there.

Paid thousands of hours of specialists who went to the production of the product.

Considering “how much it costs to copy Facebook” we will see all the results of their work. And, when we make a list of these results, the client always discovers that he saw, on the strength of 10% of “Facebook”.

The remaining 90% become visible to him only after we have done quite a lot of work. You do not see the engine, steering racks, fuel line, when you get behind the wheel of a car?

What will happen next?

The client understands that he does not need 90% of the service capabilities at all. These are labor costs that will not give him any benefit. Thousands of man-hours spent on opportunities that he would never need. Dear and useless.

"Copy the neighbor's daughter, but cheaper!"

Why does the client come with such a request? It seems to him that since this work has already been done, there is nothing easier than to take and copy. Saves a lot of money!

But there is a small problem - we can not take anything from Facebook, because:

1. We (and no other contractor) have access to the source code. Yes, even if he were - he is the property of another company.
2. We do not have the source design, that is, the design will also need to be re-created.
3. We have no knowledge of the product architecture. We can only guess how it works inside. Even if we read a bunch of articles on the site, there will be only an approximate description.

Alas, the request “do as a neighbor” - does not make work cheaper: (

"Give me a poker!"

A software product is not an end in itself: with its help, the client wants to solve his business problem. For example, to earn or save money, to capture an audience, to create a convenient tool for employees.

Only here is a paradox: the client does not come to us with a question about a business problem. He comes up with a question about the technical solution. That is, with a query like "I need a poker." And why is she to him? Maybe he is going to chop wood, and there is a need for an ax?

The client is not an expert on solutions (he usually solves this problem for the first time in his life), but, seeing the poker, it seems to him that HERE IS IT, a magic wand!

But when we ask the question “what business problem do you solve?” And think about what solution would be really optimal, it turns out that it has nothing to do with either Facebook or the poker. Well, that's nothing at all.

Summary

In all it turns out that the request "how much is a copy ...?" Is meaningless. In order to answer it literally, you need to do a tremendous job that doesn’t come in handy for us or the client. Why so sure? Yes, we did this work many times =)

What to do? We have an opinion - to write a technical task.

Any normal reader in this place thought “you say it because you want to sell us !!!”

Yes and no. Try to find a good builder who will start building a house without design estimates. Or auto mechanic, creating a car without drawings. Or an experienced entrepreneur creating a new business without a financial model.

Even if we make a program for ourselves, we will start with a terms of reference. We, just like you, do not want to spend on this “extra” money. But we know that we cannot do without it. Otherwise, the skyscraper will collapse, the business will take more than to bring, and with a car - it is not known who will ride on anyone.

This article has only one goal: to avoid useless work, and do useful work for you. Let's talk, why do you need a “poker”?