Web Start-Ups Search History: New Firms Look at Successes, Failures of Net Pioneers When Looking Abroad

In looking abroad for new users, the latest batch of Internet start-ups is taking some ideas from Yahoo Inc. and other first-generation Web companies — and discarding many others.Pioneering Internet companies such as Yahoo, Google Inc., eBay Inc. and the like had virtually no blueprint when they began expanding internationally in the late 1990s and last decade. Now as a newer generation of start-ups such as Yelp Inc. and Groupon Inc. go overseas, they are studying their predecessors and adapting successful ideas — such as using acquisitions or partnerships to enter markets where a strong competitor exists — and discarding others, like entering China at all costs.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703374304575622831929061668.html