Ma Yun Was Troubled By Fakes 2016, Which Is An Important Opportunity For Alibaba To Be Named.

In December 21st, according to foreign media reports, the Chinese electricity supplier Alibaba was about to enter the 2016, but the problem of counterfeit goods that had plagued them for many years remained unsolved. The road to counterfeiting is still a long way to go.

On the Taobao website of Alibaba, the shy fans of star wars can get the movie products around the lowest price of 4.59 dollars, while the Tom Brady shirts only cost about 1/10 of the official shop of the National Football League (Brady), while a red Beats Solo earphone costs only about $107, about half of the official price.

Taobao website can be regarded as a good place for bargain hunting. This platform is similar to eBay in the US, which allows buyers and sellers to trade.

21 months ago,

Ma Yun, the chairman and billionaire, pointed out that fake and shoddy products are cancer, but until now, they still can not get rid of the bad image of selling cheap imitation products and unauthorized products.

The end of 2015 is not a good memory for Alibaba. Because of criticism and numerous lawsuits from regulators in China and the United States, the company's market value has evaporated more than 500 billion US dollars.

The elimination of this disgraceful image next year is crucial to Alibaba's trust in overseas businesses and consumers. Ma Yun hopes to increase the proportion of overseas market revenue to more than half of the company within ten years.

With the slowdown of China's economic growth, expanding overseas business is more urgent for Alibaba.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michelle Ma said that in China, Jingdong has won the trust of consumers, partly because of its own stock and the direct delivery to consumers.

This model is similar to Amazon, which is more convenient for law enforcement and supervision.

Cyrus Mewawalla, general manager of CM Research, a London based market research firm, said: "until now, management should have solved this problem," said Cyrus Mewawalla.

In fact, they haven't yet, which is a worrying sign for investors.

Bigger problems

Alibaba's struggle to solve fake and shoddy products is partly reflected in China's real problems.

In China, piracy is rampant and counterfeit products are everywhere. But with the development of China's middle class, they need higher quality products, so Alibaba has an obligation to clean up these fake and shoddy products.

Alibaba's Taobao receives revenue through advertising. Its third party businesses control the sale of goods, including toys, food and medical devices.

Since these products are not under the control of Alibaba, it is difficult to define the legality of these products.

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However, Alibaba said it is trying to crack down on counterfeit goods.

The Alibaba said in a statement last Friday that the group will continue to work with relevant governments, brands and distributors to protect intellectual property rights and combat counterfeit goods and maintain market integrity.

The statement also said: "fake commodities are the common problems facing the global electricity supplier enterprises, and we are making every effort to solve them and fight them."

According to Alibaba website, the company has a full time crackdown team of over 2000 people. It cleared 9 million product links before the company's initial public offering (IPO) in 2014.

The brand owner can use the network complaint platform to report the infringing activities, while the party complained has three days to produce evidence to refute or remove the product.

Alibaba has worked with brands including Nike and Adidas to crack down on counterfeit sports shoes, watches and handbags on Taobao.

In addition, thousands of sellers were punished.

List of notorious markets

However, Alibaba's actions against counterfeiting did not stop criticism from outside.

Last week, the US trade representative office asked Alibaba group to step up efforts to crack down on the sale of counterfeit goods on its website, otherwise it would be listed on the notorious market list.

The US trade representative's office said that the US side will monitor Alibaba's improvement in cracking down on counterfeit goods and accepting complaints next year.

The office of the US trade representative said

Owners of ownership criticize Alibaba's law enforcement projects too slowly, difficult to operate and lack pparency.

Although Taobao was not included in the list of notorious markets, the office of the United States trade representative recommended that Alibaba simplify the procedures for registration and law enforcement, and speed up the process of deleting counterfeit goods and punishing them.

If we are re listed in the "notorious market list", we will have an impact on the reputation of Alibaba in the United States.

At present, the company's shares are trading in the United States and are trying to cultivate good relations with retailers and entertainment companies.

Alibaba is the largest electricity supplier in China, which makes it overly dependent on China. Its revenue is more than 80% from China's domestic market. Therefore, under the pressure of China's economic downturn, whether it can develop in overseas markets is the key to Alibaba's future.

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Overseas expansion

Analyst Michelle Ma said: "in the next ten years, Alibaba will not just be satisfied with the Chinese market. They hope to attract foreign businessmen to sell products in China."

Alibaba listed in the US NYSE in September 2014, raising 25 billion US dollars to finance the largest IPO in the world.

However, four months later, China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce disclosed the white paper on the administrative guidance of Alibaba, accusing the company of allowing businesses to copy famous brands and sell fake and fake packages.

Under the protest of Alibaba, the agency said that Taobao's white paper had no legal effect, but its impact on Alibaba's stock price was huge. Its share price fell by more than 40% compared with its lowest in September.

Ground mouse game

Another problem that caused Alibaba headache is reappearing.

Gucci SA (Gucci) and Yves Saint Laurent, the parent company of Kering SA, once again sued Alibaba in May this year, saying that the latter's e-commerce platform provides a platform for counterfeiting sellers.

Kai Yun group filed a similar lawsuit in 2014, but finally withdrew the lawsuit.

Alibaba said the lawsuit was not based on facts.

Subsequently, the American Apparel&Footwear Association sent an open letter to Alibaba chairman Ma Yun in July, complaining about its efforts to crack down on the sale of its websites.

Juanita Dagen, President of AAFA Juanita, said Alibaba's reluctant willingness to eliminate counterfeit goods might be the fear of consumers who love products like this to flow to other platforms.

The number of goods sold on the electronic commerce platform makes the fight against counterfeiting a difficult task.

Sage Chandler (Sage Chandler), senior director of international trade at Consumer Technology Association, said Amazon and EBay also had similar problems in the early days.

Amazon's anti-counterfeiting policy includes the immediate suspension of the sale of goods and the destruction of its inventory at its logistics center.

EBay said it took the initiative to put suspicious merchandise off shelves, restrict sales, and cooperate with law enforcement agencies and brand owners.

Chandler said, "this is a game of land mouse, and they have to make up for loopholes.

As long as the counterfeiters are there, the electricity providers will always have such problems. "