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Alibaba Marketing

Alibaba argues fakes can be better quality than genuine products

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By John Glenday, Reporter

June 15, 2016 | 2 min read

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has weighed into the debate over counterfeit goods after finding that far from being inferior to genuine products, clones are actually in many instances superior.

The findings centred on fake goods being sold on the Alibaba trading platform as factory bosses cut out the middleman to sell their wares direct to the public.

In many cases western firms use Chinese factories to produce their products with Ma pointing out that it is these ‘exact same’ factories and raw materials which churn out copies, even if they do not use brand names.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma said: “The problem is that the fake products today, they make better quality, better prices than the real products, the real names. It’s not the fake products that destroy them, it’s the new business models.

“We have to protect [intellectual property], we have to do everything to stop the fake products, but OEMs are making better products at a better price.”

Ma’s pro-counterfeit stance puts him at odds with critics who say that Alibaba has unfairly profited from the infringement of intellectual property.

It is also a surprising shift from the businesses recent rally to be included in industry discussions about the issue. Alibaba has to defend its inclusion in anti-counterfeit group IACC after major brands such as Gucci and Michael Kors quit.

At the time, The Drum spoke to an expert on anti-counterfeit issues who explained; " Our legal opponents are not necessarily evil but marketplaces like Alibaba are often our opponents in legal situations".

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