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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has a mixed reputation when it comes to counterfeit goods, but it’s working hard to make nice.
Alongside partners including Louis Vuitton, Samsung and Mars, the company announced the Alibaba Big Data Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance on Monday. The Alliance will use machine learning and other technologies to identify and remove counterfeit goods from its platforms, Alibaba said in a statement.
The move comes after an unfortunate end to 2016 for the company. In December, U.S. trade officials returned the Alibaba consumer-to-consumer platform Taobao to their list of “Notorious Markets” platforms that are identified as facilitating copyright piracy and counterfeiting.
“The Taobao.com e-commerce platform is an important concern due to the large volume of allegedly counterfeit and pirated goods available and the challenges right holders experience in removing and preventing illicit sales and offers of such goods,” the Office of the United States Trade Representative list said.
In response, the CEO of Alibaba Group Daniel Zhang released a staff email in which he referred to a growing trend of “protectionism” in foreign markets.
“As we accelerate our pace of globalization, certain countries will deploy all sorts of ways to fence themselves off,” he said.
Zhang also emphasised that Alibaba would continue using technology such as “big data analytics” in its fight against the “bacteria” of counterfeiters. Alibaba has been highlighting its efforts to fight counterfeiting lately as a result, including a lawsuit in January against two fake Swarovski watch sellers on Taobao.
“It’s crucial that they … do something to salvage their reputation,” Hendrischke told Mashable.
According to Hans Hendrischke, professor of Chinese business and management at the University of Sydney Business School, Alibaba’s new Alliance is both PR and a genuine initiative.
“It’s crucial that they have to do something to salvage their reputation,” he told Mashable.
The “Notorious Markets” list was not Alibaba’s only challenge in 2016. As Hendrischke pointed out, Gucci America and Tiffany & Co quit the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC) in protest after Alibaba was going to be granted membership. The IACC later reversed its decision.
By working with high-profile names like Samsung and Louis Vuitton, Hendrischke suggested they’ve found significant allies in a bid to go global and attract reputable brands.
“Jack Ma has met Donald Trump, so they are certainly high profile and they wouldn’t want to risk their reputation anywhere,” he said. “There’s no question they want to go global and they are making all the efforts they can.”
In Hendrischke’s view, Alibaba is after a reputation similar to its biggest competitor, Amazon: “As good if not better.”
“The most powerful weapon against counterfeiting today is data and analytics, and the only way we can win this war is to unite,” said Jessie Zheng, Alibaba’s chief platform officer.
