General situation of fake products in China
It is common knowledge that fake products are everywhere in China, from large cities like Shanghai to remote small towns in Western China and, not surprisingly, online markets are not the exception, even though there is a lack of acknowledgment from their part, it seems that fake products are a part of China whether we like it or not.
The online market giant Alibaba group was sued in the U.S. regarding fake products regulations. According to Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, his company spends over one hundred million RMB each year on actions against counterfeit goods. The situation has improved considerately over the past few years, some shops have even been closed down due to this sort of issues. 2Open, as a company who deals everyday with marketing and e-commerce, is used to supervise online sales in China for many clients and the number of shops selling a certain brand with an unbelievably lower price has decreased noticeably in comparison with last year. There is still a lot of work to do, but exactly what types of products are more likely to be faked?
SHENZHEN, CHINA – AUGUST 04: (CHINA OUT) Police officers deal with fake brand-name items at a shop on August 4, 2014 in Shenzhen, China. Shenzhen police seized a large number of fake brand-name items, like Hermes, Gucci, Rolex, Chanel, Prada, Miumiu, and so on, worth 5,000,000 yuan (810,000 USD). (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)
The most common faked goods are well-known brands, such as Nike, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc. If a new brand wants to enter China, it will seldom encounter issues regarding fake products. In this situation, just a small budget is needed for online marketing which could be used for setting up a shop on www.taobao.com, putting online Ads or even buying key words on search engines, all of which can have a positive effect and lead buyers to get to know your brand. Since you are the shop owner and the only supplier at this moment, the buyer will come to you directly; no other shops will take potential buyers from you.
Let us say your brand successfully entered the Chinese market, perhaps one day someone will start faking and selling your products, but how would this affect your brand? Some argue that this is just indicator of the success and popularity that your product has had in the Chinese market and that there are no reasons to be worried. Experts agree that there is plenty of space in the market for both parties; a lot of people prefer to buy original products for a higher price than fake ones for a lower one. Counterfeiting could be considered a promotion activity for a brand, after all, if you are confident about your products, put money into marketing, let people know about it, you will get money back, no doubts about it, but how is the future looking for fake goods?
According to Xinhuanet, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has gathered around four giant e-commerce platforms: Alibaba, Jingdong, Suning, Yihaodian to sign a cooperation agreement which will help to release inspection results of the fulfillment of product quality commitment. AQSIQ has developed a search platform of inspection of product quality, which will be put online for public use around March 15, 2016.
Fake products problems continue to plague the development of e-commerce. Jingdong and Alibaba have been fighting a war these days, accusing each other of not making efforts to end the fake goods. The offline scene does not look very bright either, street shops are now going through a rough time these days, people are getting used to purchase everything online, from groceries to electronics, during the singles day alone (Nov. 11, 2015) Taobao reached a sales volume of 91,217,017,615 RMB.
It is an Internet Era, no doubt about it, and counterfeit goods should not represent any obstacle if one should intent entering the Chinese market. A smart digital marketing strategy, like the one 2Open offers, can get your brand the recognition it deserves.
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
This article was edited by Andres Arroyo from 2Open.
Top Demand Side Platforms (DSP) in China
Since entering China in 2012, DSP has become a major competition area of all the “powerful and visionary” companies. Big companies like Baidu and Tencent have built their own DSP platforms, traditional advertisement agencies and new players flocked to this area, but there is no stable situation yet in this market. So if you decide to embrace this new technology, doing a test-run is highly recommended. Below are five major Chinese DSP providers 2Open has worked with before:
悠易互通 YOYI
Yoyi Media is a Chinese provider of targeted online advertising and marketing solutions for advertisers and media publishers. Founded in 2007, Yoyi Media specializes in the research and development of online precision targeting technology and Internet marketing services. Yoyi provides both impression-based and performance-based advertising solutions and has developed a network of top publishers in China. Through three product-line offerings YO-Focus(TM), YO-Crazy(TM), and YO-Target(TM), Yoyi Media enables marketers and brands to reach targeted audience based on their demographics, behavior, expectation, time, and location. With support centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, Yoyi Media serves top brands and their agency partners through a premium ad network that includes China’s best-known portals and vertical sites
品友互动 iPinYou
Beijing iPinYou Information Technologies Co., Ltd (iPinYou) was founded in 2008 and is now China’s largest DSP (Demand-Side Platform). iPinYou is headquartered in Beijing and has offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Silicon Valley. iPinYou has built world class Real-Time Bidding (RTB) technology and algorithm, proprietary cloud computing platform and patented audience profiling technology. iPinYou has served over 200 brands in IT, financial service, auto, FMCG, travel and more. It has also significantly improved the advertising effectiveness for advertisers and fostered extensive partnerships with domestic mainstream and private exchanges. It is established as a leading provider of audience based programmatic advertising technology.
传漾科技 adsame
Adsame is a digital marketing agency offering advertising, data insight, and publishing solutions. It helps customers to be more concise and efficient in digital marketing. The company offers two platforms: products platform and media platform. Product platforms include Dolphin Advertising Release and Management and Eagle Advertising Monitoring and Assessment etc. Media platforms include Max Brand Advertising Network (portals, vertical, SNS, and video).
互动通 hdtMEDIA
Established in 1999, HDT Holdings Group is the pioneer both in China’s rich media industry and in rich media advertising formats. HDT Holdings Group consists of six major platforms: digital media platform hdtMEDIA, mobile media platform hdtMobile, programmatic marketing platform hdtDXP, premium publishers service platform hdtSSP, data management platform hdtDMP and mobile ad exchange platform H2.
聚效广告 MV AD
Founded in 2009, MV Ad Platform is a company specialized in targeted online advertising with an efficient and professional elite team. MV Ad platform has R&D centers in Shanghai and Beijing, and subsidiaries in Guangzhou and Hangzhou. MV Ad platform ranks among the best in resource integration, innovation and professional competence.
This article was edited by Andres Arroyo from 2Open.
References:
http://www.marketing-interactive.com/brief-guide-programmatic-ad-buying-china/
https://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2282204/the-challenge-of-rtb-dsp-in-china
General situation of cross-border e-commerce in China
General situation of cross-border e-commerce in China
2014 is called by many the year of beginning of cross-border e-commerce in China. Traditional retailers, domestic and oversea e-commerce giants, start-ups, logistic service providers and distributors have all joined this battle trying to get a share of the cake.
No doubt this is a time of challenges and opportunities, getting to know the current situation is helpful to forecast a slice of the future.
So what do we know about the positive factors that lead the cross-border e-commerce in China continue to grow?
A window period of dividend policy
With the official documents N°56 and N°57, issued by General Administration of Customs of People’s Republic of China (PRC), the cross-border e-commerce has finally been authorized at 2014 in China. The”6+1” testing cities (Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen) have since then enjoyed the tax reduction for cross-border e-commerce, which means products purchased through cross-border e-commerce channel will only be charged with personal postal articles tax, instead of the “customs + added-value tax + consumption duty” for common import trade. Thanks to policy incentives, which is aiming at bringing the oversea consumption back to mainland China, cross-border e-commerce has witnessed rapid growth.
Huge potential of customer needs
Nielsen recently issued the China’s E-commerce Industry Development and Hangzhou Index White Paper, suggesting that “affluent and well-educated young people make up the majority of cross-border online shoppers and the cross-border online shopping features at low frequency and higher spending per order compared to domestic online shopping”.
According to the statistics from General Administration of Customs and Research Center of China’s e-commerce, the size of transactions and the user’s volume have tremendously increased in these couple of years. The size of transactions grows from ten billion to hundred billion and some predictions show that it will reach trillion level in 2018.
Not everything is favorable, we are still facing many challenges
The tax reduction policy will not last for long because the government has to find a balance between the traditional trade and the cross-border e-commerce. The uncertainty of policy may affect every segment of cross-border e-commerce in China.
The immaturity of logistics and customs clearance system, the slow process makes the after sales services can’t be guaranteed. In the future shopping experience needs to be bettered with a smoother customs’ process.
The possibility of directly signing a contract between a foreign brand and a Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform is remote, therefore cross-border e-commerce platforms often use combined supply chain, which is unstable and will lead the price of product hard to be controlled. The one has the ability to get through each segment on the supply chain will be the first to take the market.
Currently, not a single cross-border e-commerce platform is widely accepted by customers, major player and start-ups are basically at the same starting line. The early stage development relies more on policies, lower price, richness of products, but as time goes, the competition will be back to the retail level – brand, supply chain and customer services.
We do still have the possibility to change the game, don’t you think？
Check the original Chinese article here
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