The game behind Taobao's anti-counterfeiting campaign

Yesterday, Taobao released its 2014 anti-counterfeiting report, reporting the circulation of counterfeit goods offline, and basically established an online and offline anti-counterfeiting model with online as the clue and offline tracing. It is certainly a good thing for the online and offline crackdown on counterfeit goods in the whole society, but it is not so simple for Taobao to extend the anti-counterfeiting battlefield from the main online field to offline. It is full of game of forces among various parties.

Gambling with local protectionism

Taobao claims that it has obtained a map of counterfeiting in some categories based on its own big data, such as a certain place basically accounts for most of the fake Adidas and Nike market. Once counterfeiting becomes a big trend, there will be a complete industrial chain and backing chain behind it, otherwise the local authorities would not have watched the local area become a counterfeiting den and let it go.

The main responsible party for the investigation and crackdown of counterfeiting dens, the industrial and commercial departments, did nothing and even acted as umbrellas. For the sake of short-term interests of the local area or the department, and for those insignificant indicators, the government departments took a laissez-faire or even indulgent attitude towards counterfeiting. Once Alibaba cracked down on counterfeiting offline and wanted to eliminate counterfeiting and selling counterfeit goods, it would inevitably affect the cheese of these local protectionism, and there would be considerable resistance.

Some guerrilla-style counterfeiting and selling of fake goods do not have much influence on the local area, and the relevant departments will certainly work hard to cooperate and will not tolerate it. However, when some counterfeiting industries have become very large and even account for a considerable proportion of the local economy, it is far from easy for the industrial and commercial departments to cut off their own hands. After all, what is destroyed by fighting against counterfeiting is enterprises, employment, and the achievements of the industrial and commercial departments.

Therefore, it is very likely that Alibaba and the industrial and commercial departments will be caught in a deep tug-of-war, and whether they can win depends on which side has stronger perseverance.

Competition with traditional sales channels

Some people call Taobao's offline anti-counterfeiting as meddling, and think that Taobao can just do a good job of eliminating counterfeit goods online and offline sales are none of your business. But Tie Ge also believes that online counterfeits are a reflection of offline counterfeits. If counterfeits are rampant offline, online counterfeits cannot be clean. Taobao's high-profile offline anti-counterfeiting is also intended to eradicate the soil for counterfeits to prevent them from reappearing.

However, once the offline crackdown is launched, Alibaba will be targeting traditional offline sales channels. These channels are often concentrated in rural areas or urban-rural fringe areas, and are presented in the form of markets or markets with lax supervision. They are full of various counterfeit products and fakes, many of which are accompanied by fraud.

Once Alibaba's offline anti-counterfeiting campaign begins, it will have a huge impact on traditional counterfeit sales channels. On the surface, it will only cause counterfeiters to lose their source of goods, but on the other hand, it will also cause some people who make a living by selling counterfeit goods to lose their livelihoods, directly affecting the operation of these markets where counterfeit sales are the main focus.

By then, I believe that there will be voices such as "fighting counterfeiting is not suitable for the national conditions". These groups representing the interests of a small number of sectors will seriously affect the progress of anti-counterfeiting in public opinion and operations, and even interfere with the development of anti-counterfeiting work. The reason is simple. Selling counterfeit goods is very profitable, while selling real goods is very hard. How can Alibaba not fight hard to cut off people's financial resources?

The game with old thinking

Positively, offline anti-counterfeiting has a positive significance for optimizing the industrial structure and eliminating obsolete industries. When China is no longer invaded by fake and knockoff goods, the innovation ability of the entire nation will be greatly improved, which is positive for the country and the nation.

But we still need to see that fighting against counterfeiting still requires a fierce struggle with conservative forces and old thinking. Quite a few people still think only of the superficial economic growth rate, but ignore whether there is a driving force for long-term sustainable and healthy development. They think that as long as there is rapid development, all problems are not a problem, and even think that counterfeit goods are beneficial to the local economy to a certain extent. With such narrow-minded thinking, it is very difficult to carry out anti-counterfeiting work offline. Alibaba, which has no law enforcement power, is basically hopeless in fighting counterfeiting offline without the cooperation of local industrial and commercial departments.

To some extent, fighting against counterfeiting is a struggle against some conservative thinking, a considerable part of which is the umbrella for counterfeiting and selling of fake products offline. The success or failure of the game with the conservatives is the top priority of the entire anti-counterfeiting project, and perhaps the part that Alibaba is most worried about.

Alibaba's anti-counterfeiting campaign is of course a good thing that benefits the country, the people and itself. It has a positive impact on the promotion of domestic brands and the international image of Chinese products. However, offline anti-counterfeiting is far from being that simple, nor is it as easy as simply closing down online stores. It requires mobilizing the entire social force to fight counterfeiting. It is bound to affect the interests of some people, which are the biggest stumbling blocks in the entire anti-counterfeiting project, and these stumbling blocks may use various open and covert attacks on Alibaba.

Finally, I hope Alibaba can overcome resistance and carry out its anti-counterfeiting work to the end.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.