Selling of imitation goods on the internet: Chinese sites, cosmetics

(Oita Godo Newspaper, July 7^th 2010, Evening Paper, Page 1)

In an online survey taken by the Japanese economic bureau on the 10^th of July shows that at a Chinese online shop, there are many products which imitate Japanese manufacturer's products. Cases like these have been on an increase, and the Japanese economic bureau has requested help from the Chinese government to deal with this problem, at the same time, letting the consumers know that this problem exist.

In order to research the imitation products, the Japanese economic bureau bought products from the Chinese internet websites in 2009, checked and tested the products. The products bought in some sites, make up and character merchandise are 100% imitation. In another site, 60% of clocks and watches, 83 % of the clothes are imitated. The researched sites are not publicly declared.

In china, internet sales contributes to 3 billion yen in 2009, which is twice as much as last year, and the Japanese economic bureau analyzed that this have to do with the large amount of imitation products in the net.

According to a spokesman from the Japanese economic bureau, the transactions on the internet is 5 times more than 2009, an increase of 953 transactions, and the received proportion increased from 60 % to 90%. This might be also one of the reasons on why the imitation sites are increasing.

There have been many cases in which a advertisement is sent to the Japanese consumers, luring them to the sites which sells bad quality, this is also linked to the increase of sharing of information.

Furthermore, from 2004 to 2009, there are 173 cases in which the Japanese companies launched a complaint against Chinese internet websites for infringement of copyright and imitation.

The government responded to this problem by requesting that they delete the website. In June, there was a symposium held to try to solve this problem.       

Comments

There are many imitation products on the internet, but I think that imitation products are not as good as the real goods. In Singapore, sometimes in the night market, you can see peddlers selling imitation Gucci, LV. But people seldom buy them as they breaks easily and their quality is not as good as the real goods. Even though, I felt that there is a need to eradicate the imitation so that people who have a peace in mind when shopping online.  

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4