Alibaba Adds 200 Employees To Its Workforce To Fight Against Counterfeit Products
Alibaba has hired 200 workers to monitor and control fake goods on its platforms.
Alibaba would probably hire 200 workers to battle against fakes, company’s senior official stated on Monday. A partner of the company, Zheng Junfang, announced that the enterprise would make an addition of 200 employees to collaborate with the state owned organizations of China to take action against fakes online, despite the group’s earlier announcement to firmly control its quota of recruitment in the financial year 2015.
Junfang made the announcement during the interview by the media first time as the chief platform-governing officer of the company, a role assigned to crack down on counterfeits online and safeguard intellectual property. She stated fakes are the "tumors of society". "Counterfeit products are a challenge faced by all e-commerce platforms,” she stated.
According to Junfang, the company used a combined method to battle with fakes. On one hand, it employs big data technology to trace fake goods’ sources and provide the details to the authorities of China. On the other hand, it supports the expansion of self-developed companies across the internet.
According to the organization, it has made an investment of more than $154 million (1bn Yuan) in battling with fakes on its online marketplaces. It has around 2000 full-time workers and 3000 part-time volunteers, who have been held responsible for this task.
The recent development in battling with counterfeits came after the Office of the US Trade Representative stated it was “increasingly concerned" about the measures of the company to remove counterfeits and more should be done. The company did not respond to the comment in return, but on December 21, 2015, it hired drug manufacturer Pfizer’s VP and deputy chief security officer to lead its global intellectual property enforcement.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette has reported that Huangzhou based enterprise has emailed earlier in December, saying Alibaba "is committed to the protection of intellectual property rights and the fight against counterfeiting. Counterfeiting is an issue all global e-commerce companies face, and we are doing all we can to address and fight it."
UK based CM Research’s managing director, Cyrus Mewawalla, said, "By now, management should have eliminated this problem. The fact that they haven't is a worrying sign for investors."
Recently, the USTR issued a warning that Alibaba had to improve its performance to stay out of the “Notorious Markets" blacklist, which it was able to escape only three years ago. The federal regulator sternly warned that the efforts of the organization to battle and its response to complaints would be monitored in 2016.
The Chinese company is not only battling with fakes to survive in the competitive industry but has also taken another step to grow as it has decided to make an investment of $1.25bn in online Chinese food delivery startup, Ele.me.
