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Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse (cnbc.com)
A report on CNBC, citing sellers, says that counterfeit problem on the platform has gotten worse after it made it easier for Chinese manufacturers to sell goods to U.S. consumers. The report gives an example of a seller Jamie Whaley who started a bedding business on Amazon that reached $700,000 in annual sales within three years. Her patented product called BedBand consists of a set of shock cords, clamps and locks designed to keep fitted bed sheets in place. Whaley found quite an audience, selling up to 200 units a day for $13.99 a set. BedBand climbed into the top 200 selling products in the home and kitchen category. That was 2013. By mid-2015, the business was in a tailspin. Revenue plummeted by half and Whaley was forced to lay off eight employees. Her sheet fastener had been copied by a legion of mostly Chinese knockoffs that undercut BedBand on price and jumped the seller ranks by obtaining scores of reviews that watchdog site Fakespot.com determined were inauthentic and "harmful for real consumers." The report adds:Spend any time surveying Amazon sellers and Whaley's narrative will start sounding like the norm. In Amazon's quest to be the low-cost provider of everything on the planet, the website has morphed into the world's largest flea market -- a chaotic, somewhat lawless, bazaar with unlimited inventory. Always a problem, the counterfeiting issue has exploded this year, sellers say, following Amazon's effort to openly court Chinese manufacturers, weaving them intimately into the company's expansive logistics operation. Merchants are perpetually unsure of who or what may kill their sales on any given day and how much time they'll have to spend hunting down fakers.
I have family members that sell on amazon and ebay. They say they can get almost double on amazon on many items. The main reason is that people trust the sellers on amazon more than the sellers on ebay. In this case, it's the exact same seller but amazon have managed to create an environment where even used items fetch a premium. If they screw it up and people start realizing that the same hucksters are on amazon (and they are) then people will start shopping elsewhere.
Counterfeits are a huge problem everywhere and it'll only get worse. The lure of money and the ease of capitalizing on someone else's idea make it a market that will never go away, even for niche products.
For some things, however, there ought to be truly severe penalties, like for the people who counterfeited brake pads for the 747's, which turned out to be made of baked sawdust and black paint. They didn't make it into a real plane as far as I know, but the consequences if they had would be staggering.
If you counterfeit a handbag, no one dies, but certain mechanical items, medications, and other "life-dependent "products should have serious penalties, decades in jail in my opinion. Counterfeit meds are problem all over the world, but especially in SE Asia where 50% or more are fake.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
TFA's implication is that a white person has a right to make $700k/year, while the Chinese don't deserve to make a living because they are yellow skinned sub-humans.
You're way out of line here, dragging skin color (not nationality, but skin color) into this.
I think the article / story would have published even if the American was black, Native American, "brown", "yellow", etc. [I put those terms in quotes, because if I said Latino or Asian, that would be nationality, and I'm debating your choice to drag skin color into this. Personally, I think simplistic terms like white / yellow / brown to describe skin color over-simplify things, but I don't make the conventions...]
I totally agree with you about the patent bullshit, about similar products being around forever, etc. but I don't think this is a "Chinese are sub-human animals" piece. That's way too sensitive.
Chinese knock-offs, both legal and illegal, are widely acknowledged as being a reality. They have nothing to do with skin color.
The lady's business was fragile, she should think she had a good run. That also has nothing to do with her skin color.
If you don't even manufacture in China it's hard for them to get your IP. I bet she went for the cheapest person that could injection mold her idea and didn't think about what would happen once they had the designs.
I highly doubt that they would import a product made at some local shop to reverse engineer it and start making clones.
It's one of the most frustrating things about watching a kickstarter fail because they decided to go to China. When I'm developing a new tool or idea I have a much better response time with a local shop. I can swing by after going to the bank, just tell them in my own English words exactly what I want done and they'll likely be able to do it. How many kickstarters have a "Sorry about the Delay, prototype .... was delayed because apparently there's a New Year in china". What takes a Week locally usually takes 4-6 months with Chinese transit time.
She chose to make it as cheap as possible and got her initial $700k for one year as a result. She could have either charged more or cut revenue to manufacture locally and had a business that lasted 5-10+ years.
I will go out of my way not to buy a product made in China. About the only thing I can't buy are sunglasses and winter gloves, and that includes those overpriced Marmot gloves. Even companies such as North Face have their products made in China then charge outrageous prices because, you know, they're specially made for the adventurer in you.
Stop buying Chinese-made products and their industries will dry up. Stop having products made in China and they don't have the exact specs of your product. It's really a very simple solution but like everything else it makes too much sense so will never be done.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
It is a bit ironic that if you assert that someone has violated your copyright (e.g. used one of your images or some of your text), then under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), you can contact Amazon and they are obligated to take the listing down right away.
But if you assert that someone has violated your patent, the process is much harder. So young man, remember that (cue disco ball): it's more fun to play with the DMCA!
Broil King. Canadian/Northeastern US made. All the quality you only think a weber has.