Ma vows deeper fight against fakes

There's still "work to be done" to eradicate fake goods on its e-commerce platform, Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma has told the head of the Chinese quality watchdog, as he vowed to devote further efforts to the issue.

Alibaba would boost collaboration with the Chinese government to block knock-offs from its Taobao platform and other online malls, Ma told Zhi Shuping, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, according to a statement released yesterday by the agency.

Zhi reiterated that quality is the "bottom line" for e-commerce vendors and ignorance toward fake goods could harm consumers as well as the healthy development of the industry.

Zhi urged Alibaba to actively collaborate with industry and the government, and be socially responsible in the matter.

Ma said at the AQSIQ meeting on Monday that the company would employ users' transaction data and its cloud-computing capacity to help in the fight against fake goods.

For two years, the AQSIQ has been working with Alibaba to remove fake goods, and has set up a quality control testing center in Hangzhou to evaluate items sold on e-commerce websites.

The meeting came less than two weeks after Ma met with another regulator, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, which released a report accusing Alibaba of tolerating unlicensed merchants who sell fake goods online.

The SAIC said at the end of last month that the e-commerce giant allowed unlicensed merchants to use its Taobao and Tmall platforms and failed to protect consumers' rights.

Ma told SAIC that Alibaba is committed to combating fake products and has devoted its efforts to solving this difficult problem, SAIC said.