Taobao, China's biggest online shopping services provider, aims to ramp up its crackdown on counterfeit goods, particularly fake watches, sold on its trading platforms.
According to an industry source, the Taobao group of companies was working with Swiss watchmakers Tissot, Omega, Rado and Longines to help mainland police bust online vendors selling knock-offs of their products.
Taobao has also removed 77 million products that infringe intellectual property rights (IPR) from its websites in the past two years.
'While we cannot discuss the specifics of our relationship with any company, it is true that we are co-operating with many brands, including luxury leather goods makers and Swiss watch companies, to take steps to protect their IPR from counterfeiters who attempt to use our platforms to traffic their wares,' said John Spelich, vice-president at Taobao parent Alibaba Group.
Spelich said Taobao expected 'stronger co-operation with IPR owners' to help drive the crackdown this year. Alibaba also controls Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com, the world's biggest business-to-business e-commerce firm.
Founded in March 2003, Taobao consists of three companies. Taobao Mall runs an online shopping portal where international brands and major retailers sell directly to consumers, while Taobao Marketplace is responsible for small consumer-to-consumer transactions, the Juhuasuan group-buying portal and social networking website Taojianghu. The eTao unit provides the online advertising platform and the shopping search engine that helps users scour the internet for products and services.