Chinese Copy Culture and How They Succeed

Becoming a copyright holder brings huge potential to a product to be made successfully so that it can penetrate the global market. The development of a particular product takes years to succeed through the combination of ideas, concepts, and effort that requires a high workload as well as heaps of patience.

But things are rather different in China as the business models are mostly based on their copycat techniques and have been going on for so long. Most businesses in China are said to love taking shortcuts by letting other companies develop their brand before taking this opportunity to make them their own.

But what's more interesting is that the Chinese people are very proud of this accomplishment where they simply gained their success from other people's efforts. Here we would like to share with you how China managed to succeed with the technique of copying other reputable brands.
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A Huge Issue For China

Research conducted in 2016 shows that the estimated market value of counterfeit products in the international market reaches more than $509 billion a year. This figure is said to have increased every single year with the majority of the copycat products coming from China.

The change in the working ways in China due to the tremendous increase in demand has opened great opportunities for many entrepreneurs to generate huge income in sales with very little capital.

This is highly related to the culture of hard work being practiced in the country that forces the employees to work regardless of the time. In the aspects of the law, the production of counterfeit products in China is considered a crime.

But the failure of the local authority to regulate such activities especially when it involves foreign companies is due to various factors that are out of their hands. Aside from that, it is also the local sentiments that see the counterfeiting of products as not considered a big problem which is another factor in this rising debacle.

Not just that, they also feel that the existence of these counterfeit products has managed to provide jobs for the locals that highly rely on these factories.

The Change of Manufacturing to China

At one point in time, it was considered quite easy for us to identify between genuine and counterfeit products through quality control of the respective products. However, following the development of online shopping or e-commerce that connects us without any barriers, we are more exposed to many types of products with the same specifications.

It was considered too perfect that both of the products look almost 100% the same. Most of these products, of course, came from China. Looking at the rising cost and the pressure on the producer to reduce such costs, the manufacturing industry is seen headed toward China.

This changing phenomenon places a very crucial aspect of the manufacturing industry on the shoulders of China turning the nation into a manufacturing world. The technology that used to be exclusively dominated by European countries, Taiwan and Japan starts to be shared with Chinese manufacturers.

This allows many Chinese companies to comprehend many aspects of manufacturing such as designs, specifications, copyrights, and secret formulas of the company without having the need to go through the development process.

For western companies that perform their own research and development, this is considered one sacrifice that has to be accepted so that their companies can take the opportunity of low-cost productions that are available in China and ultimately increase the profit generated.
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996 Work Culture

The shift of the manufacturing industry to China requires a huge amount of hard-working workers to ensure that the quotas are fully met. Some of it can be seen through the 996 working cultures that are being practiced by the majority of giant companies in China.

The 996 work culture refers to the starting and end time of work which starts from 9 am to 9 pm. Figure 6 is actually referring to the number of working days in a week making the working culture 996.

It requires the worker to work for as long as 12 hours a day and 6 times a week.

Ghost Shift

To fulfill the quotas of the workers as well as generate more profit, a lot of companies in China have started to add additional shifts in secrecy. This additional working shift is known as the third shift or ghost shift.

This is the time when the products are made without taking into account the quotas and without the knowledge of the involved parties including the owner's brand and the international companies that have already invested in the company.

This matter was done based on the agreement of the management of the respective factory. There are various popular methods being employed. There are companies that unofficially run their operation late at night to ensure that the third shift runs smoothly.

Even companies pay particular syndicates that are unregistered to attend the factories late at night to run this operation by using a different workforce. The products made during this additional shift are also not being recorded and instead will be sold to these syndicates that are appointed in secrecy.

Depending on the method of producing the products, the third shift being practiced will also have a very different quality of products. If the original manufacturer made the product produced in the third shift, the quality of the product will be far superior and in fact the same level as the genuine product.

Whereas for the manufacturer that pays a sub-contractor to do their operation late at night, of course, the products made will be of less quality due to the absence of supervision while the workers are performing their tasks.

Following similar usage of methods and tools to make the products in the third shift, what can potentially be made during this unofficial time can sometimes be 100% similar to the original products.

Example of Products

Therefore it is not surprising to see many copy products on the market that made it difficult for the brand owners to identify their differences. Most companies operating based on the third shift however love to reduce the cost of production by using components with inferior qualities especially if it involves engineering, electronic and electrical products.

This is the reason why counterfeit products can be sold at a far lesser price than the original products. In most cases, it will involve products that can be easy to counterfeit such as clothes and shoes as the company behind this does not have to pay for a license or research.

Here are some examples of brands that have been copied by China:

1. IKEA

IKEA is one of the most reputable brands coming from Sweden. The brand IKEA is considered an ambassador for Sweden all over the world. However, the Chinese without any sort of guild has taken the whole concept developed by IKEA to be copied and made into their own brand.

The entrepreneurs that developed the furniture supermarket experience known as 11 Furniture have completely copied everything that IKEA has done from the plastic bag given to customers all the way to the arrangement of items inside the shop.

Based on the customers, only one distinct difference was seen in the whole idea of Chinese IKEA in that the furniture has already been assembled by the seller before being sold to the customers.

It is rather different than IKEA which sells its furniture for the customers to put together themselves giving the DIY experience.

2. Yamaha Motorbike

One example of the products made by ghost shift will be the most well-known Japanese bike, Yamaha. This company has appointed three companies from China for a partnership. However, it was quite unfortunate that all the engineering secrets of Yamaha have been sold by one of these involved companies.

After 4 months, counterfeit motorbikes with similar designs and technologies were produced by these unknown companies. It was to the extent that some of these companies used a similar brand name to the innovator despite it not being Yamaha.

At one point in time, 5 out of 6 motorbikes being sold that use the brand Yamaha are fake. This incident has caused huge losses to Yamaha aside from ruining its reputation.
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3. New Balance

The complicated case involving the sports industry, New Balance, and its manufacturer situated in Yang Jiang, China has occurred since 2009. After the end of the contract between New Balance and its manufacturers, all affairs between the two parties are considered finished.

However, the shoe manufacturer in China not only did not stop its production but also refused to return all the specifications and secret technology that was lent to them so that they can continue with their previous operation.

After a report was made by New Balance, a raid was conducted by the local authority which found an abundance of New Balance shoes being produced on a large scale. What's more surprising is that the factory has also started to produce its own brand of shoes with a logo resembling that of New Balance and using the same specifications as the original products.

But the copy brand with the name New Barlun has a trading signature that has been registered as well as legitimate in accordance with Chinese laws.

In a nutshell, despite the laws and legislation of the Chinese government prohibiting the practice of counterfeiting products, the actions being taken are not considered holistic and firm causing this activity to be rampant all over China.

The other factor causing this to happen in China is the success achieved by this counterfeiting business due to the uprising demands all over the world. These manufacturers felt what they have done is getting the attention that they need to thrive in the business.

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