‘Fakely’ Original Accepting Paypal, Mastercard, Visa and any kind of payment- Yours thankfully From China

China, Brazil, India- BRICS.. What are they upto? Cheap Labor, huge resources of raw materials, hardworking people and intelligence are helping these counties grow in quantum leaps. Most of the products seen in our household are made in China right?? What does this mean?? Are we being affected??

This means that China is starting to dominate the manufacturing sector in the world for household products. Big MNCs’ are having more and more licensed manufacturers and joint venture partners in China. The internet has made the Chinese accessible to the rest of the world and the ‘Communist’ Chinese Government is not being that “Communist” after all!! Merchants and industries are making a killing by supplying goods to the outside world. But they are also becoming a cause for concern. HOW, WHERE, WHY??

How??- Through the internet

Where??- Right in front of our eyes

Why??- We want cheaper products and they want our money.

Chinese merchants are misusing the trust the licensers and partners have in them. They produce more than they are required, make ‘fake’ original look-alike labels and softwares and sell them to innocent customers who just are carried away by the lucrative prices they offer. Vertu phones prices start at around $ 3,000 and can go up to $ 50,000+. These phones are widely sold on the internet for less than 500 dollars. Ridiculous right but how?? Look alikes. Chinese are mastering the art of making perfect lookalikes. It is so easy when a person knows about the Vertu special features to differentiate between the original and a look alike. The phones look exactly the same but once it is turned on, it makes a world of difference. Vertu phones have a special feature called the ‘Vertu Concierge’. Special airline reservations, hotel reservations, no waiting in line are a few features of this software. You have to actually experience it to believe it. This describes how the special features work Vertu features. The Chinese look alike phones look exactly the same, have a very bad operating system and lack the features. What does this mean?? The wrong kind of market segment using “ $ 300 Vertu” phones which is actually bad for the reputation of the Vertu company which in turn affects its elite clientel who pay thousands of dollars for their status symbol and luxury.

The industry which has been badly disrupted due to these fake imitations is the clothing and fashion industry. The world is being mobbed with lookalikes of bags, sunglasses, shoes etc of big designer houses like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Burberry and practically any brand which comes in your mind including brands like Nike, Reebok etc. On websites which have secure payments, LV bags are available for $ 100+. For example: A ‘Louis Vuitton Palermo GM’ handbag is available on the internet for $ 159 whereas on the www.louisvuitton.com , it costs $ 1360. This shows how even authenticity cards are also being provided for imitation products Look for the authenticity.

As more and more fake imitations are being made, it has slowly become next to impossible to tell the differences  between the authentic and the imitations to such an extent that even personnel working in the designer houses could be easily deceived by the fake imitations. The US trade commission is being put under tremendous pressure as reported in the article Chinese fake product plague  The consumers are being put under serious threat of being cheated and paying money for replicas which are easily available on the internet and manufactured and shipped from Mainland China. This makes me strongly believe that the merchants are using the internet as a tool to con consumers by showing them that the imitations look just like the original.

Online Piracy, hmmm not actually!!

Online piracy has been becoming a menace day by day and year by year according to legitimate sources. Lot of people nowadays do not see the necessity to buy music or movies as they feel that they are being overcharged. It is more convenient for the consumers to sit at home and download whatever they feel like watching or listening to for free instantaneously from torrents, peer-to-peer sharing and latest of all ‘Online streaming’. 

Online sites like YouTube have become some of the most viewed sites in the world. People and companies upload movies, music, sitcoms and others watch this. There are sites like www.video2mp3.net and many other sites which help convert help in free conversion of the video to the required MP3 files. Does this mean the consumers can be accused of piracy? I would strongly say ‘No’ because these websites are legitimate, legally working and people use them all the time. Most of the consumers who use these websites are unaware that they are indulging in acts of piracy. So who has to be blamed? The ISPs, the Government, the websites or the consumers?? Firstly the rules of piracy have to be well defined. For example:  If my buddy and me are watching live streaming of a Heat game on my laptop, does it mean they we are indulging in an act of piracy. If not, they why are the Governments not forcing down shutting of these website. I feel so because this is not being used by any of us for commercial purposes or to make money out of it. Streaming has become are very widely used way to watch practically anything on the internet live. You can even stream a video live from your phone and your friends could watch it live on their laptop. Is this piracy? http://www.slate.com/id/2178343/ shows a well described review about online streaming piracy.   

If online piracy is being dealt with then, why are more and more of these trademark companies being incorporated who have subscribers and themselves upload videos, let others view them and watch. At a contrary, I also know that artists and music companies who are losing money and the artist deserves his share because it is the artists’ talent which makes him special. But with online streaming , It is becoming nearly impossible  to repair this. I do not feel it is illegal to watch, download videos from YouTube or to watch live channels on www.channelsurfing.net. In order to control this the Governments and all the Anti-Piracy boards have to come up with clearer rules of how they would define piracy and control it worldover.  

Privacy Issues for consumers

Online privacy has become a major concern for consumers in today’s world. Big companies are collecting consumer data but consumers are not able to set their privacy settings they want it. For example: Companies like Google are collecting your location data every time you log in through your mobile. Your location details are immediately tracked and this is used for advertising and marketing. Advertisements of different places like restaurants, stores etc start popping up automatically. This makes it very vulnerable for consumers in terms of privacy. This means that Google most of the times has a pretty good idea of where the consumer is which is clearly privacy infringement. The option for not collecting the data at that moment is given but to permanently turn it off has not been implemented yet.

Some websites collect your information without informing the consumer or even without the consumer realizing it. If you visit certain unprotected websites, you can notice that you start receiving emails in your junk folder because at one point this information was collected and then distributed to other people making your personal information vulnerable. There is a very high possibility that when these unprotected sites were visited, ‘Trackers’ (Spyware, Adware) are downloaded onto your system and anonymously selected.

The FTC has designed some rules which helps protect consumers and their privacy but to implement this world over.https://www.eff.org/wp/effs-top-12-ways-protect-your-online-privacy shows different ways in which consumer privacy can be protected. Facebook is a good example of protecting peoples’ privacy. People can modify their privacy settings in order to let others view only what they want about themselves. But even this is not totally secure as we have noticed, we see a lot of advertisements depending on the location we are logging in from. This shows that our location information is being shared with advertisers. The only privacy people get is sharing their information with other Facebook users. So no matter what people do and not give information out in public, they are not able to protect themselves from marketers. Companies  should have an agreement with consumers if they are willing to share their information like age,sex, location etc as this could help the customers in getting better deals, offers and also knowing about the different places and what is happening around their location. The information of only those consumers who are willing to share it has to be shared and who will be benefited from it. In this way the consumers, portals and marketers will be working with each other harmoniously and they will be benefited from this. 

Social Media, the key to Small Business success in entertainment

Social media has been a boon to marketing in a big way. It helps in marketing products varying from automobiles to electronics to entertainment and practically in most industries. The social media has changed the outlook of the entertainment industry across the globe. Fans are able to follow their favorite artists on Twitter.For example: If there is a big music festival with many DJs' playing, each of them keep updating how the party is going and many a times post the tracks they are playing so that their fans can listen to them on websites like youtube. This allows the fans to read about the other artists playing at the party. This is a big way for artists to become famous and if they are already famous, to become more famous!!http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181285858554049 shows how DJ Ramirez's party is being promoted in Mansion night club. They post about their future events which would help the fans to plan for the event. This is very cost effective also as there would be no promotion required for the artists to keep in touch with their fans and they will be able to instantaneously broadcast their events to people all over the world practically free of cost.

The clubs all over the world promote themselves on Facebook. When people view that their friends are going to some party or event, they could also plan accordingly.It is very convenient and also saves a lot of time. For Example: When I RSVP to an event, this would show up on my friends' walls. Whoever would be interested could easily co-ordinate with me and join me for the event. This would save me time and money, which without Facebook, would mean that I would have to text or call my friends to join me.

The fan pages for clubs and artists are always updated on Facebook which would mean people can easily decide what they would like to do and which would be the most appropriate place for them to be at. Also these pages help connect people from different parts of the world who have similar interests.communicate and maybe become friends and share their culture.

Social media helps both the customers and the clubs/artists to communicate effectively and instantaneously with each other. This helps in building strong loyalty which I consider very important for any kind of business to be a success.