Alibaba signs a strategic agreement with GS1 China at the GIEC 2016 International IT Business Forum in Beijing. [Photo provided to People.cn]

On Aug. 23, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba signed a strategic agreement with GS1 China, an organization that deals with the issuance and management of product barcodes in China, during the GIEC 2016 International IT Business Forum in Beijing.

Under the terms of this agreement, users of the Taobao and Tmall mobile apps, both of which belong to Alibaba, can simply scan the barcode of a given product and the app will automatically search for online sellers of that exact product.

“The move not only brings greater convenience for consumers, it also cracks down on fake products. We demand that online retailers upload the code of a product before they are able to sell it,” said Qiang Hui, an Alibaba researcher at the forum.

The move also promotes international sales, as foreign consumers can easily find specific products without having to know the Chinese names of products or type in Chinese to find them, Qiang added.

Li Jianhui, a top engineer of GS1 China speaks at the forum.[Photo provided to People.cn]

Founded in 1988 as a branch of GS1 standard barcoding, GS1 China has issued barcodes to more than 80 million products, according to Li Jianhui, a top engineer of GS1 China at the forum.

An app developed by GS1 China also enables consumers to track the origin of various products. Users can download the app, called “Yisaotong” (meaning: just scan it), from the Android or IOS app marketplace, scan a barcode using the app, and the app will then show the product's maker, production site, brand and other specifications, according to Li.