Initiated by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, the world's first alliance to fight fakes using big data was launched in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province on Jan. 16. The first 20 members issued a joint action plan to cut down on counterfeit products.

According to Zheng Junfang, Alibaba's chief platform governance officer, the traditional way of cracking down on fake goods offline does not remove the source of copycat products.

"We have to have everybody involved and work together to do it," Zheng announced. Alibaba is willing to share its experience, skills, technology and resources with people all around the work in the anti-counterfeit battle, she said.

Only invited brands can join the alliance, and membership is limited to 20. The first batch of members include Dulux, LV, Swarovski, Trendy Group, DAZZLE, Shiseido, Bioderma, Amway, Mars, Pernod Ricard, Huawei, SUPOR, Joyoung, Sony, Samsung, Western Digital (Western Digital and SanDisk), Canon and Ford. Alibaba has long cooperated on anti-counterfeiting initiatives. By the end of 2016, the company had cooperated with more than 18, 000 brands to fight against fake goods.

A Huawei manager pointed out that by using big data, Alibaba is playing a leading role in anti-counterfeiting efforts.

"We are fully expecting an IPR protection blueprint outlined by the big data anti-fake alliance," the manager said.

Zheng made four promises at the launch of the campaign: continue to provide data and technology support, promote cooperation on anti-counterfeiting efforts, provide priority service for alliance members, and invite alliance members to work on policy-making and amendments.

The establishment of the anti-fake alliance is only the first step. Alibaba will use big data to build anti-counterfeiting tools and consolidate social consensus, regularly releasing reports on anti-counterfeiting efforts.