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The Influencers Getting Paid to Promote Designer Knockoffs From China
Influencers on TikTok and Reddit earn a cut of the counterfeit goods trade by promoting high-quality “replicas” sourced from ecommerce sites in China.
Daniel Shapiro, senior vice president of strategic partnerships at Red Points, a firm that helps brands detect counterfeits of their products online, says that almost any item can now be quickly copied, and smaller companies are increasingly seeing their designs get ripped off. At a hearing earlier this month held by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission—a federal body that scrutinizes trade with China—Shapiro said that Red Points detected a 26 percent increase in counterfeiting by Chinese sellers in 2023 compared to the previous year. In 2020, DHgate launched an in-house affiliate marketing program, and more influencers on TikTok and Facebook soon began recommending products from the site, including counterfeit Golden Goose sneakers and knockoff jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels.
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