Several Top Chinese Sellers Have Quietly Disappeared From Amazon (techcrunch.com) 87
Rita Liao, reporting for TechCrunch: If you ever bought power banks, water bottles, toys, or other daily goods on Amazon, the chances are your suppliers are from China. Analysts have estimated that the share of Chinese merchants represented 75% of Amazon's new sellers in January, up from 47% the year before, according to Marketplace Pulse, an e-commerce research firm. Chinese sellers are swarming not just Amazon but also eBay, Wish, Shopee and Alibaba's AliExpress. The boom is in part a result of intense domestic competition in China's online retail world, which forces merchants to seek new markets. Traditional exporters are turning to e-commerce, cutting out excessive distributors. Businesses are enchanted by the tale that a swathe of the priciest property in Shenzhen, an expensive city known for its tech and manufacturing, is now owned by people who made a fortune from e-commerce export.
But the get-rich-quick optimism among the cross-border community came to a halt when several top Chinese sellers disappeared from Amazon over the past few days. At least eleven accounts that originate from Greater China were suspended, according to Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of Marketplace Pulse. Several accounts belong to the same parent firms, as it's normal for big sellers, those with more than a million dollars in annual sales, to operate multiple brands on Amazon to optimize sales. TechCrunch has reached out to Mpower and Aukey, whose Amazon stores are gone and were two of the most successful brands native to the American marketplace. In total, the suspended accounts contribute over a billion dollars in gross merchandise value (GMV) to Amazon, said Kaziukenas.
But the get-rich-quick optimism among the cross-border community came to a halt when several top Chinese sellers disappeared from Amazon over the past few days. At least eleven accounts that originate from Greater China were suspended, according to Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of Marketplace Pulse. Several accounts belong to the same parent firms, as it's normal for big sellers, those with more than a million dollars in annual sales, to operate multiple brands on Amazon to optimize sales. TechCrunch has reached out to Mpower and Aukey, whose Amazon stores are gone and were two of the most successful brands native to the American marketplace. In total, the suspended accounts contribute over a billion dollars in gross merchandise value (GMV) to Amazon, said Kaziukenas.
Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Next up, Amazon should make it impossible to replace one product with another, or wipe out all previous reviews/ratings when it happens.
Fake reviews are rampant, if they don't do something about it now they're going to be as bad as AliExpress
Re: Good. (Score:1)
Re: Good. (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Good. (Score:2)
Ha, clever.
Re: Good. (Score:5, Informative)
After ordering several things off ebay and they arrive as an amazon package with a "gift" receipt in it.
Which means you've been used for triangulation fraud: The scammer advertises a product on eBay, you pay them, they order it from Amazon using a stolen credit card, and you've now laundered their money for them. You're one of the victims here, not meaning to imply you're part of the scam, but that's a common type of fraud.
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There's something about Amazon that encourages it. You get the same sellers on eBay being clear and up front about the product being a third party part. On Amazon they charge more and list it as genuine.
My guess is it's a combination of the review system, the way Amazon organises and promotes things by SKU, higher fees and the fact that so many people are doing it.
Re:Good. (Score:4, Insightful)
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On the other hand the current system just bundles all the sellers for one item toghether. What I'd like to get is one listing per product but the reviews to be by seller. That way (hopefully) people could figure out which sellers sell counterfeit items and avoid them.
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Well, not that good. Aukey and Mpower both make decent stuff.
I'd still go with Anker over them, but I have no problem buying from either of them (er now I do...).
Re: Good. (Score:2)
... But they were good, and affordable.
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Quietly disappeared =/= Suspended (Score:4)
"Quietly disappeared" seems to imply that no one knows *why* they are gone. When I saw the headline, my first thought was "have they run afoul of the Chinese government in some way?"
Re:Quietly disappeared =/= Suspended (Score:4, Informative)
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Shipping from China has delays measured in months, maybe at least a year. Drop shipping random crap from China is not going to be a profitable business in 2021.
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Shipping from China is cheaper (Score:2)
than domestic shipping.
Heck, I can buy stuff with free shipping (ebay, Australia) that costs less than it would cost to post it to my next door neighbor. (USA is the same.)
Now amazon needs to (Score:5, Insightful)
Start banning items that they shouldn't sell, like fake power supplies or other chinese clones of products that are untested. It really frustrating because I tried to buy a replacement ASUS laptop AC adapter and there were so many fakes I couldn't even find the real one. I ended up buying a fake and the UL certs were fake (which means the supply could burn down my house or kill me in the event of a fault).
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It used to be the prime shipping was a good indicator because that meant it was in some way warehoused or shipped through Amazon, so there might be a check there. But I donâ(TM)t think that is the case. I have gotten some very sketchy products through Prime
Another factor is over the past three or four years, shipping from China for Amazon purchases have just s
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Anything that is "Fulfilled by Amazon" can be shipped under the "Prime" program, I believe, but this is not a perfect guarantee of quality. I have yet to have a problem with things that are *sold* by Amazon - this declaration is made right where the "add it to your cart" link is found. I generally first prefer things that are "sold by Amazon" (automatically shipped Prime), then things that are sold by someone else but fulfilled by Amazon (and get Prime shipping, and perhaps some level of oversight in ware
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I have heard that Amazon doesn't maintain a source-based distinction between new-in-box product stored in their warehouse, i.e. such products are treated as fungible. I would be surprised if they don't have some controls on it, and not surprised that the controls sometimes break down.
In another life, I was responsible for maintaining a large data center infrastructure that made heavy use of Cisco-brand networking equipment including expensive optical interface units. Our acquisition process used only tr
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Re: Now amazon needs to (Score:1)
A big reason Amazon has cracked down on these is because of liability and contracts with big businesses. Many enterprises are now using Amazon as a supply partner instead of having a number of different vendors for each speciality of supplies. And when you get those places suddenly saying they canâ(TM)t have chips from ZTE or Xiaomi and send back a ton of product with fake FCC labels, they tend to notice.
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Didn't a court recently rule that Amazon can be held responsible for dangerous products sold by third party merchants? I believe it was over an electric scooter that had a tendency to catch fire.
Selling on Amazon gives a merchant a false positive reputation, so it makes sense to force Amazon to finally start cracking down on the bad merchants. It's been going on too long.
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Yes, in California state court if memory serves.
Calfornia may be one state, but given the size of its population and the nature of being the incorporated home to so many of these sorts of businesses the ruling may have a disproportionate impact.
Re:Now amazon needs to (Score:4, Interesting)
You're one of the rare people who actually realizes that not everything has UL/ETL certification and cares enough to only buy electrical and fire safety products that are certified.
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Yeah, I actually checked the supply serial # and ETL # and I couldn't find any of them. I think I complained to UL and started that process but stopped because it was really difficult.
Re: Now amazon needs to (Score:2)
Why you care if it is a *chinese* clone? That says a lot about your mindset, imo.
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I say chinese, because that is where the fake products are produced and China is one of few places that don't care about international rules and allow bad manufacturing practices as long as it benefits them.
Guys, it's easy... (Score:5, Funny)
If faced with a choice, say, of two violins:
1. Yamaha V5
2. GUNHAUYNFARGBLE Gran Sliveretto Grande Masetro!
Which one will you buy?
Right, the $20 dollar one. *sigh*
Same goes for everything. Don't buy the one with the obvious word-salad names!
Point is, all these bizarre names are all from China, all probably fake entities, selling what the factory threw out as rejects.
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But, the "2. GUNHAUYNFARGBLE Gran Sliveretto Grande Masetro!" is a good fiddle to play while watching your country burn!
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But, the "2. GUNHAUYNFARGBLE Gran Sliveretto Grande Masetro!" is a good fiddle to play while watching your country burn!
Meh, both are maid in chian, but one of them is made by trained specialiasts, the other fell of the back of the garbage bin at some other factory.
If I were to fiddle while my country burned... I'd put the fiddle down, and pick up a rifle.
You?
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10 gauge. Times have been a bit too tough for rifling.
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Re: Guys, it's easy... (Score:2)
A sufficiently large fire needs more than water, in which case, you might just need a really big gun.
https://www.popularmechanics.c... [popularmechanics.com]
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China actually makes very good violins (Score:2)
Not for $20, but for $200 you get a very respectable student model. For $2,000 you get a very nice intermediate model.
There are also a few top end Chinese makers that produce $20,000 violins.
Every violin is different, you really want to play them first, not mail order. And some $200 violins are much better than others. Good strings improve them a lot, Chinese strings are not so good.
(Just bought an intermediate Chinese cello. Played a lot to find the right one, but it is very good and affordable.)
Yamaha
Re: China actually makes very good violins (Score:2)
Indeed.
Usually, the fakes in China are blatantly obvious. Imo, they are lazy on the marketing/design, and actually go out of their way to make it obvious it isn't the original. The intention is to make something available at every price point, rather than to deceive.
Of course, there are exceptions, but they can be from anywhere.
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Agreed. My cheap (probably pylwood) cello from China sounds passable with a set of Aricore strings and a decent bow (though the strings cost me probably a quarter as much as the cello, I think, as did the decent bow). The factory strings with the factory bow had all the warmth of a set of fingernails on a chalkboard, and the A string didn't last five minutes before it snapped. :-D
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Is there any real value, other than name, for the person who just wants to practice. No.
Yes. On the cheap ones all the parts don't quite fit together right, especially the tuning pegs making it very hard get the bugger in tune, and it won't stay there either. You can fix it yourself with a workshop and the right reamer, new pegs and paste, but at that point you see where the extra $150 goes.
Don't buy a super cheap violin, it will be miserable.
Same goes for acoustic guitars but not electric ones or ukuleles.
Re:Guys, it's easy... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do you care if it is counterfeit (Score:2)
What counts is what it sounds like.
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You do your homework. Some Chinese brands are both cheap and very good, e.g. phones and hifi gear. I realised this many years ago when I bought some Yuin PK1 earbuds.
Long before that many other people discovered the same thing the first time they bought a Yamaha violin. Why wants a knock off Japanese violin? Oh, turns out they got good...
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2. GUNHAUYNFARGBLE Gran Sliveretto Grande Masetro!
But, this isn't the problem. Buying clearly identified shanzai goods is a thing I can do - I can walk to the flea market, I can buy on eBay, or I can buy on Amazon (or wish, aliexpress, dealextreme, banggood, etc etc). I can look at those two options you presented, and pick if I want the good one or the cheap one. The problems are:
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I think you have a very silly view of Chinese sales. There's no such thing as Gunhauynfargble. There's no such thing as Yammaha. The Chinese no longer predominantly operate from silly names or obvious misspellings. The vast majority of products you look for have perfectly normal names which are not indicative of being Chinese. Just for fun I looked online for $20 violins from Alibaba. First hit: Wolfinger. Sounds good, are they German? They sound German.
You know about violins it seems, now tell me which USB
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Ah, but that would also mean that there'll be no more instant classics like this "violin" [youtube.com], complete with references to famous Italian instrument makers like "Antonio Stella bottom tile"... :(
By "several" they mean "two." (Score:1)
Mpower and Aukey are the only two sellers referenced in TFA.
The reason is obvious - fake reviews (Score:1)
Ftfa, an Amazon statement to Techcrunch - “long-standing policies to protect the integrity of our store, including product authenticity, genuine reviews, and products meeting the expectations of our customers.”
When I have previously purchased items before they have come with a card or note asking for a five star review and you'll get an additional gift (bribe) in return.
When you think about it Amazon reviews are actually the core of their business. Without them there is no reason to visit Amazon
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There are other reasons to shop at amazon.
They are quick
My local Frys closed down, the other local option is Best Buy which seems to be limited in selection. So its either Newegg or Amazon for me, if it is a planned build I can do Newegg, but if it something I need quickly, Amazon has the speed to get me a fan, hard drive or weird screw quickly so I can get what I need to do done.
They have amazon lockers
Porch Pirates are a thing. I have had things go from Newegg to a UPS store for pickup, but a lot of Ne
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It seems like almost every product I buy from Amazon comes with a card offering gift cards or discounts for a 5-star review. Some will send you extras, e.g. an additional battery for a massager, etc. I'm honestly surprised if this is the reason Amazon cracked down on them, since it's not really in their short-term interests to do so. Maybe someone at Amazon is realizing they are fast becoming a flea market full of garbage.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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They still have fake 2TB flashdrives for $50. (Score:5, Interesting)
They still have fake "2TB" flash drives for $50. So more vendors need to be eliminated. These products are flat out scams and typically they rig the firmware to look like 2TB but only have 128G or smaller emulating it. Just enough that it appears to work if someone does a quick read/write test. The other give away is they are usb2.0 and no one would be making a 1TB+ flash in usb2.0 anymore unless you are faking it.
And some of this crap is in Amazons warehouses and so ships prime so looks good. All have no brand. The first real 1TB flash drive comes up on the 2nd page and is priced $197.
Most of the reviews seem to be faked in some manner, except of course the 1star reviews.
I am going to guess the court ruling making amazon liable for 3rd party sellers (court ruling was for fire damage liability were the 3rd party could not be found and/or was out of business) is making them look more carefully at the garbage the 3rd parties were selling.
Newegg marketplace is the same pile of fake crap as Amazon so they are also going to have to do some weeding also.
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So more vendors need to be eliminated.
They didn't eliminate fakes. The companies listed as missing made very real an "quality" products. I use the term quality in quotes because ultimately they still come from China, but the reality is Mpower / Aukey made some perfectly acceptable products which don't spontaneously combust and actually meet their quoted specs.
If anything I'd like to see those guys back, and the actual scamming shits purged from the internet. .
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I think it comes down to those vendors products if they have a serious issue might start a fire and that scares Amazon. Amazon might also want to force vendors with products that could cause a significant cost over and above the price of the product to either buy a liability insurance policy in the US or put up some sort of escrow type setup with a decent amount in it to cover any damages, or they may just be suddenly wanting to charge a higher cost for those sorts of products since the courts have now rul
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I think it comes down to those vendors products if they have a serious issue might start a fire and that scares Amazon.
Again, no. Aukey wasn't some fly by night vendor who is trying to burn your house down. They were one of the few companies that actually develop reasonably good USB charging products and they weren't excessively cheap either. Hell their USB-C PD car charger (just the first product that came up when I looked at the shop) sells here for 39EUR ($50US inc tax)
I'm with you about the scam products, or dangerous products. They need to be addressed. But sadly it very much looks like Amazon here is only concerned a
Aukey? (Score:3)
Aukey *used* to make pretty good products but the last couple of chargers I've purchased failed rather quickly. I was able to get them replaced quickly, no questions asked. I'm surprised they were swept up in this.
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Aukey *used* to make pretty good products but the last couple of chargers I've purchased failed rather quickly. I was able to get them replaced quickly, no questions asked. I'm surprised they were swept up in this.
I really liked the Aukey 6' long right-angle braided iphone cables. They lasted a really long time and we all have them by our beds.
Quietly? (Score:3)
aukey? (Score:5, Insightful)
Looking at my shopping history seems I've purchased a number of aukey chargers and cables. Frankly, thinking about it, they have been some of the better chargers/cables i've purchased. I've only had one cable fail (it started smoking) while hoards of garbage from local retailers (I tend to buy the cheapest cable on offer) I've purchased has failed.
I wish they were more explicit and had tools other than ban hammers if the problem is fake reviews.
Although on the plus side, it looks like the aukey site itself is a few bucks cheaper than their amazon store was (there are promo codes to reduce it even more), and has the advantage its not charging sales taxes.
I guess it doesn't have reviews either, but everyone knows that amazon is full of fake reviews because that is part of the gameification of getting ahead in these marketplaces.
Unless it was something truly nefarious amazon is probably just shooting themselves in the foot because the brand is probably large enough to survive on its own now and people will just buy direct.
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You better hope your state's tax department doesn't read Slashdot. If you buy goods without paying sales tax (given that you mention it, it seems your state normally does have sales tax), you're supposed to pay use tax instead. You've pretty much admitted to tax evasion here.
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INAL, but I neither admitted to anything, nor do I live in a state where the buyer is responsible in a situation where the object was purchased outside of the state I reside in, much less outside of the country (as is the case here afaik). Which is generally regulated by the feds (yes there are loopholes around liquor/etc). The newegg decision is when all the amazons/etc started charging sales taxes cross borders, and its still unclear for many transactions.
So, to claim such things are silly.
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The silly thing is to claim that you don't have an obligation to pay use tax on your purchases. You generally do [investopedia.com], if sales tax would be due for the same sale in-state. You don't have to take my word for it, just ask your accountant. Or a tax lawyer.
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This! So far it looks like they haven't been taking down counterfeiters or fake goods peddlers but rather just run of the mill Chinese goods which is to say consumer electronics of a sufficient quality for their affordable price that won't actually burn your house down.
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I have Aukey USB chargers QC2.0 that I bought in 2015, I use them daily in my car (a 12V one) and at home (120V one) and they still works fine after charging phones thousands of time
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Although on the plus side, it looks like the aukey site itself is a few bucks cheaper than their amazon store was (there are promo codes to reduce it even more), and has the advantage its not charging sales taxes.
I guess it doesn't have reviews either, but everyone knows that amazon is full of fake reviews because that is part of the gameification of getting ahead in these marketplaces.
Unless it was something truly nefarious amazon is probably just shooting themselves in the foot because the brand is probably large enough to survive on its own now and people will just buy direct.
Bingo. This is the real reason the big, somewhat-reputable sellers are gone while the fly-by-night counterfeiters are still there. The Zon doesn't care about what's in the store so much as it cares about what's outside the store and they'd rather snuff a (potential) competitor (even if it's not as huge) than a supplier that's wholly dependent on them. They care about keeping shoppers in the ecosystem more than keeping shoppers happy with products.
Just publish the country of manufacturing... (Score:1)
The origin of the item being sold ought to be a field as mandatory for the sellers to populate as the price. Then, Amazon ought to allow shoppers to explicitly exclude or include whatever countries they wish to boycott/support.
For a while I thought not implementing this feature was a deliberate act by Amazon, but now, seeing, how crappy their search engine is, I'm beginning to suspect, it is simply incompetence, rather than malice.
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I had to install a plugin in my browser to get the origin of products on Amazon. It's called "Cellar". If the origin is known, it will display the information. It could be seller location, manufacturer location, both, or nothing (unknown).
I'd love to be able do product searches where I can omit some countries. Mostly China.
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Cellar [mozilla.org] will tell you, where the seller is located — not where the product was made.
Interestingly, according to the plugin's description, on amazon.cn, the seller's country is always displayed already — what are they, racist or something?
Good Riddance (Score:2)
I know where to find Aliexpress if I want that crap. I don't use Amazon for JFUIMERGBQWRUEVH brand.
Probably because ... (Score:2)
Country dependent (Score:2)
'Currently unavailable' on amazon.co.uk
Prices vs wages (Score:1)
Search on Amazon, buy elsewhere. (Score:1)
That's what I do now. Amazon will need to make Prime the standard, at zero cost, before I'll blink again.
Search on Amazon, buy on Ebay is pretty common now. Same stuff, better price. Especially the delivery. Search on Amazon, buy on Alibaba is getting good. Same or better quality. Half the price. Delivered.
When everything is subverted by Amazon to be as cheap as possible but good for them alone, I lose nothing by buying from someone else. At least with someone else, I have a chance at a genuine product. T
Junk (Score:1)
Or maybe they got smart and decided to get out before the dumpster fire started.
Re: Junk (Score:1)
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