Alibaba's Jack Ma Says Fakes Are Better than Originals

Jack Ma said many counterfeit goods are now of better quality than the genuine articles, in an apparent riposte to criticism that Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce group he founded, profits from the sale of knockoffs.

The remarks by the chairman of Alibaba, which has long been dogged by accusations of tolerating the sale of counterfeit goods on platforms (such as Taobao), are unlikely to be welcomed by luxury goods makers.

"The problem is the fake products today are of better quality and better price than the real names," he said during a speech on Tuesday at Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, China. "They are exactly the [same] factories, exactly the same raw materials but they do not use the names."