Alipay Apologizes for Copying WeChat and Luxury Mooncake

People are excited about Mooncakes by luxury brands August to October is a busy season for luxury brands in China. Right after Chinese Valentine's Day, which falls on August 28, Chinese Mid-Autumn festival is coming on October 4, and for many Chinese consumers, this is a day for enjoying a full moon sighting with family and eating a traditional dessert called mooncake. Even though the Mid-Autumn Festival is a month away, many Chinese consumers are talking about what luxury brands did last year and are anticipating their upcoming offerings. They praised last year's Tiffany’s packaging, how the mooncake box could also be used as a jewelry holder, and the unique cake fillings from Gucci, which included innovative flavors like green bean coffee and Italian wine. Many luxury brands offered mooncake as an additional gift to the purchase. Weibo comment: “I want to eat the mooncake, but don’t want to spend money on expensive clothing I don’t like.” Commenters have a field day with Alipay's blatant copying of Tencent’s mini program On August 18, Ant Financial officially announced that Alipay’s mini-program is available for beta testing, enabling developers to implement their company’s business with Alipay. Shortly after the announcement, one former Alipay employee, who has more than 12 million fans on Weibo, broadcasted that Alipay’s mini-program directly plagiarized WeChat’s mini-program. He even discovered a WeChat engineer's name in Alipay’s code. In response to the criticism, Alipay apologized and confirmed that the mini-program had been copied. Many people recalled that when the mini program first launched at the beginning of the year, not only its name, but even the layout looked very similar to Tencent’s WeChat mini program. Weibo comment: “Plagiarizing everything, including names, Alipay really paid homage to the Tencent engineers.” Commenters note how nerdy Android Wear is getting the fashion treatment Commenters on social media have been noting how nerdy smartwatches are getting fashionable. Technology companies collaborating with fashion brands is nothing new, but the previous excitement among Chinese consumers about Hermes' leather strap for Apple watch is apparently wearing off, the online commentary shows, as they have been fond of Android wear and its upcoming smartwatch collaboration this fall, which is likely to be the next fashion necessity. These brands include Michael Kors, Emporio Armani, Guess, Hugo Boss, and many other high-end luxury brands like Tag Heuer, Montblanc. These smartwatches range from one hundred dollars to two thousand dollars. The newly launched Louis Vuitton smartwatch, Tambour Horizon, at 2450, is the highest priced smartwatch on the market. Would such collaboration help Android Wear sell better? Not necessarily. But at least this may be able to help fashion brands earn more income from the smartwatch. Weibo comment: “There is no 'worth it or not worth it' in the world of luxury, only 'like it or not like it.'”

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Alipay Apologizes for Copying WeChat and Luxury Mooncake