Chinese buyers imitate Vladimir Putin

President Vladimir Putin has to appear in public with some subject, as visitors to the Chinese IT giant Alibaba begin to look for exactly the same.
17.07.2019
Forbes
Origin source
Users of AliExpress, Taobao, Tmall, and 1688.com, who are part of Alibaba, are trying to buy jackets, cups, ice cream, and even a Putin-like limousine.

On June 28, in the Japanese Osaka, Putin came to his dinner with the leaders of the G-20 countries with his white thermo cup with the golden emblem of Russia. In the circle, as the presidential spokesman explained later, there was tea.

On June 30, the Chinese edition of The Global Times reported that pre-orders for a thermomug, like those of the Russian president, began to collect "hundreds of online stores" through the Taobao platform. “A copy of Putin’s mug is at the pre-sale stage and will appear on the site within two weeks,” one of the ads in the online store quoted The Global Times. One of the sellers told the publication that he had already received more than 100 pre-orders.

Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation

A week after dinner, Chinese residents ordered 5000 cups on the Taobao platform and 1688.com website, Aliexpress was told by Forbes representative of Aliexpress Anton Panteleyev to Forbes. He claims that on the website Aliexpress the search query “Putin’s circle” hit the one hundred most popular queries in June. The price of a mug was 60-150 yuan (500-1375 rubles), depending on the volume of the party.

Yandex.Market service analysts also noted a surge of interest in products, like the president of Russia: On July 1 and 2, users were actively interested in “like Putin’s” thermo mugs, said Yandex representative Polina Upitis.

At the G20 dinner, Putin appeared with a white thermomug not for the first time: he has been walking with her to all the “straight lines” with the Russians since 2016.

Almost all the goods with which the Russian president appears in public are becoming the object of increased attention of the Chinese audience, Panteleev said.

Jacket for fishing

In April 2019, Voentorg released and began selling in stores and on the website of the Army of Russia a “like Putin” jacket. The company has created a demi-season windbreaker, similar to the one in which the Russian president went fishing in Tuva in August 2018. The buyer can order delivery not only in Russia, but also to any country in the world, according to the website armrus.ru. The price of the jacket is 7000 rubles, indicated in Instagram of the “Army of Russia”. At the same time from the comments in your Instagram account, it follows that the product was sold within a week after the start of sales. Forbes awaits the comment "Voentorg."

“Chinese buyers have been actively looking for products on our platforms that are similar to Putin’s jacket,” said an AliExpress spokesman. According to him, sales of the American brand Abercrombie & Fitch, which is similar to her, immediately after the appearance of Putin’s photos grew “by tens of percent” - from January to June 2019, about 2,000 copies were sold at the Alibaba Group sites.

Ice cream and limousine

Russian ice cream is one of the most popular products in China. In 2016, Putin met with DPRK Chairman Xi Jinping before the start of the G20 summit in Hangzhou. The Russian president came to this meeting with a gift - a box of ice cream. On the same day, the number of search queries “Russian ice cream” has quadrupled, says Panteleev. It was difficult to assess the growth in sales in AliExpress, citing a variety of brands of Russian ice cream.

In 2019, analysts at Alibaba Group also noticed an increase in the number of search queries on the Aurus word among Chinese audiences immediately after the limousine of the President Aurus Senat was presented at the Innoprom-2019 international industrial exhibition in early July.

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