How profitable is it to sell fake AirPods? He made $140,000 on Instagram Day

True wireless earphones can be regarded as one of the hottest digital products in recent years. Whether it is from a microscopic point of view, how users feel wearing them, or the development of the market, they all present a trend of prosperity.

However, the more popular the market is, the more complicated the market becomes. As the benchmark product of this market, the counterfeit products of AirPods have emerged in an endless stream in recent years. Before that, we also talked about how to identify genuine and imitation products and the situation of the counterfeit market.

So, how profitable is the copycat AirPods? Bloomberg’s recent report by the data agency Ghost Data team gave a relatively clear data. A businessman who sold copycat AirPods products on Instagram earned 140,000 in a day. US dollars.

This is still only a drop in the ocean in the entire copycat market, and the real data may far exceed our imagination.

Selling "Apple AirPods" on Instagram, earning $140,000 a day

According to a survey conducted by the data agency Ghost Data team, social media such as Instagram have become the main sales channels for copycat AirPods. Copycat dealers generally post through multiple accounts in order to reach more people.

In these posts, fake AirPods are generally referred to as "Apple original products", attracting consumers who don't know the truth to buy them. Even if they know that they are fakes, the price difference of nearly 10 times with the genuine ones can attract some consumers.

The AirPods series is the most popular among the so-called original Apple products. Genuine AirPods Pro is priced at US$249 on Apple’s official website, and you can get the goods on Instagram for only US$25.

Moreover, these accounts will be updated with Apple products. Last year, Apple launched MagSafe chargers, and there will soon be fakes on the market, and the price gap between genuine products and counterfeit products is huge.

The MagSafe charger on Apple's official website costs 39 US dollars, and the copycat version only costs 5.5 US dollars. Followed by some Apple charging cables, charging heads and other products, without exception, they have a huge price difference with genuine products.

Unlike domestic counterfeit products delivered through Alipay and WeChat channels, the widely accepted transaction method for counterfeit dealers in social media channels such as Instagram is bank transfer or credit card payment.

You may wonder how many people will buy fake AirPods Pro in 2021 or be deceived by the so-called "Apple original product" posts. The actual data is far beyond imagination.

Ghost Data monitored 163 fake Apple product distributors on Instagram from February 8th to March 8th. One of them made $140,000 in just one day. This was only through HSBC. The proceeds from remittances do not include the credit card portion.

This kind of original Apple content on Instagram is also very popular. The study pointed out that the accounts of copycat sellers uploaded more than 50,000 posts last year and received about 600,000 likes and comments.

I would like to remind everyone to try not to buy fake Apple products. Although Apple’s monitoring of the supply chain is not as strong as it used to be, and new product information like the iPhone is constantly exposed, due to its strict monitoring of supply chain manufacturers, workers have to secretly control a large number of reasons. It is almost impossible to steal factory products for sale.

Moreover, these counterfeit products often have certain safety risks. Data analysis consultant Stroppa said that his interest in counterfeit Apple products comes from the personal experience of friends around him. Stroppa exploded when borrowing a friend's Apple charger.

After inquiring, I found out that my friend bought the "Original Apple Product" on Instagram, and when they were about to pursue the responsibility, they found that the seller had disappeared and could not be contacted.

This is still the charger. If the more private AirPods Pro, the earphones worn on the ears explode, the impact will be great.

The accountability of social media platforms is often more difficult than the real environment. Merchants’ after-sales and reputation cannot be guaranteed. For platforms such as Instagram, the sales of counterfeit products are a cancer. They will damage consumers’ trust in the platform and damage the platform. Commercial development.

Facebook also said that selling counterfeit Apple products violated platform rules, and they will further process the content of related posts and accounts.

For Apple, the loss is even greater. In the event of a safety incident, the consumer will definitely be the first to contact Apple. After all, the so-called "Apple original AirPods" are somewhat confusing, in order to maintain consumers' awareness of the AirPods series of products. For trust, Apple obviously has to spend a lot of energy to investigate and collect evidence and provide feedback to the public. At the same time, cracking down on counterfeit products is also conducive to maintaining the reputation of the product itself.

Social media is the "railway station" of the Internet era

Copycat dealers use Instagram and other social media to sell products. On the one hand, social media has attracted a lot of attention, and on the other hand, social media is relatively concealed. At the same time, the huge daily profit of US$140,000 also drives some people to ignore risks.

A similar situation has also occurred in China. Weibo was one of the hardest hit areas before. I used to find in the comment section of popular Weibo that someone had posted a bunch of inexplicable Martian posts. I clicked on the user’s personal Weibo to find out. It is driving pornographic videos and encouraging people to pay for them.

This phenomenon has even extended a series of stalks. For example, to see whether a person is popular on Weibo, a good criterion is whether there is anyone selling movies in his Weibo comment area, or "You are being sold." I’m watching.” Although Weibo dealt with the relevant illegal accounts, the ridicule was passed down.

There is also the support in the comment area, recommending the eight-character test, the tarot card, the constellation test, and even the endorsement of various product sales advertisements, claiming that its calculations are accurate, the prices of the products are extremely low, and even the e-commerce Platform link.

In addition to banning the Weibo account, the rules of the comment section have also been modified many times. In addition to arranging the comment content according to the popularity, the order before and after the comment time has been added.

Except for Weibo, most social media at home and abroad have encountered similar problems, and the struggle between the platform and these "black businessmen" has gradually turned into an infinite war.

There is nothing new under the sun. The small advertisements in the comment area and the sale of counterfeit products also took place in another form before the Internet era. Social media is a gathering place for people in the Internet age. There are all kinds of users. Before the Internet age, this place was a train station.

Under the mixed personnel, there are always a few people who will come to the door at random and sell the so-called 99 new second-hand iPhone to passing passengers at a huge price difference. But when they actually bought it, they found out that it was a copycat machine and sold it on Instagram. How similar the fake AirPods Pro behave.

In the past, most of this illegal behavior relied on the police, but now it has become a joint effort of social media platforms, companies, and the police. Apple has set up a special team to combat counterfeit products, and said:

We have a dedicated team of experts who continue to work with law enforcement agencies, businessmen, social media companies, and e-commerce sites around the world to remove counterfeit products from the market. Last year, we sought to remove more than 1 million posts about fake Apple products from markets including Facebook and Instagram.

Enterprises, social media platforms, etc. attack counterfeit products as a way to this market, but the real way to promote the disappearance of counterfeit products is to meet the needs of consumers who buy counterfeit products.

When will the pirated AirPods market disappear

When there is demand, there will be a market is a reason that is often used to explain commercial phenomena. The appearance of counterfeit AirPods and other products is closely related to its own value. After removing the line, AirPods not only make the earphones lighter, but also change the issue of wearing earphones. Be more casual and private.

AirPods can be said to redefine the shape of the headset, and at the same time make the medium form of sound be valued and developed again, and voice socialization is again valued by Internet companies. The hot clubhouse some time ago is closely related to the popularity of true wireless headsets, and it is also known as the first successful voice social application.

When the counterfeit AirPods market will disappear can also be interpreted by demand. As a product released in 2016, AirPods has a technological advantage compared to a large number of products at that time, and the leading experience is the reason why people buy it. However, in the past few years, major mobile phone brands and headset product companies have been following up in this field, and related products have shown an explosive growth trend, and technology has developed very rapidly.

Qualcomm has also introduced a chip based on TrueWireless technology, low-power Bluetooth technology support, fast connection of devices, and also supports the secondary headset to mirror and copy the data received by the main headset, effectively reducing delay.

It can be said that the technological leadership has been greatly leveled. When I interviewed a person in the Shenzhen headset industry last year, they told me that the threshold for making a true wireless headset is already very low. As for the noise reduction function, brands such as Sony have also come up with good products, which have also made great achievements in terms of product form and differentiation.

Just like the disappearance of counterfeit smartphones, with the rapid development of technology and mass manufacturing to reduce costs, people can buy products with a good experience at a lower price, and they will no longer buy counterfeit AirPods.

The well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also mentioned in his recent forecast that AirPods shipments will decline in 2021. The main reason is that the market for true wireless headsets is fierce, and the hardware selling points of AirPods cannot compete with low-cost competitors.

When the experience and price of true wireless headset products are becoming popular, consumers will abandon copy AirPods and turn to genuine products launched by other brands. There are also better guarantees in terms of experience, product safety, after-sales, etc., and this day has passed. Getting closer.

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