the simplyBrand team has developed a blockchain-based AI platform with a self-governance mechanism (crowdsourced) to identify and stop counterfeits (a USD 323 BN industry) in the global e-commerce market. Some of the partners featured on its website include ASUS, Haier, C&A, Columbia Sportswear, Ermenegildo Zegna, etc.

High cost of battling with no clear results: Even with investments in NFC, RFID, and other technologies, results are limited - losses due to online counterfeiting reached USD 323 BN in 2017; over 72% of such products are estimated to come from China

Threat of counterfeits: Counterfeits pose a big threat to consumers, companies and even governments - the global growth in e-commerce has further magnified the impact as it is now much easier to sell counterfeit products. It is expected that e-commerce purchases will reach 12% of all global trade by 2019 with 4 BN users

As per the NetNames report, the global anti-counterfeit track & trace market is estimated to be worth USD 143 BN by 2020; marking systems including barcodes, holograms, etc. is estimated to reach a global market size of USD 35 BN in 2018

According to the UN, counterfeit pharmaceuticals results in the death of 700,00 people globally each year

Government efforts have had limited success: In spite of efforts to strengthen IP protection, counterfeiting and piracy remain high. Legal consequences from selling fake products occur when the amount exceeds ~50,000 RMB which limits the scope of penalties for over 99% of the counterfeiters as most purchases are usually under 500 RMB

Lack of strict regulations: E-commerce is growing at double-digit growth rates especially in developing nations which generally lack effective regulations against selling counterfeit products. This is further complicated by presence of counterfeits on social networking platforms as well

AI & analytics: simplyBrand's AI will scan, identify and verify the genuineness of products on various e-commerce platforms and enable enforcement by providing the right incentives to the participants. In order to ensure accuracy in the crowd verification mechanism, each possible counterfeit product will be verified by 20 participants and the result will be recorded only when 75% consensus is reached (this may evolve as the AI model is trained)

Blacklist of counterfeit vendors: simplyBrand will utilize the blockchain to create an immutable blacklist of counterfeit product vendors - this exposure will enable brands to learn more about the source of counterfeit products

Incentive for participants: Brands will join the simplyBrand ecosystem by paying a service fee; in addition, they will offer rewards to crowdsourced participants for identification of counterfeits and contributing towards whitelisting legitimate vendors. Further, enforcement agencies and third parties can have access to a large number of counterfeit products and vendors

AI Classification System: simplyBrand's AI system will classify goods to determine if they are parallel imports, smuggled or second-hand. Business users will be able to log into the platform to access the blacklist and evaluate counterfeiting risk within a participar platform / overall industry