Ads for banned Chinese shopping platform Taobao have appeared in Taipei metro stations. Civil society organizations and politicians are warning that the ads may be illegal and that they create competition with local Taiwanese businesses ahead of a major shopping holiday.
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00:00The biggest online shopping holiday in the world. Many people in Taiwan are eager to
00:05spend big on Double 11 Day, which falls on November 11th each year.
00:10The holiday was created by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2009 as an advertising scheme
00:16and has since spread to other parts of Asia. One of the most popular retailers is Alibaba's
00:21platform Taobao, which has been banned in Taiwan since 2020 due to the country's strict
00:26regulations on Chinese investment. Yet ahead of the Double 11 holiday this year, ads for
00:33the Chinese platform could be found in major MRT stations.
00:36Economic watchdogs and some legislators in Taiwan say these ads are illegal and are worried
00:41about the repercussions it could have on Taiwan's local businesses.
00:45They also raise concerns about Taobao sharing user information with its parent company Alibaba,
01:05which some shoppers also fear.
01:19But data privacy was not consumers' only concern.
01:43With the Double 11 holiday just days away, many people are already filling their shopping
01:47carts with their wish list. And with Taobao making inroads back into
01:51the Taiwanese market, low prices may win over quality concerns for some of the country's
01:55shoppers.
01:56Devon Tsai, Alec McDonald and Tiffany Wong for Taiwan Plus.