COSPA公司作为日本最大的动漫授权商品公司，运营着相当多的日本知名动漫品牌商品，数美将与COSPA公司在产品引进销售、动漫社区运营等方面展开正式合作。
此次陪同前来的还有日本最大的秋叶原综合情报站Akibanana.com的首席执行官G.I Jane，双方在2个月前曾做过一次交流，Akibanana.com曾经对该次中国之行进行了报道。
INSIGHT: China's Battle with Piracy
Submitted by KｲKｲ on Fri, 05/16/2008 - 15:15.
Last week, it was suddenly decided that I had to go to China for a secret mission and so on Tuesday afternoon, after two meetings in the morning I headed to Narita Airport without knowing what to expect. I only had three days to complete the mission and I was scheduled to visit many places, including a factory, a trading company, a pirated cosplay costume maker and an original goods distributor. In just three days, I had to study the land of piracy and gather information back home. But three days is enough to make me feel the sense of urgency for anime companies to enter the Chinese market to recoup their losses.
The most popular anime in China today is Naruto; it is the most searched for anime according to China's top search engine Baidu. Tens and thousands of Naruto goods as well as fan sites are available online; almost everyone on the street knows about Naruto but the anime has never been aired in China. Each time an episode is aired in Japan, a Chinese sub-titled version would be available on the Internet six hours later. For five years this persisted without any word from the creators and it became widely popular without any promotion from the producers at all.
Crayon Shin-chan's original goods are finally available in China today but its logo is in English because its Chinese name has already been trademarked by a Taiwanese company more than five years ago. In China, if there are no disputes on the trademark registered within five years from registration, the trademark will belong to the existing registered owner forever.
I learnt all these from a local company that was struggling to sell original goods in spite of the market's favor towards pirated goods. The company was set up two years ago by a group of university students but today they are the leading distributors and retailers of original character goods online and offline. They run anime fairs in all the 20 universities in Shanghai, distribute anime-related goods to the campus shops and a network of anime-related shops all over Shanghai. Just two months ago, they even started selling online and are now recruiting online retailers. They are probably the only company in China that carries non-pirated goods. While admitting it was tough they have nonetheless persisted.
After visiting their SOHO headquarters, the students brought me to visit a factory in the outskirts. Apparently, the only way to avoid piracy is to use large factories who only deal with foreign clients. These factories are expensive but assurance and reliability is the premium they pay for.
After the factory, I headed to the city center to meet the boss of a pirated cosplay costume making company. The company was also the first publishing company to produce original Chinese doujinshi and they are able to make and deliver any costumes you want within one week. They have been making costumes at an incredibly cheap price and export them in bulk to Europe and the rest of Asia. Although some costumes don't have the kind of quality anime fashion apparel giant COSPA has, it is still incredibly cheap. The company also specialises in making fake weapons for TV and with extremely good quality and detail comparable to Japanese makers.
Interestingly, the same company also carries original costumes of The Prince of Tennis. The anime was aired in China and they were able to get the rights directly from Shueisha to produce their cosplay costumes. Many companies like this are very willing to convert to selling original goods if they have the opportunity and if the prices are reasonable for the market. The piracy situation is not that black and white; you can't just hire a lawyer to sue these people and expect the market to change.
Many Chinese companies are used to selling and earning from pirated goods; it is not easy to change their mindsets overnight. Japanese companies have to come in to support such companies to convert because buyers are not that discerning when it comes to pirated goods. It won't work if there is no replacement for pirated goods once they disappear. And on the other hand, if Japanese companies do not act quickly, they will lose control of the market.
A friend of mine who often organise cosplay events in China has been doing market surveys for years and he found out that more and more people are willing to buy original goods but the problem is these goods are hardly available in China in the first place. In fact, more people are insisting on buying authentic goods only and spend lots of money on anime goods every month. Government efforts have also increased in the recent years because of the upcoming Olympics, World Expo and WTO. Two years ago, no shop would not consider selling original goods but today, with the rising affluence of China and the growing pursuit of quality of life, minds are starting to change. Change is rapid in China indeed; perhaps in the next few years the battle may soon come to an end.