Say goodbye to fake goods. For classifieds platforms like Carousell, trust and confidence between buyers and sellers (including brands) are paramount. In an unprecedented move, the world’s largest and fastest growing classifieds platform has launched a programme to tackle listings of unauthorised or fake/replica goods in collaboration with brand partners. Called Carousell Rights Owners Programme (CROP), it provides assurance to both brands and users to deal with greater confidence in the marketplace.
What CROP allows is for trusted brand partners to directly remove listings of brand replicas from the platform with zero processing time. This feature ensures that the content moderation process and takedowns are drastically sped up. Prior to CROP, there was a longer process—from the flagging of an item to the actual takedown.
Since piloting the programme in December 2018, over 13,000 listings have been taken down.
Only select brand partners whose activities will be closely monitored by Carousell, will have access to CROP and its content moderation capabilities.
Brands onboard CROP include Nike, Grab and luxury group Kering, which owns brands like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and Bottega Veneta.
According to Serena Darcel Chin, head of legal, Carousell explained that once a listing has been deemed unauthorised and removed directly by a brand through CROP, the seller will automatically receive an email to notify them of the take down due to their item’s infringement of Intellectual Property (IP) rights.
Carousell’s existing unauthorised goods policy prohibits the sale of replicas and the creation of any content that violates any intellectual property rights.
SOP is the latest development in Carousell’s continued efforts to build a trusted environment for its users. Aside from CROP, the company has also invested resources in Sift Science (a third party service provider) that provides manual moderation services to help combat fake goods on the platform.
In August, the Singaporean homegrown startup celebrated its seventh anniversary as well as launching a new visual identity. The classifieds platform celebrated its 250th million listing and a four-fold revenue growth in 2018.
