From TikTok to live commerce: how counterfeits move through China and Asia, and how to respond

In April 2025, the US imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods, aiming to reduce its reliance on foreign manufacturing. The fallout was not what anyone expected. Within days, bad actors in China responded by turning TikTok into a new shopping platform.

TikTok feeds are no longer filled with dance challenges and makeup tutorials. Videos like “How to buy a Louis Vuitton bag at cost” and “Lululemon yoga pants shipped straight from the factory” are spreading with millions of views. In one, someone standing in what looks like a real factory says, “You can get these leggings for just $5.” The product retails for close to $100, but shoppers mistake it for a smart buy.

Brands pushed back. Louis Vuitton stated clearly that its products aren’t made in China, and Lululemon explained that China accounts for just 3% of its production and that it lists all its suppliers on its official website. The problem goes beyond counterfeit sales or brand impersonation: these “factory-direct” products are sold without any quality or safety checks, which can put consumers directly at risk.

Who the bad actors really are: organized sales operations

Chinese counterfeits no longer move quietly in the shadows. Bad actors analyze consumer trends, clone brands’ official websites and carefully plan social media content to reach shoppers. When a popular counterfeit goes viral, viewers are sent straight to a WeChat link and steered to pay through private channels.

By splitting the roles, with TikTok for promotion and traffic and WeChat for transactions and communication, they make it hard for brands to detect them. To avoid leaving a trail, they hide behind shell companies in the Middle East or Africa, but most of their manufacturing is based in China.

A new way to erase the trail: the threat of live commerce

Counterfeit sales through live commerce have also surged recently. Sellers present products during a live stream, then delete the related posts when the broadcast ends to wipe out any trace. Links are shared by DM, factories start production immediately for small orders, and by the time a brand begins to respond, the products have shipped and the listings are gone.

In 2024 alone, WeChat shut down more than 120,000 fake live commerce channels on its own, took removal action based on more than 20,000 reports, and sanctioned more than 32,000 sellers. Without this proactive response at the platform level, the damage would likely have been far greater.

Counterfeit production and distribution spread beyond China to Southeast Asia

Platforms in China are still the center of the counterfeit trade. Instead of YouTube or Instagram, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and WeChat are used, and everything from trend analysis to content creation and sales works like a single integrated system.

It’s not just China. Recent MarqVision data analysis shows that as enforcement in China tightened, bad actors moved quickly to Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and elsewhere. They use search ads to lure shoppers to fake sites, impersonate brands on social media and close deals through chat apps. When they expect a crackdown, they delete products or move to encrypted chat platforms to cover their tracks.

The latest counterfeit sales tactics are hard to stop with simple takedowns

Products used to be sold on a single platform. Now a multi-step strategy is the norm: promotion on social media, transactions on marketplaces and manufacturing in a third country. As a result, posts disappear and deals close before brands can even secure evidence.

MarqVision’s analysis shows bad actors spreading product listing, promotion and sales across platforms to actively exploit enforcement blind spots. When everything happens on one platform, detection and response are relatively easy. Once the platforms are split, things get much more complicated.

That’s why global brands are moving beyond simple removal requests to data-driven strategies that can trace counterfeits all the way back to offline factories. For example, comparing test purchase data from multiple countries and analyzing packaging design, shipping labels and shipping origins can pinpoint where products are made. Combined with customs information and platform monitoring data, this makes investigation requests and enforcement far more precise.

China is strengthening platform liability through its E-Commerce Law, and Vietnam runs a counterfeit reporting portal with a system for removals within 24 hours. In one case, Vietnam’s police, customs and Ministry of Industry and Trade worked together to seize tens of thousands of counterfeit items and impose fines worth hundreds of billions of won.

Global counterfeit enforcement is evolving with technology and data

Brand protection is no longer just an operating cost. It’s a core strategy for protecting customer trust, maintaining brand value and, over the long term, growing the business.

Technology that detects IP threats from images and video, tracks seller networks and monitors live commerce in real time is no longer optional. As the counterfeit industry becomes more tech-driven and global, brand protection has to evolve too: faster, more precise and driven by data.

Work with MarqVision to stay competitive in fast-changing Asian markets with a proactive brand protection strategy.