Copycats
Chinese companies prevailed at the 2015 IFA Global Press Conference hosted by the GFU and Messe Berlin GmbH. Haier, ZTE, and may more Chinese companies gave presentations of their products and business strategies for over 300 reporters from around the world.
A large number of their products were found to be based on imitation. Many of the product concepts and brand names were similar to those of Korean products.
One of the examples is the New Haier Dual Drum Washing Machine, on which two drums are mounted for separate washing. This technique had been exhibited by LG Electronics at the CES 2015 in January this year.
Haier’s T Door Series refrigerator is another one of the examples. The product has one upper fridge and two lower freezers, which is used in LG Electronics’ DIOS refrigerator model V9100 released in August 2012. Haier’s New Solid State Wine Cellar, in which no compressor is used to prevent noise and vibration, was very similar to that of Dayou Winia released years ago.
In the meantime, ZTE unveiled various mobile devices, ranging from smartphones to smart projectors, at the conference. Some participants pointed out the similarity of those devices’ names to those of Korean products, mentioning the Blade S6 smartphone and SPRO2 mobile projector as two of examples.