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Plagiarism harmful to fashion fraternity: Rohit Bal
New Delhi: Plagiarism in the fashion industry has long been a bane for designers not only in India, but internationally too. Ace fashion designer Rohit Bal says such cheap copies are not only a crime, but these parallel markets are also harming their business.
Bal agrees that people “lust” for designer wear, but he sees that as no reason to “copy” anyone’s designs.
“Copying is a crime… I have been lusting a Rolls-Royce all my life, but that doesn’t mean that I will copy one… everything with a certain kind of value is aspirational. Unfortunately, in my business what I do is not for everybody and everybody who wants it… and that doesn’t mean they buy cheap copy. I can’t stop them… but they must understand that it harms our business,” Bal told.
The 53-year-old believes that plagiarism is not justified as their work requires a lot of brainstorming.
“Everything what we do requires a lot of hardwork, research, development and extreme amount of patience, time and effort. For somebody, who just takes that idea and convert it into a cheap thing, is very harmful for us. It’s harmful for our business and it’s harmful for the entire fashion fraternity,” he added.
Bal, however, does not find the customers who are purchasing such copies at fault.
“It’s not the customer who is at fault… the people who are copying it are at fault,” said the veteran designer, who is credited with changing the face of Indian fashion with his design sensibilities since launching his debut menswear line in 1990.
Bal says the plagiarised designer wear market is a racket, and that women come over to the stores, try on ensembles in the trial rooms and click photographs of their designs and then pass it on.
It needs to be stopped, says Bal, who hopes to start taking legal action against plagiarism, with the help of Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI).
“I think the design fraternity through the FDCI is going to take a strong stand against plagiarism… and make sure these people stop doing it now,” Bal said.
Over the years, with the popularity of high-end Indian designer wear, even the demand of the ‘fakes’ and replicas has gone up, as they are available at a fraction of the prices of the original creations.
Meanwhile, Bal, whose designs are available in India and abroad for exhorbitant prices, is also hopeful to make something for the country’s middle-class. To this end, he has collaborated with labels like Biba, and e-commerce platforms Jabong and Amazon to give a touch of his magic to everyone.
“I have been selling clothes for Rs.5,000 and upwards at Biba; I have sold clothes for Rs.4,000 upwards on Jabong. We have a full collection which will start from Rs.3,000 up at Amazon. That is not ‘Rohit Bal’ label, it’s ‘Balance’, a sub brand. So, if anyone really wants to wear my clothes, can afford to but it from any of these places,” said the designer, known for his signature peacock and lotus motifs.
Signing off on a very positive note, the designer said that if something is of high amount or value, it should be a driving force for people to work towards it.
Bal said: “I think something that is worth a certain amount, money, value or perceived value, become aspirational to work harder and to try and achieve them and to own that. I am working very hard to buy myself a beautiful car, so I think it’s a driving force.”
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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