Most of us have heard of ‘Taobao’ and a lot of us even use them regularly (cheap China good ftw!). However, one latest addition in Taobao was something you could never have thought about yourself.
Taylor Swift’s love life has become the latest unlikely product on the Chinese online marketplace. Buyers have been seen gambling on whether she’ll end it with boyfriend British actor Tom Hiddleston.
Credit: gq.com
Hiddleswift “insurance” plans are priced at one yuan (RM0.60) at Taobao shops. The offer is doubled if the couple split up within six months to a year, a search by AFP today showed.
Since betting is illegal in China, apart from state-sanctioned lotteries, online sellers avoid such rules by describing their transactions as insurance against an event.
The Legal Evening News said last week that such schemes were available after news of a possible Swift-Hiddleston relationship came out. The busiest vendor recorded 543 sales in a month and one buyer paying ¥400 (RM239).
Taobao, the consumer-to-consumer platform of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, negotiated with the vendors to take down the items, the paper said.
An AFP search today showed most of the plans had been removed, with only a few low-ranking shops still selling them.
“It’s funny,” said one buyer at a vendor that has had 17 “successful transactions”
Previous offerings included bets on whether Patrick Stewart might grow hair for the next X-Men movie franchise, and whether Katy Perry will win a Grammy in 2017.
All those bets appeared to be off by today.
