According to a Reuters report, Peter Vesterbacka marketing chief for Rovio visited China and realised that counterfeit Angry Birds products is actually helpful for the company’s growth; at least not yet, but the channel is already opened.
Instead of waging full-fledged legal wars upon these counterfeiters, Rovio decided on a hybrid strategy which will strive to maintain balance as well as capitalise on the momentum of such business potential.
China is the second largest Angry Birds market behind the US, commanding 140 million downloads out of the total of 1 billion downloads as claimed.
Rovio is planning to open their own retail stores and recreational parks in China starting July 2012. Instead of directly going to the court room, it will attempt to negotiate with some businesses to switch-over to selling original goods. These new shops, which are expected to amount to 100 stores by 2013, will sell original goods and paying customers will get to unlock ‘digital rewards’ in the game itself.
It also leverages on the ‘pirating the pirates’ strategy which is to ‘steal’ marketing ideas from pirates – producing and launching new original products to counter existing market segments.
Reuters also reported that there is an entirely fake Angry Birds recreational park being opened  in the southern Chinese city of Changsha, in the Hunan province.
That’s how much love China has for the ‘birds’. More than that, perhaps the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) could take a leaf out of Rovio’s playbook.
