Chinese multinational conglomerate Alibaba Group may have dismissed any partnership rumors with Bitcoin rewards shopping app Lolli; however, according to the latter, the partnership was well underway before being called off without any reasoning from the e-commerce giant.
On 12th November 2019, Alibaba pumped up consumers’ interests by indicating a partnership with shopping app startup Lolli, and offering Bitcoin rewards to its US customers on Singles Day. Unfortunately, the excitement was short-lived. Shortly after the news break, Alibaba publicly denied the partnership touted by Lolli CEO Alex Adelman. Lolli is not authorized to bring in any sales traffic to Alibaba and that Alibaba is not involved or affiliated with this entity in any form, Alibaba declared.
The root cause of this miscommunication may appear to have been caused by one of Alibaba’s contractors, who hired a subcontractor associated with Lolli’s marketing program. As Alibaba had no information about this association, it has terminated its relationship with the subcontractor, thus disengaging its affiliation with Lolli as well.
Bitcoin rewards app Lolli retaliates
However, on 17th November 2019, Adelman rebutted Alibaba’s denial of partnership by alleging that the firm has, in fact, associated itself with Alibaba Group with AliExpress. Per Adelman, they have driven AliExpress’ sales for a long time now and have been distributing Bitcoin rewards to its users.
And while it is not yet clear why Alibaba denied such a partnership, some claim that it could be because of the increasing popularity of its Singles’ Day marketing campaign. However, given the Chinese government’s hostile stance on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it decided to refrain from such partnerships.
Adelman, on the other hand, maintains that the treatment received so far has been unfair and defaming. Lolli and Alibaba’s subcontractor did enter a mutual agreement to launch this service on Singles’ Day. In fact, Alibaba tested our services for twenty-four hours, after which it decided to disengage itself. Alibaba.com’s subcontractor authorized a contractual agreement on behalf of the e-commerce company, which included marketing, use of its brand name, and campaigning on social media platforms. We maintain that there has been no malintent of misrepresenting Alibaba, Adelman confirms.
Alibaba is defaming us, Lolli
He further went on to defend his company by stating that the miscommunication that happened from Alibaba’s end defame the brand and taint their reputation as being unreliable, despite the fact that they probably did nothing wrong.
And while Lolli regrets this partnership loss, Adelman added that the firm is willing to move past this fiasco and look forward to the possibility of working with the renowned brand name in the retail industry once again. Only this time, on clearly drawn out terms.
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