While many Chinese and even foreigners do enjoy buying counterfeit luxury bags or designer goods in China, food frauds have become a huge concern of people living in China.
RiMa is to tackle this problem. Literally it means “sharp code” in Chinese that consumers will be told whether a good is fake by scanning the code on it with RiMa app or type it in. As the code on each piece of good is unique, the app would remind you to be cautious if it has been scanned once — chances are a consumer is about to buy the very piece after it is found authentic.
RiMa started with baby & mother care products which Chinese particularly care about especially after a series of milk scandals. Categories like wine are also the company’s first choices.
It needs brands to provide all the code numbers of their products. Incentives for them to do so include RiMa would, in turn, provides them with consumer data, such as where (i.e. which department stores) consumers buy their products, and services like they are allowed to send consumers e-coupons.
The app wants to eventually be a tool helping brands track their goods all the way, from distributors, retailers to end users. On top of which brands can build a CRM system and will have more data for analysis.
RiMa just graduated from ChinaAccelerator‘s 2013 batch. The team of five has worked on the product for only three months.