An article in the Financial Times,  (November 20 2015) titled “Ecommerce offers a cheaper and faster way to market”, describes the growth of BAT i.e., Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, in China. With Alibaba selling $14.3 billion worth of goods on November 11, Singles day, these ecommerce companies claim to offer a scalable retail channel.  Will the intense retail competition reduce prices to generate negligible margins? Will these channels invigorate counterfeit products that can coexist with branded manufacturers? Should manufacturers go direct to customers through these channels to control distribution?