Last week, Alibaba launched its “88VIP” package to selected users.

The user just needs to pay CNY88 (US$12.9) to enrol into the programme.

With membership of this programme, the user can get 5% discount of all purchases on Tmall and Tmall International. In addition, the user can also claim special discount on certain goods such as New Zealand fresh milk and Thai fragrant rice.

The enrolled user can also get free membership of Youku (Alibaba’s video service), ele.me (food delivery service), Xiami (music streaming), and Taopiaopiao (ticketing service).

All discounts and privileges are applicable throughout the year of enrolment.

By now, you would already know that this is … Amazon Prime, I mean, a copycat of that.

One caveat, the 88VIP programme is not open to everyone, not at least at this price. Those whoses “淘气值”, or Taobao Score, is below 1000 would need to purchase the same package for CNY888, 10 times the price of their privileged peers.  

This explains all the benefits (in Chinese)

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Thanks for reading The Low Down (TLD), the blog by the team at Momentum Works. Got a different perspective or have a burning opinion to share? Let us know at [email protected].