One area where Alibaba may require expanded headcount is eradicating counterfeit goods sold on its market places. Last December, the company said that it had spent $160m since the start of 2013 trying to delete counterfeit products from its sales websites, such as Taobao. It said that it employed a 2,000-strong task force and 5,400 "volunteers" to police the sites for suspicious items. Earlier this month, the ecommerce company pledged to step up efforts to cull knock-offs from its sites, bowing to criticism from the American Apparel & Footwear Association, a US clothing industry lobbying group. The AAFA had complained that it was "frustrated" by Alibaba's lack of progress in addressing what it called rampant selling of fake goods. It added that the prevalence of counterfeit apparel had worsened since Alibaba was removed from a "notorious markets" blacklist in 2012.