Alibaba’s Xianyu (Idle Fish) swims a different course
Xianyu’s shift to B2C and opening of offline stores
Contents
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Introduction
When I do keynotes about Chinese (cross-border) e-commerce, I often get questions about sustainability and circular economy during a Q&A. Recycling might not be the first thing we think of when discussing China. Still, it is most certainly growing in importance in the Chinese domestic market. And there is also a strong governmental push. In February 2024, at a meeting of the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs, Xi Jinping called for more consumer goods and equipment recycling. [1]
A few years ago, the Chinese second-hand market received much attention, partially because of the IPO of the 3C recycling platform Aihuishou. Meanwhile, the limitations posed by the coronavirus made consumers more interested in second-hand goods, and people started shedding long-held prejudices against used products, especially in some product categories like electronics.
In 2024, the leading platform in second-hand e-commerce, Alibaba’s Xianyu (闲鱼), gained attention because it was designated a priority business in the Alibaba Group. Xianyu started opening offline Recycle Stores last year as part of its adjusted strategy. During a recent field trip to China, I visited several of these stores and will share some of my findings in this article.
All in all, it was about time for a look at the second-hand e-commerce market. In this first report, we look at the development of Alibaba’s Xianyu and how strategic focus has changed its business model. In the near future, we plan to publish a report about the developments in the broader second-hand market in China.
The free section of the report below outlines Xianyu’s history, publicly available performance statistics and community-driven strategy.
The paid subscriber-only section describes how Xianyu changed its strategy after being designated a strategic initiative within the Alibaba Group. What you will learn in this section:
How Xianyu introduces B2C business to its platform.
How Xianyu took its platform offline.
An exclusive photo report of Tech Buzz China’s visit to several Xianyu stores in Hangzhou and Shanghai.
Xianyu’s challenges and outlook in the coming years.
Subscribe to unlock the full report and support our in-depth coverage of key China tech trends.
Enjoy,
Ed Sander, Tech Research Analyst
The history of Xianyu: Who’s the boss?
The Xianyu platform was originally an idea proposed by Jack Ma, who asked his team to sell idle items that were no longer needed at home online. At that time, materials were relatively scarce, and the idea soon turned to selling new products. The predecessor of Xianyu was a second-hand market on Taobao.com, and the original domain name was 2.taobao.com. This URL now points to Xianyu.
From 2009 to 2014, the number of second-hand goods on Taobao grew so rapidly that the platform set up a special label for second-hand goods. In May 2014, Chen Weiye (nickname: Chu Duan) led his team of 28 people [4] to become independent and develop the Xianyu App, which marked the official establishment of Xianyu as an independent platform.
At the time, the makers used the English name ‘Sharing Fish’ for the platform. Still, nowadays the app is usually referred to in the more literal translation of Idle Fish (in this article, we will stick to Xianyu). [2] Instead of referring to second-hand or used goods, which in China have long had negative connotations, the more neutral term, ‘idle items’, emphasises the value in these goods. According to the platform, ‘idle goods’ was also a broader concept that covers used stuff that still has value and brand-new items that the owners value, such as an ill-chosen gift from friends. [3]
Between 2014 and 2018, Xianyu adopted a series of key strategies to increase its daily active users. First, it implemented the approach of ‘going out of Taobao and entering Taobao’. In terms of ‘going out of Taobao’, Xianyu operates as an independent app and is led by an independent CEO, while external investment is used to attract customers. In terms of ‘entering Taobao’, Xianyu allows Taobao products to be resold on the Xianyu platform with one click. This significantly simplifies the user's publishing process and enables users to trade products on Xianyu more conveniently.
Users can browse through their purchase history on Taobao and select any item for reselling on Xianyu with ‘just one click’. The process also provides a recommended price for pre-owned goods across different categories, typically at 50% of the product's original cost, making the whole process transparent. [4]
At TechCrunch Shanghai 2017, Chen Weiye shared the four principles to their success. [5]
Mobile-first: Xianyu prioritised the development of the Xianyu mobile app over a desktop site. This was not just driven by the growing popularity of smartphones at the time. Another reason was that sharing idle items was highly dependent on cameras and, therefore, more suitable for mobile usage. Moreover, the team wa simply too small (around 20 people) to develop both mobile and desktop sites.
Low threshold: Every adult user with a Taobao or Alipay account could log in and start sharing their goods.
Trust through communication: Compared to Taobao or Tmall, where people purchase goods from small retailers, trust was an even bigger issue among Xianyu users, and this kind of trust is built through detailed communication before or even after the actual purchase. Around 41% of Xianyu users would chat or leave messages to others. The app also had its own credit rating system, and buyers were protected from fraud by Alipay’s escrow mechanism, while Taobao’s customer service team was available for support. [2]
Easy transaction: Facilitating the transaction process was a top priority for Xianyu to avoid technical problems interfering in the process from communication to purchase.
After its first five years, Xianyu has seen many leadership changes since 2019. In 2019, Chen Lei (nickname: Wen Zhong), the business founder of Taobao Live, took over Xianyu from Chen Weiye. He brought his content and live broadcast operation experience to Xianyu and introduced hundreds of (internet) celebrities to it. [6] Besides introducing the Xianyu live broadcast function, Chen Lei adjusted the transaction structure and attracted business merchants to join the platform. However, due to ‘work style issues’, he resigned in 2020.
In just one year, the person in charge of Xianyu was changed to Jin Ke (nickname: Tang Song), who had previously been the head of Taobao clothing. Jin Ke applied his previous experience in Taobao B2C to the second-hand market, focusing on supporting more standardised businesses such as Xianyu Premium (闲鱼优品, Xianyu Youpin), a certified B2C product section launched in 2019. He also shut down C2C businesses such as the offline flea market events of Xianyu Market (闲鱼市集, Xianyu Shiji). [6]
During Jin Ke’s two years in office, Xianyu underwent important changes in its model. Previously, Xianyu emphasised a sense of community and deliberately weakened the identity concepts of traditional e-commerce companies, such as buyers and sellers. It also did not introduce the credit system of Taobao buyers and sellers. In practice, this approach was plagued by constant transaction disputes. Some local ‘fishpond’ communities (see below) have even been shut down due to the emergence of pornographic and other "fringe" content. The focus of Xianyu's development shifted to C2B2C - that is, consumers hand over goods to the platform for inspection. Then the platform sells it on their behalf. [6]
Jin Ke launched the inspection service, introduced more business merchants, and established an offline base. However, due to his excessive introduction of business merchants, Xianyu and Taobao's business conflicted. Xianyu lost its unique characteristics, so he eventually left his position and transferred to Alibaba International Digital Business Group in 2021.
Liu Bo (nickname: Jia Luo), the head of Alimama, was put in charge of Xianyu. [6] Under Liu Bo, Xianyu began to pay more attention to commercial traffic. Then in 2022, Xuan Yi and Ding Jian (nickname: Ji Shan) took charge of Xianyu. They focused on improving user experience.
In the second half of 2023, Xianyu established an innovation team to encourage product managers to contribute new inspiration and project ideas. Approved projects would receive resource support. [6]
Ding Jian currently serves as the general manager of Xianyu. [6]
Xianyu Statistics
Let’s first have a look at Xianyu’s user numbers. Official statements on Xianyu’s user statistics by Alibaba are rare and far between, but we have been able to piece together an overview using different metrics and figures published over the years.
Registered users
While Taobao is still the Chinese e-commerce platform with the highest number of registered users (over 1 billion), the total number of users on the Xianyu platform is also impressive.
The platform had more than 500 million users, making it one of the largest Alibaba apps by users, said Ding Jian, general manager at Xianyu, at a corporate event in May 2023. [7] [8] At the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference in late 2024, Xianyu announced that it has over 600 million registered users with an annual growth rate close to 30%. [9] [10] Public data shows that the annual compound growth rate of Xianyu users has been close to 30%. [11]
Xianyu has become one of the platforms with the highest market share in the second-hand e-commerce market. According to a Shenwan Hongyuan Research Institute report, Xianyu's penetration rate has reached 72.9%. [13]
However, there is a mismatch between registered and actively trading users. For instance, Alibaba claimed that Xianyu had 100 million users in 2016. Still, according to Quest Mobile, as of the end of 2017, the total number of Chinese users trading second-hand products (across all platforms) was close to 40 million. If correct, most of the Xianyu users in 2016 must not have bought or sold anything on the platform. [12]
Monthly active users
By the end of 2017, Xianyu had 19.61 million monthly active users, ranking first in the second-hand market, followed by Zhuanzhuan, which had 17.47 million monthly active users. [12]
Mobile monthly active users surpassed 100 million in August 2021. [16]
In April 2024, the platform’s number of monthly active users reached 162 million, according to Chinese data aggregator QuestMobile. [17] In July 2024, Alibaba claimed that Xianyu had 178 million monthly active users. [18]
At the end of 2024, QuestMobile released the "2024 China Internet Core Trends Report". Data showed that as of September 2024, Xianyu's MAU (monthly active users) was 181 million, a year-on-year increase of 19.19%, ranking in the top five in the "Top APP User Scale Growth List". [19]
As of March 2025, Xianyu's MAU reached 209 million, according to QuestMobile.
Daily active users
Daily active users commonly refer to people who open an app daily, which also says little about transactions. Since Xianyu has built many communities, many users probably frequently open the app to interact without actually buying or selling something.
Xianyu's DAU has shown a steady growth trend from more than 10 million users in 2018 to nearly 50 million users in early 2024, but its growth has shown large fluctuations:
In 2020, Xianyu increased its daily active users (DAU) through large-scale advertising under Jin Ke. However, this DAU growth was considered low-quality because it did not translate into long-term user retention.
In 2021, DAU jumped to 30 million, mainly due to Xianyu’s new user activities. As a result, Xianyu received Alibaba Group's highest performance score at 3.75 points. [6]
When Jin Ke stepped down, DAU declined from 37 million to 31 million. After Ding Jian and Xuan Yi took over and improved the user's transaction experience, DAU rebounded. DAU reached 36 million to 37 million when it was promoting and advertising, while it was maintained at about 34 million under normal circumstances. DAU has maintained a growth rate of about 15% per year.
Xianyu saw an 18% year-on-year increase in DAU for the quarter ending on June 30, 2023. [14] In September 2023, Xianyu's DAU reached a new peak of 36.7 million. That quarter, DAU was 20% higher than in the same quarter in 2022. [7] [15] Such growth was partly due to the traffic support of Taobao and Alipay.
During 2024, Xianyu saw a 28% increase in downloads and was the 4th most downloaded app in 2024 according to Sensor Tower.
By the end of 2024, Xianyu had nearly 50 million daily active users. [10]
Sellers
In 2020, more than 200 billion items were sold on the platform. [4]
In 2023, more than 100 million people posted items for sale on Xianyu, with four million items posted per day. Users born after 1995 earned an average of RMB 2,700 from selling goods and services (see below) such as financial consulting, night market stalls, taking pets to the vet, in-home makeup and hair care, travel planning, etc. [20]
Looking at the 2023 figures, 20% of the registered 500 million users were buying or selling.
User profile
In mid-2023, Ding Jian said that among Xianyu’s users, those born after 1995 accounted for 43%, and those born after 2000 accounted for 22%. [8] [10]
Note: In early 2024, a Xianyu staff member claimed that the main body of users were born after 1995, accounting for about 60%, while those born after 2000 were close to 40%. Around the same time, another source claimed that Gen Z users, born between 1995 and 2010, accounted for more than 60% of Xianyu’s account holders. [21] The difference might be in the definition. QuestMobile found that while around 43% of people on the platform were born after 1995, users from this cohort accounted for more than 60% of all service orders. [18]
If we compare Xianyu users with users of other emerging social media platforms, such as Douyin and Bilibili, we find a high degree of overlap. This shows that these platforms attract similar young user groups. However, when we compare them with other platforms in the ecosystem, such as Taobao, we find significant differences. Taking Taobao as an example, its main user age group is concentrated between 30 and 50, which is in sharp contrast to the younger user characteristics of the Xianyu platform.
A recent popular term is the “ten thousand yuan households” of Xianyu; those with annual transaction volume exceeding ten thousand yuan. According to official data, this group of users has reached 8 million. They sell trendy toys, clothing, games and even rent out houses on the platform. [10]
Sales
Data shows that in 2024, the number of orders on the Xianyu platform increased by nearly 50% year-on-year. [11]
Xianyu averaged over RMB 1 billion daily gross merchandise value during the 2024 Lunar New Year and more than 4 million product postings daily. [18] This would mean the average sold product had a value of RMB 250.
By the end of 2024, GMV exceeded RMB 400 billion, making it China’s largest C2C trading platform. [10] Taking 2023’s 100 million sellers, the average seller would have earned over RMB 4,000 on Xianyu. However, this average is likely driven up by B2C sellers (see ‘introducing B2C’ below).
2024’s RMB 400 million makes Alibaba’s mid 2021 claim that Xianyu would see GMV of RMB 500 million that year, up from RMB 200 million in 2020, [4] very, very unrealistic. If true, the GMV would have decreased significantly since then, which is very unlikely.
Source: Alizila, 36Kr [4] [10]
A Xianyu staff member shed some light on the possible cause of such inconsistencies. “When processing GMV data in financial reports, Xianyu uses two statistical calibres: book GMV and real GMV. The calculation of real GMV will consider factors such as deducting large transactions and returns to ensure that the data reflects the actual transaction situation. It should be noted that book GMV data is usually sensitive, so the GMV data disclosed in the public relations materials may be inconsistent with the book GMV. In addition, third-party institutions may use different methods than Xianyu when estimating GMV, which may also cause their estimated results to differ from the data in the official public relations release.”
“When analysing the financial report and user growth data for March 2024, the numbers in the PR manuscript did not show substantial growth. Regarding overall sales, GMV (gross merchandise volume) had grown by about 20% per year. It is worth noting that the growth rate of GMV is higher than that of DAU (15%), which may indicate that users' spending power on the platform is increasing.”
Our conclusion? Take Xianyu’s GMV figures with a grain of salt.
Product categories
In the second-hand market, products such as 3C digital products and luxury goods have gradually become the core of profits of the platform because they are large, have relatively high customer unit prices, and are highly standardised and easily covered by pricing and quality inspection systems. In contrast, Xianyu, which is involved in all-category transactions, apparently has a broader market. [22]
On the Xianyu platform, the most outstanding transaction categories include daily household goods, cultural and artistic jewellery, and luxury goods. However, despite the active transactions in the daily household and cultural and creative categories, their contribution to the GMV of the Xianyu platform is not significant.
The category with the most significant transaction volume on the second-hand trading platform is 3C products, which covers a variety of products such as tablets, laptops, CPUs, consoles, keyboards, headphones, drones, selfie devices, etc. Although the customer unit price of the 3C category is not high, due to the large number of transactions and the good standardisation of the products, the overall transaction volume is very considerable.
On the Xianyu platform, the mobile phone category contributes the most to GMV, mainly because the customer unit price of mobile phones, primarily second-hand Apple mobile phones, is relatively high. Even the cheapest second-hand Apple mobile phones are priced between RMB 2,000 and 3,000.
The daily household category is the second largest in the number of transactions, but its GMV is not particularly high, which may be because many transactions are completed offline. Cultural and artistic jewellery ranks third, and this category covers a variety of commodities such as copper coins, handmade products, wood carvings, jewellery and jade.
Second-hand luxury goods rank fourth in transactions on Xianyu, the largest platform in China in this regard. The homepage's luxury goods category is very high because of its good incremental performance.
More than just a second-hand marketplace
Over the years, Xianyu has tried to differentiate itself from other re-commerce platforms by being a social network. Second-hand goods are often non-standard products, and the stronger the non-standard attributes, the more dependent their transactions are on content and community. Therefore, Xianyu has been trying to find a balance between ‘transactions’ and ‘community’ over the years. [22]
In 2015, Xianyu unveiled virtual communities on the app, tapping into the Chinese consumers’ enthusiasm for mixing online shopping with social interaction. These so-called ‘Fishpond’ communities were often populated by users sharing a particular interest, such as photography enthusiasts and Apple fanboys. Xianyu enabled them to exchange information and ideas about their hobbies and swap related merchandise. Fishponds can also revolve around physical neighbourhoods, companies, schools, etc. By 2016, the app had more than 125,000 fishponds. [2] By 2019, this had grown to 1.3 million interest-based communities. [24]
Some users operate permanent virtual stores within the communities, hence the comparison of Xianyu to a digital flea market where people gather to socialise and sell stuff to each other. Moderators voluntarily manage product listings, arbitrate buyer-seller disputes on the ‘Xianyu Small Court’, and answer questions raised by community participants, such as how much their iPhone is worth and how to fix their broken Macs. [2]
At the end of 2019, Xianyu added a location-based service (LBS) feature to the app. This enabled users who are geographically close to each other to connect. The new feature allowed users to filter product listings according to seller location to boost transactions on the platform. [24]
Besides the fishpond, there’s a separate channel where celebrities sell their personal items to followers. This is particularly popular for luxury shoppers, who trust the authenticity of items owned by celebrities and aspire to follow their fashion tastes. [25]
Xianyu demo video. Source: Alibaba Group, circa 2021.
More recent additions that show that Xianyu’s brand is not only limited to the trading platform, but is also a fun life community: [11]
‘Huiwan’ (会玩), a social hub where users can join various ‘circles’ based on hobbies like anime, gaming, fashion, and collectables. They can also browse and contribute to "热门" (Hot) sections featuring trending posts, discussions, and multimedia content. They can also interact with influencers who share insights and product recommendations. Huiwan was launched in 2020 and upgraded in 2023.
The ‘Seafood Market’ (海鲜市场, Haixian Shichang): Launched in May 2023, it promotes buying and selling based on current hot topics. Users can engage in hashtag-based conversations about current events. [23] The Seafood Market features various trading formats, including group buying, item exchanges, and free giveaways.
The ‘Xianyu Outlet’ (闲鱼奥莱, Xianyu Aolai), a channel focusing on B2C sales of discounted, near-new, and clearance items (see ‘Introducing B2C’).
The ‘Xianyu Side Hustle’ (闲鱼副业, Xianyu Fuye), where users can upload their resumes since 2024 to showcase their available time, interests, experiences, and skills for making some ‘money on the side’.
Indeed, Xianyu is not just for selling second-hand goods … young people also share their skills, interests and experiences, and earn income through side jobs.
Xianyu’s side job marketplace, launched in July 2024, enables users to offer services across eight categories and hundreds of sub-categories, covering everything from pet massages to language tutoring. Education and training, pet services and online consultation are especially popular among young people. Xianyu users can search service postings and browse the seller’s resume before placing orders and paying as they would when buying physical products on the platform. [18]
In 2024, the average daily order volume of Xianyu's side jobs doubled year-on-year, and the daily transaction volume exceeded RMB 10 million. In 2024, young people on Xianyu earned an average of RMB 3,660 from their side jobs. That year, 9.5 million young people posted side jobs on Xianyu, of which those born after 2000 accounted for as high as 41%. [11]
Example of looking for services on Xianyu. Image source: Alizila [18]
Xianyu also includes interactive features such as livestreaming, influencer-driven communities and forums, online auctions starting as low as RMB 1, and dedicated channels for finding rare vintage handbags and handmade couture. [4]
Xianyu partnered with Ant Group to offer users access to its sustainability mini-program, ‘Ant Forest’, which is featured on Ant’s mobile-payments platform Alipay. Users can redeem points awarded by Ant Forest for recycling to have trees planted by Ant in China. The total recycling activity on Xianyu in 20218 translated into the planting of about 230,000 trees. [25]
Building trust
Lack of trust in the seller, authenticity, and realistic display of goods have always been issues in e-commerce in China, even more so in the trade of second-hand goods. Under the pure C2C model, the authenticity of individual sellers' products is difficult to supervise.
Just like during the early years of Taobao, in the beginning, issues of credit, security, and user experience were not taken seriously at Xianyu. At one time, Xianyu’s security department only had one employee. [6] However, Xianyu focused more on trust and interaction as it matured to solve the trust issue. It launched a dedicated platform-certified channel featuring high-value products such as electronics and fashion sneakers inspected and authenticated by third-party professionals. Vice versa, sellers new to the scene can choose free mail-in or pick-up services to have their items inspected and sold by the platform. [4]
In 2022, Xianyu integrated its product and community departments and established a user product centre to improve user experience. In 2023, Xianyu invested heavily in its credit system, the ‘Xianyu Small Court’ and other infrastructure solutions. [6]
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