Second-hand goods trading app Xianyu allows users to buy and sell just about anything a young Chinese person in their 20s could want, including a rare Pokémon card collection, a Tokai dialect tutorial, an Olympic gold medal, and a fully furnished apartment. Similar to the feed on Chinese lifestyle app Xiaohongshu, the app’s feed allows users to filter product listings by proximity and favorite sellers. Popular categories include cell phones, coupons, and collectible toys.
Developed by e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2014, Xianyu (“閑 fish” in Chinese) is China’s largest second-hand goods trading app. With over 500 million monthly active users, it is the second largest e-commerce app in the Alibaba ecosystem after Taobao. The app’s user base skews young, with 45% of its users born after 1995, and caters to specific subcultures, from gaming to fashion to anime. On Xianyu’s social feed, users showcase their collections of everything from miniature his models to vintage clothing, and use the platform as more than just a marketplace to interact with each other through interest-based communities. It is also used as a space.
Xianyu sellers also share the stories behind their featured products. They are often very long and confessional, giving rise to a new genre called “Xianyu literature.” In one example, a Xianyu user who sells used laptops begins telling a soap opera-like story about meeting an ex-girlfriend. “When I first met her in 2016, I had just been released from prison,” he wrote in her listing. “She is planning to get married now. [to someone else.] It’s time to get rid of this laptop that I was using to watch TV. ”
fact box
app name: | Xianyu (闲鱼) |
Developer: | Alibaba (China) Co., Ltd. |
Country: | China |
release date: | June 2014 |
platform: | iOS, Android |