Xianyu's Future Strategy Beyond Second-hand, Eyeing New Products and Internationalization
TapTechNews July 2nd news, today in the afternoon, Ji Shan, the president of Xianyu
(a second-hand trading platform), disclosed the strategy for the next three years of Xianyu in a media exclusive interview. He stated: Xianyu will not only focus on second-hand products, and there is still the possibility of new products breaking through the circle.
We have to distance ourselves from e-commerce and find the advantages of differentiated competition. Previously, the way users made money on Xianyu was by selling goods, and in the future, it will be more diversified. The directions that young people are interested in are the directions we will focus on investing in.
Ji Shan said that nowadays, idle trading is relatively niche, and Xianyu hopes to turn the user's money-saving behavior into a trendy lifestyle, making everyone accept circular consumption.
He pointed out that the consumption habits of domestic consumers for second-hand products are continuously improving, and the demand and degree for second-hand are also changing.
Ji Shan stated that young users' consumption is more cautious and smart, and they pursue a balance between quality and price more. What they buy on Xianyu is not necessarily low-priced products, and they have very high requirements for product quality, which is very different from buying on Pinduoduo.
Young users of Xianyu are very vibrant, and many gameplay methods are created by users. They innovate on users, and the platform should assist them. Of course, our challenge is also how to make users feel more at ease.
After ten years of development, Xianyu has now transformed into a community that carries the hobbies of young people because Xianyu is adapting to the changes in consumer demand, and this change is the source of growth momentum.
He also mentioned that the positioning of Xianyu is not an e-commerce platform but where users' interests lie. Xianyu is not a pure GMV platform, but users can find partners to share here. Ji Shan said that if only doing second-hand transactions, there will still be an upper limit, and new products are the driving force for Xianyu's future growth.
Xianyu is not just for second-hand. Official peripheral pre-sales and other merchants will enter Xianyu, and we will also provide a toB conversion for brand merchants to directly transfer flawed products to Xianyu, allowing B-side goods to directly contact C-side consumers.
Ji Shan believes that in a longer-term cycle, AI and internationalization are things that Xianyu cannot miss.
The development space overseas is huge. The Southeast Asian market is very similar to what China once was. In Europe, more second-hand transactions occur offline. Internationalization is a direction that cannot be missed from a longer term. But this is not a short-term thing, and the domestic penetration rate is currently not high enough.
As a second-hand goods trading platform under Alibaba, although Xianyu is not yet enough to become one of the six major business groups of Alibaba, Xianyu is continuously getting more attention from Alibaba recently.
In November last year, Xianyu, which belongs to Taotian Group, was officially sealed by Ali's new CEO, Wu Yongming, as one of Ali's first batch of strategic-level innovative business members. The strategic big picture of Alibaba's new development stage described by him shows that Xianyu, together with 1688, Dingding, and Kuake, has become Ali's strategic-level innovative businesses.
TapTechNews found through inquiry that the last time Xianyu was mentioned in Ali's financial report was still in September last year . As of September 30, 2023, its daily active users (DAU) increased by more than 20% year-on-year. According to Ali, the income of Xianyu is mainly composed of advertising, commissions, and value-added services (such as product recycling, consignment, and product testing fees).