As China's leading secondhand trading platform, Xianyu has built a thriving C2C marketplace with its massive user base and active community. However, this low-barrier, highly open "bazaar" model has inadvertently become a breeding ground for gray-market activities while facilitating idle goods circulation.
"On Xianyu, what you can buy largely depends on your grasp of underground lingo." From fake review services to suspiciously cheap overseas hotel bookings (potentially linked to credit card fraud), from crab coupon scams to points-related gray businesses, various violations persist despite repeated crackdowns.
From "Marginal" Platform to Strategic Growth Driver Originally launched as Taobao's "Taobao Secondhand" channel, Xianyu evolved to address growing consumer needs for reselling unused purchases. No longer just a supplementary feature in Alibaba's e-commerce ecosystem, Xianyu's rising prominence became evident through Alibaba's organizational restructuring.
In late 2023, Xianyu was elevated to a Tier-1 business unit under Taotian Group. The pivotal change came in November 2024 when Alibaba established its China Commerce Business Group, formally incorporating Xianyu into Alibaba's core e-commerce structure. By August 2025, Xianyu joined Taobao, Tmall, and Fliggy as key components of Alibaba's China Commerce division, marking substantial strategic prioritization.
With this elevated status came monetization responsibilities. Xianyu introduced its first seller fees in June 2023, charging 1% service fees for sellers exceeding 10 transactions or ¥10,000 monthly volume. By September 2024, it implemented a 0.6% base fee (capped at ¥60 per transaction) for all sellers, maintaining higher 1% charges for high-volume sellers. In 2025, the fee structure tightened further, with qualifying sellers facing 1.6% charges.
Public data shows Xianyu now boasts over 600 million registered users with 4 million daily new listings. Crucially, its daily GMV exceeds ¥1 billion. According to the 2025 China Mobile Internet Spring Report, Xianyu's March 2025 MAU reached 209 million (20% YoY growth), ranking among top 10 billion-MAU apps and leading e-commerce platforms in user growth speed.
Gray-Market Challenges Xianyu's open platform presents a double-edged sword, with its strengths enabling problematic activities:
1. Suspiciously Cheap Hotel Bookings (Potential Credit Card Fraud) Deeply discounted overseas hotel/air ticket booking services have drawn scrutiny. Evidence suggests some merchants use stolen credit card information to book rooms at full price, then resell at discounts. Consumers risk being denied accommodation when hotels detect fraudulent payments. Despite user reports with substantial evidence, some offending merchants reportedly remain active.
2. Fake Review Ecosystem A July 2025 CCTV investigation exposed Xianyu as a hub for fake review services. Sophisticated operations use coded language to evade detection, offering packaged services including review fabrication and negative review removal. Some "store management" services still openly offer paid positive reviews.
3. Scams in Specialty Markets Collective complaints on consumer platforms allege undeliverable "Yangcheng Lake Crab" coupons sold on Xianyu. In luxury resale, systematic "bait-and-switch" tactics prevail, where buyers pose as individuals offering high prices, then drastically reduce offers upon receipt—sometimes halving agreed prices—while deliberately damaging items to justify reductions.