Xianyu Product Analysis Report: Is it reliable to use a trading platform to play a social card?

This product analysis report is mainly aimed at understanding Xianyu’s target population and needs, as well as understanding Xianyu’s product characteristics such as product strategy, product functions and product performance, and analyzing the reasons for Xianyu’s success and future development. enjoy~

1. Industry Background

Xianyu’s predecessor, Taobao Secondhand, was launched in June 2013. Let’s first take a look at the market conditions at that time.

First, let’s look at the development market of the sharing economy. Uber had just entered China, and the sharing economy was still in its blue ocean era in China, and Xianyu seized the opportunity. After the financial crisis in 2008, as information technology and its innovative applications entered a period of explosive growth, the sharing economy grew rapidly and has shown a blowout development trend since 2014.

The development of sharing economy in China

Although the sharing economy has only been around for a short time in China, the idle resource trading market in China has always been huge. But the idle market structure at that time had mostly been divided up by the PC side. In 2014, Economic Voice observer Zhang Yi said: The second-hand goods trading industry has formed a relatively established structure, such as 58.com, Ganji, and Baixing.com. Among them, 58 has the highest share, accounting for 22%, which is twice that of the third place.

Looking at the present situation, idle transactions have become a part of the sharing economy , the sharing economy has been put on the government's work agenda, national consumption concepts are changing, and e-commerce transactions continue to give birth to a new blue ocean of second-hand transactions. The "2016 China Sharing Economy Development Report" released by China Business Data pointed out that in 2013, the idle market in the United States accounted for 0.8% of total retail sales. In China, which does not yet have a complete idle resource trading system, the idle market share should be even higher. In 2016, the size of China's idle market is conservatively estimated to reach 400 billion yuan. Idleness has become the biggest cake of the sharing economy. In this process, products are constantly born and die. After several rounds of reshuffles on the mobile idle resource trading platform, Xianyu owned by Alibaba and Zhuan Zhuan owned by 58.com topped the list with penetration rates of 3.9% and 1.8% respectively, accounting for nearly 90% of the market share. The Matthew effect has become more and more obvious. In terms of DAU, Xianyu has even reached three times that of Zhuan Zhuan. The once established situation has been reversed. Based on the above background, the author became interested in the development path of Xianyu and conducted an analysis on this.

2. Experience environment and analysis purpose

Experience model: OnePlus 5

System version: Android7.1.1

App version: Xianyu Android version 5.9.4

Experience time: 2017.10.6

Purpose of analysis:

(1) Understand Xianyu’s target audience and needs;

(2) Understand Xianyu’s product characteristics, including product strategy, product functions, and product performance;

(3) Analyze the reasons for Xianyu’s success and its future development.

3. Product Introduction

3.1 Product Name: Xianyu

3.2 Product Type: Internet Idle Trading Platform

3.3 Supported platforms: IOS/Android

3.4 Product logo:

3.5 Product slogan: Make your idle time come alive

3.6 Product Introduction: Alibaba Group's C2C idle trading platform, which allows users to enjoy Alipay guaranteed transactions without opening a store. It only takes 30 seconds to publish a product, supports Taobao one-click resale, voice publishing, video publishing and other methods. Fresh fish pond gameplay gathers various experts

3.7 Product Features:

• Alipay guarantees transactions on personal platforms, which is convenient and safe without opening a store;
• Supports Taobao one-click resale, voice, video , code scanning and other publishing methods, and a product can be published in 30 seconds;
• Goods are directed to Taobao, which increases their exposure and makes them easier to sell.
• Fish pond gameplay, gather like-minded friends to communicate and play together.

4. User and demand analysis

4.1 Analysis of target user groups

Early Xianyu users were mainly diverted from Taobao, and the core users in the product's cold start phase were all loyal Taobao users. Therefore, when Xianyu was first launched, the advantages emphasized were Taobao's huge user base and Alipay's mature online transactions. But at that time, Alibaba did not have an advantage in the second-hand trading market, and it was not easy for Xianyu to carve out a niche in it.

Taobao can still direct some users to Xianyu through product searches, but there is no banner or button on the Taobao page that allows users to reach Xianyu with one click. Alibaba intends to separate Xianyu from Taobao for independent development, weaken the transaction attributes of Xianyu, and create a community that focuses on communication among like-minded people. After establishing a network of trust relationships, transactions will naturally come to fruition.

Referring to the data obtained by searching Xianyu with Tencent Browsing Index, and using search users to approximately replace user users, the main users of Xianyu are aged between 18 and 35, that is, the post-80s and post-90s generations, and most of them have a bachelor's degree. In other words, they are severe internet addicts, can quickly accept new things, have medium spending power, have a certain pursuit of cost-effectiveness of goods, and do not mind using second-hand goods. What is worth noting is the gender ratio. Although women's clothing accounts for the largest proportion of the products released by Xianyu, the main users of Xianyu are male users. This is also one of the reasons why it has become a veritable "computer enthusiast's paradise."

Age, gender, and educational background distribution of Xianyu users (2017/09/10—2017/10/09)

As an idle trading platform, Xianyu has almost no threshold for use. Anyone can be the target user of Xianyu. However, considering the user growth and community positioning, Xianyu's target groups should be the following four categories:

(1) Loyal online shopping users, especially Taobao users

Every year on Double Eleven, all major e-commerce platforms will break the transaction records of previous years. The transaction volume on the Alibaba platform alone reached 120.7 billion yuan. Behind the huge transaction volume of goods are more idle old items and the urgent need to recover after shopping. According to the "April 2017 App Ranking" released by Aurora Big Data , Taobao's penetration rate in the comprehensive e-commerce category has reached more than 50%, and its traffic diversion effect with a huge user base cannot be underestimated.

(2) Users with high residential mobility

This group mainly includes students who have just joined or are about to join the workforce, white-collar workers who rent houses, etc. The direct consequence of the high residential mobility is the generation of a large amount of idle items and the demand for house rentals. These two demands account for two of Xianyu's three future focus points.

(3) A large number of female users

On the one hand, women are generally more enthusiastic about shopping than men and are more prone to impulse buying, which can greatly activate the idle market; on the other hand, the role of female users in promoting social interaction is self-evident, and an increase in the proportion of female users can bring in a large number of highly active male users. After Xianyu launched the video publishing and skill sharing functions, a large number of female users began to show off their talents in the skill sharing module, and the opening of the super awesome function undoubtedly provided male users with an opportunity to interact and watch.

(4) Expert users with special skills

Fish ponds are the biggest feature that sets Xianyu apart from other idle trading platforms, and are also the main reason why Xianyu currently maintains a high DAU. Chen Weiye, the person in charge of Xianyu, announced at the Pond Owner Conference in Hangzhou on May 20 this year that in 2017, Xianyu will incubate 100,000 fish ponds with 500 active people, and fully open the registration system for interest fish ponds. It can be seen that in-depth development of fish ponds is also the main development direction of Xianyu in the future. Expert users can lead the live fish pond and become event initiators and major UGC users. In addition, expert users will also become the main force in filling the Xianyu knowledge sharing module.

4.2 User Demand Analysis

(1) Transactional user needs

The characteristics of transactional users are very obvious. Sellers are usually impulsive consumers or people with high mobility. They are prone to having a large number of idle items and hope to quickly clear them out and complete the transaction in a short period of time. Buyers hope to be able to quickly purchase their favorite products without spending too much time.

• Basic requirements: The platform has a large number of product categories and quantities, and can smoothly publish or purchase products, view and re-edit published products, view order records, support searching, filtering and collecting products, communicate with buyers/sellers, guarantee transactions, etc. to meet the needs of normal transaction functions.
• Expected needs: The ability to recommend suitable products based on user preferences, product sharing functions, timely message push, one-click return to the top when scrolling down to view products, real-time display of transaction logistics, display of seller real-name authentication credit score, etc., which are not required by the product but are expected by users.
• Exciting needs: help you estimate the price, resell on Taobao with one click, sell idle items in packages, show your treasures in videos, exchange fish and shellfish for goods, order express delivery online, publish idle items within 30 seconds, intelligently classify goods, publish product optimization guidance, etc., which are beyond users' expectations and can better promote users' use of products.

(2) Needs of social users

The characteristic of social users is that they are not in a hurry to buy and sell goods, but they often hang out in fish ponds and various product review areas. This type of users usually have two needs - to solve loneliness and seek recognition. They expect to find like-minded people on this platform, look forward to good interactions with others, and hope to find a sense of belonging and existence on the platform. Users who are keen on UGC production will hope to be recognized by others and have a sense of honor.

5. Product Analysis

5.1 Product Business Process Analysis

Xianyu’s business mainly consists of four parts: idle buying and selling, skill buying and selling, rental and auction. Skills are actually a kind of intangible idleness, and the buying and selling process is similar to ordinary idleness, so it is incorporated into the idle buying and selling process analysis.

(1) Idle trading

Xianyu Trading Process

Xianyu order processing flow

From the perspective of the idle buying and selling process, the entire process from product release to purchase to payment to delivery to order completion can be carried out within the Xianyu platform. The Xianyu + Alipay + Cainiao Network model has formed a complete ecological closed loop, and the user experience is smooth. The vast majority of Xianyu users are online shoppers who are familiar with general online shopping processes. Xianyu's product purchasing process basically follows Taobao's purchasing process, so it is very easy for users to get started. What needs attention is that users who are sellers are not familiar with the product release and delivery processes and need certain guidance during the process. Xianyu divides the entire process into multiple steps. The next step will not be displayed until one step is completed, guiding users step by step and lowering the threshold for users to get started.

(2) Renting a house

Xianyu rental process

Xianyu House Rental is a new section that was launched in October 2016. At that time, the idle items trading module had already achieved a leading relative market share. The launch of the house rental function should be another attempt to expand the product category. According to CBNData's "Post-90s Sharing Economy Report", people born in the 1990s have already occupied half of the users on Xianyu, and this group of users will also become the main force of renting houses on Xianyu. Compared with the existing rental market, Xianyu's biggest advantage is that it solves the problem of information asymmetry, intentionally avoids commercial platforms, and gathers a large number of individual properties. Landlords and tenants communicate and trade directly without having to pay agency fees. In addition, Xianyu does not charge sellers commissions or advertising fees for profit. It can be said to be a breath of fresh air in the current rental market.

From a process perspective, the early process is similar to idle transactions. Users select target properties online, communicate with landlords online, and initiate house viewing requests after both parties reach a consensus and establish a preliminary trust relationship. After inspecting the property offline, they still return to online transactions. Alipay guarantees transaction security, avoiding the insecurity of offline transactions. During the whole process, the landlord and the tenant are in an equal state and communicate in a two-way manner. The meet-and-see house function is the biggest highlight of the process. On traditional classified information websites such as 58.com, landlords need to include contact information when posting listings, and tenants may call to inquire at any time, which can cause great trouble to individual landlords in their work or life. However, Xianyu's meet-and-see house viewing service is based on the mutual consent of both parties to the transaction, and is more suitable for individual landlords.

(3) Auction (judicial auction)

Xianyu Judicial Auction Process

Judicial auctions mostly involve large amounts of real estate. Due to their special nature, the auction process is obviously lengthy and has strict requirements. Before the official auction begins, bidders need to constantly confirm various matters and pay a deposit to ensure that the bidder is the real person and knows all the auction rules. Users can directly give up the auction at any stage before the deposit is paid successfully, ensuring that the entire process is open, transparent, efficient and rigorous.

5.2 Analysis of product core functions

(1) Product function structure diagram

(2) Release function

Xianyu product release process

The product publishing function is undoubtedly the most important function of Xianyu, which can be seen from the publishing entrance settings. The permanent bottom navigation bar on the homepage places the publish button in the center, deforms the button and adds a theme color to make it stand out. Judging from the sub-pages, except for the court sales module, all other module sub-pages of the navigation sub-page set up on the homepage have publish buttons. Most of them are in the form of eye-catching theme color buttons and are located at the bottom of the page. There is also a publish button inside each fish pond, which shows how high the publishing demand is.

From the user's perspective, product publishing needs to be fast and efficient, and product classification must be accurate to facilitate target buyers to find them. Novice users expect to receive certain guidance to publish content reasonably and increase product views. Based on the above requirements, let's take a look at the publishing process of Xianyu.

Before the product is released, the user clicks the publish button to enter the category selection page. According to the browsing habits of general users, the first thing they see is the Xianyu Money Making Guide at the top of the page. The guide is divided into three parts - package selling, valuation and Taobao resale. It provides certain guidance for users with less experience in posting products and even directly opens shortcuts for posting. The valuation function itself is actually a very practical function. Many users do not know what is a reasonable price for their idle items, but Xianyu’s valuation page only supports pictures and photos, and its accuracy is still worth studying (the author tried to use an Axure8 tutorial book for valuation, and Xianyu estimated the price at 199 because Xianyu believed it was a makeup remover). The logic of Xianyu's valuation function is unknown, but the author believes that the valuation should be based on the comparison of the prices of new products and similar products already on the Xianyu platform, and the valuation results should be displayed in the form of ranges. It is better to list the compared products in the form of a list on the result page for users to refer to and choose. The valuation method should not be limited to pictures, because the accuracy of their image recognition is limited. It would be better if textual conditions such as the product name could be added to the valuation.

Screenshot of Xianyu Money Making Guide

The selection of product categories ensures that all products published on Xianyu have clear attributes and classifications. Talent publishing also adds a round of detailed classification options, perfectly meeting the demand for accurate classification of products from the seller's perspective. However, when the author entered the talent module, there were only four modules with higher demand: speaking, singing, dancing and fitness. Other talents such as astrology and emotional counseling had no entrances or hidden entrances and could only be viewed by searching for keywords . A similar situation is with personal auctions. When an individual posts an idle item, they can choose between a fixed price or an auction. However, when a user views the homepage as a buyer, they will find that there is only an entrance to a judicial auction. Auctions initiated by individuals also need to be searched to be viewed. In other words, on the Xianyu platform, accurate classification of goods only meets the superficial needs of sellers but ignores the fundamental needs of sellers to perform this behavior.

Looking at the entire publishing process, talent publishing has the fewest steps and generally takes the shortest time. The 30-second quick release that Xianyu has been emphasizing recently is based on the process of releasing talents through videos. Diversified publishing methods such as one-click resale, video publishing, and voice publishing not only reduce the time cost of publishing, but also reduce users' boredom with the publishing process. But in fact, the step that takes up the most time in the entire publishing process is filling in the product description. This step directly determines the difficulty of selling the product, including the cost of communicating and negotiating with buyers in the subsequent process. Therefore, the time cost that Xianyu can compress in this step is very small. It can only fill in the two widgets of positioning and publishing fish ponds intelligently, and the rest is filled in by the user. Considering that most users do not know how to or are not familiar with the content required to post a property, Xianyu sets part of the description into optional mode and provides detailed examples in the text-filled part to lower the posting threshold as much as possible while ensuring that the property information is complete.

Comparison of the three product description pages

(3) Search function

The search function is designed to help users find the results they want quickly and accurately. A good search function setting can not only meet the user's direct needs, but also help users discover potential needs and guide users to relevant functional demand points, thereby increasing the product's UV and VV.

The search function for shopping products is a high-frequency demand. Xianyu places the main search entrance on the homepage in the form of a top column. Users can quickly click to search after entering the homepage, and the initial user experience is satisfactory.

① Search the middle page

Here we compare Xianyu with its parent platform Taobao. We can see that Xianyu has cut off many functions, and the middle search page is very monotonous and blank. First of all, from the search method point of view, Taobao search supports text, image, and voice search, and there is also a QR code search function on the homepage. Xianyu only supports text search and QR code search. The lack of image search function is understandable. Most of the items on Xianyu are taken by the sellers. The quality of the photos varies greatly and the purchasing channels are also very different. Image search may not find the products that users want to search for, greatly reducing user satisfaction. However, the voice search function is helpful for users to reduce search costs in many scenarios. Users diverted from Taobao may not be used to the lack of this function.

② Category search function

There are three main search needs of users on Xianyu: searching for products, searching for fish ponds, and searching for users. The classified search function can narrow the search scope before the search begins and improve the relevance of search results. What is puzzling is that Xianyu has removed the user search function that was previously used. This may be because there are not many professional sellers on Xianyu and the frequency of use of this function is not high. However, I personally believe that user search is important for any product with social attributes. On the one hand, Xianyu intentionally emphasizes the construction of a personal homepage system and encourages users to join the fish pond to communicate, interact and follow each other. On the other hand, it has removed the user search function. The two behaviors are strategically conflicting. In addition, with the launch of skill sharing, Xianyu has officially entered the short video social module. The user system is more important than ever, and the importance of user search function has been further increased.

③ Placement of popular search terms

Taobao's hot search words mainly come from users' search and browsing history. On the one hand, they reduce users' search costs, and on the other hand, they can introduce users to the current main content, increase product exposure and clicks . Although Xianyu records users' search history, it does not convert it into hot words with diversion effects for users to choose.

Comparison of Taobao and Xianyu search intermediate pages

When the user starts to enter content in the input box, the search process officially begins. At this time, the user's main demand pain point is transformed into quickly and accurately entering keywords. At this time, the key to product design lies in the feedback of the input box and the rapid presentation of related search terms. The input box of Xianyu will have a clear button when the user enters content. After the user completes the input, his eyes will naturally move to the right according to his reading habits and click the search button. However, Xianyu does not provide any related search terms, which forces users to spend a long time entering some longer search terms. The search is not convenient enough, and the necessary correction, reminder or guidance functions cannot be reflected.

Finally, there is the display of the search results page. The search results are the ultimate goal of user search behavior. The content and presentation of the search results are directly related to the user's judgment of the search function. From the user's perspective, the search results page is for finding the information they need, so the presentation of target accuracy is the focus. From the product's perspective, the search results page can appropriately add some relevant information that is biased towards product strategy to achieve product goals.

Xianyu search results page display

Xianyu’s search results page generally follows the framework of Taobao, with filtering/sorting conditions set at the top and content displayed in a waterfall flow format. In addition to the target information, related search terms and related fish ponds are interspersed in the results page to guide users to click and browse. Products are displayed using a combination of text and images, showing product pictures, names, prices and locations. Due to the unprofessional nature of Xianyu's sellers, Xianyu prompts users with the seller's most recent online time in small gray text in the lower right corner of the product, from which users can infer whether their purchase requests can be responded to in a timely manner.

From the perspective of content quality, almost all product titles contain keywords, and the accuracy of search results is relatively high, but at the same time the range of results is narrowed, especially when there is no input-related word display and hot word display. Users may not be able to find the products they want when the keywords are a bit long. For example, a Taobao user searches for a product on Taobao and finds the price is too expensive, so he wants to search for the same second-hand product on Xianyu. For convenience, the user directly copies the product title from the Taobao page and enters it into the Xianyu search box. We know that Taobao titles are usually set to be longer, so it is very likely that the same product cannot be found on Xianyu. Regarding the situation where keywords are too long, Taobao and Xianyu gave the following feedback:

Comparison of Taobao and Xianyu search results for long keywords

It can be seen that Taobao will first look for products that do not literally match all the keywords but have a high degree of similarity and display them, prompting that there are too few related products. At the same time, the page displays suggested search terms, and users will try to continue searching after they have alternative needs. However, Xianyu displays a blank page, with only prompts to change keywords or post purchase information. Users cannot meet their needs in a short period of time and are likely to give up their needs on this platform. It is recommended to add suggested search terms to the blank page or display fish ponds related to the search terms to provide guidance.

(4) Fish pond function

① Fish pond: reliable or not

One of the biggest features of Xianyu is that it operates a large number of vertical fish ponds. On the one hand, there are geographical fish ponds centered on geographical locations such as communities, and on the other hand, there are interest fish ponds oriented towards interests. Users can show off, sell, or communicate and share their experiences and skills in the fish ponds. According to the "2017 Q2 App List" by Aurora Big Data, Xianyu's DAU reached 5.336 million in June, and Zhuanzhuan's DAU was 770,000. One is backed by Alibaba, the other is backed by Tencent and 58.com. Both are second-hand trading communities, but the difference in DAU is nearly 7 times, which shows the contribution of digging deep into the fish pond.

Although Xianyu has currently taken the first place in DAU thanks to its fish pond, it is always a bit surprising that the platform went against the trend and positioned itself in the community at the beginning of its rise. In fact, the origin of social interaction and transaction can be traced back to the time when currency had not yet appeared. The trading method in the market at that time was barter. The originally independent tribes gathered together and integrated with each other because of transactions, and gradually derived exchanges of culture and production and lifestyle. This is the earliest form of social interaction in the form of transactions.

In 2011, "Taobao Flea Market" became an independent channel on the PC side, and then in 2012, the IOS version of Taobao Flea Street client was launched. This should be regarded as the earliest prototype of Xianyu. Xianyu product manager Agui revealed in a post on Zhihu that the most active area in Taobao forum is the second-hand area. Unlike professional sellers, individuals do not care too much about the turnover efficiency of goods when selling their unused items. Daily transactions can reduce the pressure on users. Communities based on transactions are different from social interactions among acquaintances. Users can speak freely without any reservations and do not have to worry about the face of buying second-hand items.

At that time, the goal of building Taobao Flea Market was to meet the needs of users, conform to the pace of slow life, and provide a platform with a humane touch for both parties of the transaction. Going further, after the Android version was developed in 2013, Taobao Flea Market was renamed Taobao Secondhand. In 2014, Taobao Secondhand completed its brand upgrade and became today's Xianyu.

Therefore, the positioning of social groups and the emergence of fish ponds are all driven by existing needs and are within the scope of user expectations. It’s just that users themselves may not have noticed it yet. Xianyu has dug out this demand and put it in front of users, moving one step faster than other platforms.

Today, the demographic dividend of the first half of the Internet is disappearing, and the second half will focus more on user retention and leveraging the marginal cost of users. If Xianyu mainly relied on Taobao's traffic in the first half, then in the second half when the demographic dividend disappears, the traffic that Taobao can provide faces an upper limit, and Xianyu will face a state of weak growth in the future. Yutang’s community operations can attract natural growth and sedimentation of users, and maintain its strength in the second half of the competition.

② Fish pond function analysis

Nowadays, Yutang has become Xianyu’s social base, but in terms of the original purpose, the initial purpose of most Xianyu users is just transactions. How does Xianyu guide users into Yutang and retain them ?

First, remind users of the existence of the fish pond at all times, so that users are familiar with the concept and become curious. The most eye-catching reminder of Yutang is the Yutang button in the permanent bottom navigation bar, which is right after the homepage button. Generally, new users will first observe the main page of the application after entering. Most users can directly enter the Yutang page for a quick browse. In addition to this main prompt, the last item that sellers fill in when publishing products is the choice of synchronized fish ponds. When buyers browse each product, the product publishing address and the fish pond to which it belongs will be indicated in small blue letters in the lower left corner. The only search-related prompt in the search bar is to search for fish ponds, and the fish pond is also displayed at the top of the results page. Every user who uses Xianyu is always reminded of the concept of fish pond, and the user import step is completed.

The next major task is to achieve user retention. In fact, when users publish products and choose to synchronize with the fish pond, they are forced to be retained. However, this method only expands the number of users in the fish pond and cannot guarantee user activity. At this time, the internal construction of the fish pond becomes crucial. The architecture of Yutang is based on the Tieba model, which is also a social networking model for strangers. This allows users who have used Tieba to feel familiar with Yutang at first sight, thus lowering the psychological threshold for users. The gameplay of the fish pond is very similar to that of the forum. The pond owner is in charge of unified management and is responsible for the daily maintenance of the fish pond and the initiation of activities. Users can sign in, post idle information, and ask questions in the fish pond. Each activity has an independent ranking list (answer list, sign-in list, environmental protection list). Users also have their own level display in the fish pond, and the level assessment is directly related to the level of activity. A separate search function is also set up in the fish pond, which is placed in the upper right corner of the fish pond page in the form of an icon. Users can search for products in the fish pond with a smaller scope and clearer targets, making it easier to find satisfactory products. The question-and-answer module can help solve some common problems, which is especially applicable in the interest fish pond section, and just makes up for the lack of customer service staff on second-hand platforms compared to traditional e-commerce platforms. With the lowered threshold and guaranteed content quality, users can find convenience and a sense of identity in the fish pond, and user retention is achieved.

Comparison between Tieba and Yutang

From the above, we can see the importance of internal operations of fish ponds. The pond owners and users who have been at the top of the rankings in the fish ponds for many years are the key points of fish pond operations. If we can pay attention to pond owners and UGC head users with outstanding operational capabilities, give them certain reward measures, and give good fish ponds more expressiveness, such as setting up popular fish pond rankings, etc., the development of fish ponds should bring more stamina to Xianyu.

5.3 Product Experience Analysis

(1) Design style

The overall design style of the product tends to be lively, using bright yellow as the theme color. The cartoon-style banner and representative fish logo are more in line with the preferences of Xianyu's younger users. The page is displayed in a waterfall flow format, making it easier for users to immerse themselves when browsing.

(2) Content display

Xianyu’s recommended product display abandons Taobao’s double-column layout mode and adopts a single-column multi-image display format. Users can swipe left to view all images of the product without having to enter the sub-page. In addition to displaying pictures, prices, and publishing usernames, each product also displays the product description, product source, fish pond it belongs to, the publisher's most recent online time, the number of likes and comments it has received, and you can even see the latest comments. Multiple layers of information can be accommodated in the limited space on the homepage. Users can clearly know the detailed information of the product, product popularity, and whether the seller is active without switching pages, eliminating the cost of users switching between the homepage and the detail page.

(3) Interaction effect

Xianyu's interactive effects are generally complete. Every user action can get due feedback. The iconic cartoon croaker will also appear during the loading process to reduce users' impatience. There are two details that need attention. The first is the inconsistency in the interaction of the first-level tag navigation buttons. Both the home page and the fish pond page are set with waterfall flow mode product recommendations. When the user pulls down to read on the home page, he can click the "Xianyu" button to return to the top with one click. However, there is no such function when browsing immersively on the fish pond page, and the user must slide to the top. The second is the tab setting of the home page. When the user pulls down to browse, the "Fresh" and "Nearby" tab bars that were originally in the middle of the page will be fixed to the top, but when the user needs to refresh the page, he must return to the home page and pull down to refresh. Most of the content on the home page is thematic navigation that will not change after refreshing. It is recommended to adopt the interactive setting of the Weibo search page and place the page refresh directly under the Tab bar.

(4) User review analysis

In terms of user reviews, the author counted the reviews with three stars or less recorded in ASO100 in the past three months, and extracted three commonly mentioned issues for analysis:

① Lack of third-party evaluation agencies, low guarantee for large-value products

Transaction security is an eternal problem in the idle trading market. As long as there are open trading platforms, this type of problem cannot be avoided. Xianyu has already taken some measures to reduce transaction risks, such as real-name authentication, transaction guarantees, dialog box security prompts, Sesame Credit score binding, reporting functions, etc., but it has not yet set up a platform evaluation agency like Zhuan Zhuan. Alibaba, which started out as an e-commerce company, cannot be unaware of this problem. The decision not to set up a third-party rating guarantee is intended to reduce the commercialization of Xianyu. Firstly, it is difficult to adopt a standardized processing method for second-hand goods. Secondly, Xianyu’s community setting is to use social networking to gain trust, and the transaction model is based on trust. The intervention of the platform will make Xianyu the second Taobao.

② There are too many pop-up windows, and most of them are modal pop-up windows

This type of pop-up window mainly prompts software upgrades, comments, function prompts, etc., which directly interrupts user operations. Users cannot use other functions if they do not respond. For fish ponds only, whether new or old users, a welcome page will pop up when they enter the fish pond section for the first time after opening the app. When you click to enter a fish pond, a prompt for issuing super titles will pop up. When the user exits the app and re-enters, a modal pop-up window will still pop up. On the one hand, it interrupts user operations, and on the other hand, repeatedly displayed information will make users disgusted, which greatly affects the user experience. It is recommended to reduce the appearance of notification pop-ups, or replace some modal pop-ups with non-modal pop-ups that are less intrusive to users.

③ Message push is not timely and channels are insufficient

For sellers, the biggest problem that arises during this process is the message push issue. Xianyu does not have a WeChat interface like Zhuan Zhuan. Once the seller user exits the app, there is no channel to push the buyer's messages and notifications received in a timely manner. The seller must enter the app to see them. This may increase the number of times the seller user goes online to check, but the more direct consequence is that the seller fails to reply to the message in time and misses the transaction opportunity. It is recommended that Xianyu add a message notification channel, such as displaying Xianyu’s conversation messages in Taobao messages, or displaying message notifications in the notification bar.

5.4 Product Iteration Analysis

According to ASO 100 records, Xianyu has experienced 57 iterations since its launch, including 15 in 2017, 14 in 2016, 15 in 2015, and 13 in 2014. This article extracts some key points of the iterations and lists them as follows:

On June 28, 2014, "Taobao Second-hand" was officially renamed "Xianyu", and the brand was fully upgraded.

On November 13, 2014, the Discovery Channel added the "Fish Pond" feature

On January 4, 2015, "Discover" was upgraded to "Same City", and the "I Want" trading session was launched.

On May 27, 2015, Zhima Credit, an independent third-party credit assessment and credit management agency, was launched.

On January 15, 2016, support was added to publish products, add short videos, and create interest ponds

On March 17, 2016, Xianyu Fish Shells was launched. Sign in and share to get Fish Shells. Accumulate Fish Shells to exchange for gifts.

On June 9, 2016, Taobao launched the one-click resale function.

On August 27, 2016, Xianyu was newly launched, supporting mutual attention, personal space and skills publishing.

On October 15, 2016, Xianyu Housing Rental was officially launched

December 16, 2016, private chat supports voice chat

On July 29, 2017, the super awesome oral practice app was launched, with 1-on-1 video chat, allowing you to practice oral English anytime, anywhere.

September 19, 2017, 30s video sold idle, add labels and stickers

It can be seen that Xianyu has maintained extremely frequent version iterations since its launch. In addition to optimizing functional experience, there have been major adjustments in strategic direction. It can respond to changes in the external environment and user feedback in a timely manner. This is also a major reason why Xianyu can now sit firmly in the top spot in the mobile idle trading market.

In detail:

(1) Over the past four years, Xianyu’s transaction function has gradually taken a backseat to its community function.

The main manifestation of communityization is the emphasis on and optimization of fish ponds. The fish pond model is similar to the operation of Tieba and forums, with posting, deleting, commenting and replying. Each fish pond is managed and maintained by a pond owner. Among the recorded version iterations, 35% of the updates were related to Fish Pond, and the Fish Pond function was also placed in the first-level navigation bar for user access. In addition, following each other, giving likes, posting videos and voice chat functions also support socialization. Social attributes have become the key point for Xianyu to stand out in the huge second-hand market. Users may not be idle, but it does not affect their ability to spend half an hour browsing on Xianyu.

Judging from the content of fish pond iteration, the initial fish pond was a community based on LBS, which mainly relied on similar geographical locations to establish trust relationships between strangers. Later, Xianyu should have discovered that the geographical fish pond was not active enough and the social potential was insufficient. He began to think about the fundamental driving force of social interaction, created interest-oriented fish ponds and digged deep into this direction, creating a large number of high-quality fish ponds with high activity and large number of users.

(2) The scope of commodity categories has been expanded and become a large and wide comprehensive idle trading platform. Non-physical sharing is gradually becoming a new strategic point for Xianyu.

Initially, Xianyu sold general personal idle items, and then auction and rental services were introduced successively, becoming a special feature of Xianyu, which was placed on the homepage. In 2016, Xianyu launched skill sharing in a timely manner in the environment of the rise of knowledge sharing, and released a large number of shared services such as Xianyu 36 skills on the banner on the homepage. Oral training has become a expansion point, and non-physical sharing is gradually replacing traditional physical sharing and becoming Xianyu's new favorite.

(3) While optimizing core functions, chasing industry hotspots, adding personalized and interesting sex play methods

In recent years, the live broadcast industry and short video industry have ushered in the Gilded Age. Xianyu also launched the short video function online and launched the skill sharing sector, ushering in a large number of female users to release video talent. Functions such as opening the personal homepage and adding sticker filters to pictures have been launched one after another, and users have more and more ways to play on the Xianyu platform.

6. Product operation analysis

The following are the Xianyu operation activities recorded by Baidu Index:

In June 2014, Taobao's second-hand name was officially launched

In July 2015, the trendy brand BD uck reached a cooperation with Xianyu APP. The two parties jointly launched a limited edition double-brand mug to the public on the occasion of Xianyu's first anniversary.

On September 20, 2015, Xianyu officially launched the fan fish pond audition plan, planning to cooperate with celebrities who meet the "popularity index standard" to open the fish pond to sell idle or skills.

In March 2016, a "National Bid" Xianyu auction was held, and the "Prince" Sheng Yilun was invited to participate in the auction. A pure copper "Huangsang Imperial Hand Warmer" triggered 14,000 bids, and the bid was raised to six figures.

On March 26, 2016, Xianyu launched a 100-city and 100-yuan market operation, announcing that it will invest 100 million yuan to dig deep into the "fish ponds". In the next year, 1,000 Xianyu markets will be held in 100 cities with the highest transaction density, making the "fish ponds" scattered in various cities at home and abroad a "driven base" for the sharing economy.

In June 2016, graduation season, Xianyu announced the list of the top ten textbooks for college students "the most annoying"

Cainiao Guugou and Xianyu announced strategic cooperation to help Xianyu improve the logistics experience. The express content has been transferred from offline to online, and the user's receipt and delivery experience is comprehensively optimized.

In August 2016, Xianyu and Cainiao Gougou, also a product under Alibaba, jointly launched the "Xianyu Free Shipping Event". Users can receive a maximum express subsidy of 6 yuan per order.

China Inspection Group Luxury Appraisal Center has reached a cooperation with Xianyu Auction to innovate and introduce a third-party appraisal mechanism independent of the purchase and sale and platform parties to achieve comprehensive control of the second-hand luxury goods transaction process

The main attacker of the women's volleyball team, Zhu Ting, Xianyu "apprenticely" and learns Turkish. He posted videos to seek skill exchange and supported Xianyu. Xianyu entered the non-standard economic sharing.

From September 14th to 25th, 2016, Xianyu released a limited-time event. Come to Xianyu and release a red envelope.

In November 2016, after Double Eleven, Xianyu started the launch of the product latch and noodle activity. 100,000 latch and noodle are finished. Young users who love to be vilified and show off have a lot of fun.

In December 2016, Emini and Xianyu Auction launched the "National Shooting" event, and Perchoa launched the Double Twelve Special Page

6 used car brands including Mili Power Yuan signed a contract with Xianyu and announced that they would become partners of Xianyu's used car platform

In July 2017, the Ali Creation Festival set up a Xianyu circulation machine, exchanging goods for goods, randomly selected idleness, and queued for 100 meters to attract everyone to watch.

In August 2017, Alibaba's first "used car 4S store" in China, Aiche Xianyu used car offline experience store, launched a special event for the Chinese Valentine's Day - "Healing Party", and launched an online auction of high-quality used cars, attracting 100,000 people's attention.

6.1 Early stage of birth

Generally speaking, from birth to development and maturity, a product will go through the cold start stage of initially expanding users. However, Xianyu is an extension business of Taobao. The original intention of its birth is not to make profits but to accumulate users. It is a typical internal incubation project and has great support for Taobao traffic diversion. Under the strategic inclination, a large number of users will be brought into Xianyu. Xianyu's predecessor, Taobao's second-hand sector, has also accumulated a certain number of users. The survey shows that in the first half of 2013 alone, the number of second-hand individual users on Taobao increased by more than 100% compared with 2012, and the number of idle commodities completed transactions reached 5.93 million. The direct traffic drainage from Taobao made Xianyu’s cold start phase very short, and there was no intention to arrange operations to expand the number of users in the early stages of its birth.

6.2 Operation opening

The opening of Xianyu operation activities was in the second half of 2015, and on the occasion of the first anniversary, it was found that Xianyu's main energy was on fish pond construction and experience optimization in 2015. Among the 15 iterations, 11 were related to fish ponds. In 2016, after the construction of the fish pond was basically improved in 2015, it was the year when Xianyu fully initiated and operated.

After the product matures, the core users who are backed by Taobao have basically been explored, and Xianyu has begun to focus on user growth outside of Taobao's traffic diversion. Online marketing has played all the popular classic marketing methods such as fan effect, brand effect, red envelope marketing , and holiday marketing , and launched a massive 100-city and 100-city event offline. Finally, according to CBNData statistics, a total of 200 million users used Xianyu in 2016, and Xianyu already had an advantageous market share in the field of idle trading.

6.3 Mature stage

After the product matures, its huge user base will naturally bring various popularity to the product. Since 2017, the Xianyu platform itself has not had many operating activities, but it still cannot stop the wave after wave of Xianyu's popularity. Statistics have found that most of the hot spots are due to the overly eye-catching products sold by users. The most common ones are that some brand engineering machines may not be released and mobile phones are flowing into the Xianyu platform for sale. Gree mobile phone 2nd generation, Meilan 5s, Xiaomi Liangyin Exploration Edition, Nokia 8, etc. have all been sold in Xianyu. In addition, there are some unexpected products, such as sky-high real estate, Dehao Runda's 130 million stock auction, 2.35 million yuan balance Mobike account, etc. Xianyu has already brought its own topic popularity, and the operation activities are also borne by the platform itself.

7. Conclusion

Overall, Xianyu's current success is mainly due to the following points:

1. Taobao's huge user base has enabled Xianyu to avoid the most difficult cold start stage and continue to play a continuous role in its subsequent development;
2. Solve the pain points of information asymmetry in second-hand transactions, and strive to create a platform for equal transactions between buyers and sellers. It is backed by Alibaba's powerful capital chain, does not charge any commissions or advertising fees, and returns users a real trading environment;
3. With the help of the Alipay + Cainiao network platform, transactions have formed an ecological closed loop within Xianyu, and Alipay is used to intervene in real-name authentication and sesame display to reduce transaction risks;
4. We attach importance to the role of trust mechanism in second-hand transactions, and discovered the role of social interaction in trust establishment, integrating social interaction into the strategic direction of product development, and becoming a powerful tool for user retention;
5. Continuously expand the product categories, break the traditional idle concept, summarize housing and skills into idle resources, and expand the target user group.

Today's idle trading market is the largest cake of the sharing economy. With the support of national policies, national consumption concepts, and e-commerce transactions, the share of idle trading will only increase. In this field, there are continuous rise and decline of products. If you want to occupy this market, you must have a unique set of tricks to attack the city. Xianyu relies on Taobao’s huge customer base to gain user traffic diversion, create an equal and safe trading environment and efficient trading process to achieve user satisfaction, and finally use social interaction to improve user retention and revitalization. Only by step by step can Xianyu reverse the established situation. Currently, Xianyu integrates trading, social networking, and multi-resource integration. The other side of diversified development is actually the user's vague positioning of it. Many users still stick to the second-hand trading platform. After Zhuanzhuan joins the idle trading dispute, how to change users' established concepts and redefine products should also become the direction Xianyu needs to consider next.