Xianyu is entering the used car market again. Can it counterattack Guazi and Youxin?

Recently, Xianyu's affiliated company Zhejiang Alibaba Xianyu Network Technology Co., Ltd. completed industrial and commercial changes, and added "second-hand car brokerage and automobile sales" to its business scope. This important decision marks a key step for the Xianyu platform in business expansion and will have a far-reaching impact on its future development.

Xianyu was born out of Taobao Second-hand. Since its launch in 2014, it has rapidly accumulated a large user base with its convenient second-hand trading model and has become a leading second-hand trading platform in China. As of May 2023, its number of users exceeded 500 million, covering many important trading categories such as digital products, clothing, furniture, and maternal and child products.

The expansion of the used car business is an important layout of Xianyu based on its own development strategy. With the changes in the market environment, consumers' demand for used cars is growing. Xianyu has keenly captured this trend and tried to meet users' diversified consumption needs by expanding its business areas, further consolidating its position in the e-commerce field.

Judging from market data, the scale of my country's used car market has continued to expand in recent years. According to statistics from the China Automobile Dealers Association, from January to November 2024, the national used car transaction volume reached 17.7139 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 5.74%. The booming used car market has provided Xianyu with a broad space for development. At the same time, the user resources and brand influence accumulated by Xianyu in the field of second-hand transactions have also laid a solid foundation for its entry into the used car market.

However, this is not the first time Xianyu has entered the used car market. As early as 2016, Alibaba's auction platform had incubated Xianyu Used Cars. At that time, the business was more offline. For example, in July 2016, Xianyu Used Cars announced its entry into the offline market. The first "AiChe Xianyu Used Cars" offline experience store was established in Hangzhou, covering an area of ​​about 3,000 square meters. The store has more than 200 used cars that have undergone special inspections.

However, in the subsequent development process, due to various factors such as fierce market competition, its offline business gradually declined and related reports also decreased.

Today, Xianyu is once again focusing on the used car business, focusing on leveraging its online advantages. Xianyu has a huge online user flow, which can accurately reach potential used car buyers and sellers, break geographical restrictions, and greatly increase transaction opportunities.

Its mature community interaction model allows users to share car-buying experiences and vehicle usage experience, which enhances user stickiness, improves platform activity, and helps buyers make better decisions. With the help of Alibaba's big data resources, Xianyu can analyze users' browsing, searching, transaction and other behavioral data to achieve accurate vehicle recommendations and user matching, thereby improving transaction efficiency.

Despite this, Xianyu also faces many challenges in expanding its used car business.

Second-hand car transactions involve complex vehicle condition assessments and property transfers, which require a high level of professional service capabilities from the platform. The traditional second-hand car trading market has problems such as opaque information and irregular prices, and consumers' trust in second-hand car transactions needs to be improved. Xianyu needs to establish strict vehicle review standards and standardized transaction processes to protect consumer rights and enhance user trust.

In addition, the hot market has also brought fierce competition. In addition to the traditional second-hand car trading market, professional platforms such as Guazi Second-hand Car and Youxin Second-hand Car have occupied a certain market share and formed a relatively mature business model. They have obvious advantages in vehicle inspection and after-sales service.

In addition, auto brands have also increased their investment in the used car business and launched services such as officially certified used cars, further intensifying market competition. In order to stand out from its competitors, Xianyu needs to give full play to its platform advantages, innovate service models, and provide differentiated products and services.

The expansion of the used car business is an important step for Xianyu to diversify its e-commerce business. Despite facing many challenges, Xianyu is expected to gain a share of the used car market with its strong platform strength and accurate grasp of market trends. In the future, as consumers' demand for used cars further increases and market competition intensifies, the used car e-commerce industry will accelerate integration and innovation, and Xianyu's performance in this process is worth looking forward to.