China’s secondhand market is on track to hit $62 billion revenues in 2021. The market has attracted investments worth around $900 million in the first half of the current year. About 202 million shoppers in China bought and sold secondhand goods in the first half of 2021 against 183 million last year. As per a Bloomsberg report, China has long had an ambivalent relationship with used goods. In 2011, the market potential became clear when Milan Station Holdings, owner of secondhand luxury shops, went public. Demand for the company’s shares exceeded supply by 2,179 times at its initial public offering, then a Hong Kong record.

China’s technology giants also targeted the market. In 2012 Alibaba Group Holding launched an online flea market that it rebranded as ‘Idle Fish’; JD.com purchased Paipai.com, an online marketplace, and relaunched it as a direct competitor to Alibaba. In 2017, Tencent Holdings invested $200 million in ZhuanZhuan, the used-goods platform of China’s 58.com Inc.

A study estimates, Chinese consumers discard 26 million tons of clothing a year. Much of the waste could be resold. China is now one of the biggest suppliers of used clothing to Africa, and similar surpluses exist for a range of other goods, from phones to sofas to cookware. China’s young consumers are increasingly embracing sustainable brands. They are keen to find good bargains, which helped the secondhand market sell over $48 billon goods in 2020.

Currently, secondhand goods account for only about 5 per cent of China’s overall luxury market, compared to 28 per cent in Japan and 31 per cent in the US.