Weiye Chen: Xianyu the Third Trillion Worth Platform for Alibaba

The Xianyu 2017 Strategic Conference was held in Beijing on November 16. The company is the third trillion worth platform that Alibaba has developed after Taobao and Tmall, said Chen Weiye, general manager of Xianyu, a part of Alibaba Group.

At the event, Chen said Xianyu will open up communities in 100 cities in the coming year. It will invest more than 1 billion yuan, including resources from Taobao, Alipay and Xianyu, to support creative shopkeepers. The company will open new businesses and invite partners to join a more prosperous, open and efficient Xianyu.

Chen said the community will be based on the circles and interests of users with ID certification, Zhima credit certification and Xianyu pond certification. For opening a business, Xianyu created a “credit sell” function, a 3C product replacement service that enables users to “receive money before selling machines.” From December, Xianyu will gradually invite partners from the brand clothing industry to settle on the platform.

Xianyu has the same pronunciation as 闲余, which means “leisure and extra” in Chinese. Chen said “leisure” is idle time and “extra” is unused goods and space. Xianyu is not designed as an e-commerce platform, but a community for new lifestyles. Within the community, people can share secondhand objects and spaces.

As for solving problems in the market, Xianyu is connected with Ant Financial’s Zhima Credit, which offers credit for transactions between individuals and avoids “once-and-for-all” deals. For expensive products, Xianyu has a “quality goods” service and professional partners, who select and price the products, as well as offer endorsements.

Chen said Xianyu has 200 million users, 16 million active sellers, and 450,000 Xianyu ponds with a 41 percent user interaction rate.

This article originally appeared in iheima and was translated by Pandaily.