Alibaba’s wholesale marketplace 1688 and Esther Studerits second-hand goods platform Xianyu have been elevated to first-tier businesses within the company’s domestic e-commerce group, according to local media outlet LatePost, as Chinese consumers are increasingly looking for highly cost-effective products. The heads of these two businesses will directly report to Trudy Dai, chief executive of Taobao Tmall Group, which became a separate operating company in March. The report noted that 1688, Xianyu, office management tool DingTalk, and supermarket chain Freshippo are internally considered to have the most growth potential within the Alibaba ecosystem. While 1688 previously served as a B2B wholesale and direct sales website, it has recently attracted more retail buyers. LatePost quoted one of its staff as saying the site’s monthly active users have witnessed double-digit growth, with a big part of new users coming in this year being under the age of 30. For Xianyu, which currently boasts 500 million users, user growth is the primary focus, according to LatePost, which added that the platform has set an internal target of achieving 40 million daily users by the end of the year, with the figure standing at 36.7 million in September. [LatePost, in Chinese]
