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interface news reporter | cheng lu

interface news editor | song jianan

on september 23, circular economy platform zhuan zhuan and second-hand fashion brand redbulb jointly announced that they will fully integrate in the future to form new strategic synergies. according to jiemian news, zhuan zhuan has acquired redbulb in full, but the specific amount has not been announced.

hongbulin announced that after the integration is completed, xu wei will no longer serve as the company's ceo, but will become a consultant for a period of time to assist the company in transitioning to a new strategy. the new ceo of hongbulin will be hu weikun, co-founder and coo of zhuanzhuan group.

huang wei, ceo of zhuan zhuan group, said that hongbulin has unique capabilities in the field of second-hand luxury goods identification, rating and pricing. hongbulin's second-hand luxury goods identification capabilities will also be integrated into zhuan zhuan. a senior industry analyst believes that this will help zhuan zhuan improve the professionalism of second-hand luxury goods identification.

from now on, zhuan zhuan group will own multiple second-hand trading brands such as zhuan zhuan, hongbulin, zhaoliangji, caihuoxia, etc., becoming one of the largest multi-category second-hand trading platforms with services in china.

red plum is by xu wei,yang binfounded in 2017 by , and pang bo and others, the platform has accumulated many years of experience in the field of second-hand luxury goods and fashion goods. founder xu wei is a typical representative of investors turning entrepreneurs. she led the platform to obtain investments from many first-tier institutions such as innovation works, jiuhe venture capital, vipshop, xiangfeng changqing, idg capital, matrix partners china, and qiming venture partners. according to publicly available information, the total amount of financing is about us$200 million.

after years of operation, redbulin has solved many problems in the second-hand fashion industry, including standardization, building a set of second-hand luxury goods identification and pricing intelligent systems based on massive data, and improving the accuracy of identification through dedicated personnel and re-inspection processes. the company hopes to establish competitive barriers through these "heavy" models.

in order to catch up with the new opportunities brought by the live broadcast trend, hongbulin also quickly tried out related businesses and successively entered multiple content platforms such as douyin and xiaohongshu. due to the particularity of the category and the rise of competitors such as live broadcast, vertical e-commerce and second-hand luxury goods business are no longer easy to do, and related platforms have to face various challenges.

in this context, it is not surprising that hongbulin was incorporated into zhuan zhuan. hongbulin received a strategic investment of us$100 million from zhuan zhuan group in 2022, and both companies adopt the c2b2c model with services.

on the other hand, competition in the second-hand e-commerce sector where zhuanzhuan is located is becoming increasingly fierce. data agency questmobile mentioned in the "2023 china mobile internet annual report" that under the catalysis of rational consumption trends, second-hand e-commerce has accelerated its development, and the number of active users in the idle transaction app industry has increased by nearly 30% year-on-year, ranking first in the entire mobile shopping industry.

as of april 2024, the total number of monthly active users of china's idle e-commerce has reached 178 million, nearly 50% of whom are young people under the age of 30, who recognize and actively participate in idle transactions. among them, xianyu has 162 million monthly active users, ranking first in the idle transaction industry, a year-on-year increase of 19.1%; zhuanzhuan ranks second with 22.48 million monthly active users, a year-on-year growth rate of 3.7%, which is a big gap from xianyu.

zhuanzhuan was first incubated by 58.com's second-hand channel, mainly operating in the c2c model. in april 2017, it was regarded as one of the star companies in china's mobile internet due to its investment from tencent. around 2019, zhuanzhuan transformed into a c2b2c company, focusing on vertical second-hand businesses such as 3c products and second-hand luxury goods.

in may 2020, zhuan zhuan announced a strategic merger with zhaoliangji, a b2c trading platform for used mobile phones. in 2022, it made a strategic investment in hongbulin to further explore the industrial chain of vertical industries.

however, considering that xianyu has become alibaba's first batch of strategic innovative businesses and will receive continuous investment from the group for a period of 3 to 5 years, and cross-track players such as aihuishou, douyin, and kuaishou are all planning related second-hand businesses, the merged zhuan zhuan will still have to fight a "hard battle" to stand out.

the following is the full text of redbubble’s announcement:

dear friends who care about red plum:

hello everyone, the mid-autumn festival, which symbolizes reunion, has just passed. i am very happy to share with you an important decision in the company's development process at this point - we will officially become a family with zhuan zhuan group and realize "reunion" in the true sense.

in 2022, redbulin received a strategic investment of us$100 million from zhuanzhuan group, which became the largest single financing in the second-hand luxury goods sector to date. recently, after discussions between redbulin and zhuanzhuan group management, it was decided that the two companies will be fully integrated in the future to promote the development of the second-hand luxury goods and fashion goods market.

after the integration is completed, hongbulin and zhuanzhuan group will form a new strategic synergy. hongbulin's professional operational capabilities and industry experience accumulated over the years in the field of second-hand luxury goods and fashion goods will benefit users on a larger scale. the hongbulin brand and app will remain independently operated, and will continue to improve quality and experience, providing a better second-hand circular fashion service for a wide range of users, including female users.

for zhuan zhuan group, this integration will also inject new vitality into its multi-category business. from now on, zhuan zhuan group will own multiple brands such as zhuan zhuan, hongbulin, zhaoliangji, caihuoxia, etc., becoming the largest multi-category second-hand trading platform with services in china.

red plum is by xu wei,yang binfounded in 2017 by he pangbo, the founding team has grown into a leading platform in the second-hand fashion industry with the help of the development of mobile internet and live streaming e-commerce. in the view of huang wei, ceo of zhuanzhuan group, after eight years of development, hongbulin has unique barriers in the identification, rating and pricing of second-hand luxury goods, and has successfully established its brand status in the minds of users, especially female users; in the future, hongbulin will play a competitive advantage in a wider range of fields.

after the integration is completed, xu wei will no longer serve as the company's ceo, but will serve as a consultant for a period of time to assist the company in its transition to a new strategy. the new ceo of hongbulin will be concurrently held by zhuanzhuan group co-founder and coo hu weikun.

the market is changing, and redbulb's products and team are also constantly changing, but our mission to promote circular fashion remains unchanged. we look forward to moving forward with you and exploring the circular beauty of fashion together.

red plum

september 23, 2024