In a recent discovery, Xiaohongshu has been quietly trialing a new idle-item trading feature called "Personal Selling," which marks a notable departure from the platform's previous cross-platform model where users would browse on Xiaohongshu and complete transactions on Xianyu. This time, Xiaohongshu appears determined to keep the final step of the transaction within its own ecosystem, signaling more than just a simple feature addition.

This move comes at a highly strategic moment, as Zhuanzhuan has exited the C2C space and Xianyu faces backlash over significant commission hikes. Xiaohongshu has entered the secondhand trading arena with a 0.6% technical service fee, directly challenging the industry leader. However, in a striking contrast, Xiaohongshu's official channels have remained almost entirely silent on the matter. The feature has no high-profile promotion, no conspicuous entry point, and no clear timeline for a full public rollout.

When contacted, Xiaohongshu's customer service stated: "The feature is designed for selling idle items and is currently in testing. There is no notification yet regarding a specific launch date." Notably, this trial period has now lasted nearly a year, yet a fixed entry point or clear strategic upgrade has yet to materialize. A source close to the company revealed: "On Xiaohongshu, if a feature remains in testing for a long time without a full rollout, it generally indicates the team views it as a supplementary function rather than a strategic product, or the company's stance toward it may be wavering."

No Longer Willing to Be a Launchpad for Xianyu

For long-time Xiaohongshu users, selling idle items is nothing new. The platform has long hosted a wealth of user posts centered on secondhand and idle-item transactions, particularly within verticals like anime merchandise, luxury goods, and niche fashion, fostering a strong trading community. Public data shows that the topic "idle items" has amassed 2.81 billion views on Xiaohongshu, while "secondhand idle" has surpassed 1.7 billion views.

Behind this immense traffic lies a robust demand for C2C transactions. However, Xiaohongshu has historically been trapped in an awkward dynamic: users browse on Xiaohongshu but purchase on Xianyu. The platform has primarily served as a space for content seeding and demand matching, but due to a lack of in-house transaction tools, a significant number of users would jump to external platforms like Xianyu to complete their purchases, leaving the transaction loop unfinished within Xiaohongshu's own ecosystem.

This outflow of massive traffic, along with the service fees that external competitors reap, has created an untenable situation where Xiaohongshu acts as a catalyst for its rivals. As early as October last year, rumors emerged that Xiaohongshu would venture into the secondhand market, a direct strike at Xianyu's core C2C base. At that time, reports suggested the feature was initially named "Quick Selling," with an emphasis on enabling sellers to open shops without a deposit, offering platform-backed transaction guarantees, and avoiding penalties for off-platform traffic diversion.

According to an internal source, the feature has since been renamed from "Quick Selling" to "Personal Selling" and continues to undergo iterative testing, with the platform refining product details. When asked about the reasoning behind the name change and any functional adjustments, the source declined to elaborate, simply stating: "The platform has its own comprehensive considerations, and I think they are essentially the same."

The rate structure has become a focal point in this direct confrontation within the secondhand sector. Xianyu introduced a fee mechanism in 2024, charging sellers a 0.6% basic software service fee. Xiaohongshu's "Personal Selling" feature mirrors this by applying the same 0.6% technical service fee on each transaction, a move industry insiders describe as "crossing the river by feeling the stones, using Xianyu as a guide."

Adding a layer of drama, Xiaohongshu's entry into the secondhand market coincides with the turbulence caused by Xianyu's recent policy changes. Xianyu has raised its service fee for Yuxiaopu sellers from 0.6% to 1.6% and eliminated the previous cap of 60 yuan per transaction. For instance, on a 20,000-yuan luxury handbag, the fee was previously capped at 60 yuan, but under the new rule, sellers would pay as much as 320 yuan. This sharp increase has drawn significant complaints from high-value sellers, many of whom are now searching for alternative platforms.

Some sellers have voiced their frustration directly: "Xianyu is getting greedier by the day, they've become too cocky," and "The new policy is a real gut punch. I hope more alternatives emerge so they don't have a monopoly."

Li Chengdong, an e-commerce expert and founder of Dolphin Society, commented: "Where there's traffic, there's a battleground. Secondhand trading isn't a mainstream segment of e-commerce, but the market is still worth hundreds of billions. Compared to the broader e-commerce industry, it's roughly a 1:10 ratio, so it holds considerable market value."

Delay in Official Launch Raises Questions

Despite the aggressive push, Xiaohongshu's foray into secondhand trading presents as many challenges and controversies as opportunities. The most significant concern, as observed by market watchers, is whether a community built on the "beautiful life" tagline can accommodate the haggling and disputes common in secondhand transactions.

Xianyu's rise to prominence owes much not only to Alibaba's e-commerce infrastructure but also to its gritty, marketplace-like atmosphere. Buyers enjoy the thrill of finding bargains, sellers revel in strategic negotiations, and the platform has even allowed a degree of "fish pond" culture. Yet this same environment has also bred issues like trust crises and counterfeit goods. On the consumer complaint platform Heimao, "Xianyu" is linked to over 370,000 complaints, covering product defects, online fraud, refund difficulties, and poor after-sales service.

In contrast, Xiaohongshu's primary asset is its unique community atmosphere and the trust it has cultivated. Users purchasing secondhand goods often do so based on their confidence in bloggers' content. But this trust is fragile. If open C2C trading is introduced, professional sellers are likely to flood in, potentially polluting the community ecosystem. Moreover, if transaction disputes proliferate, they could erode the trust that Xiaohongshu has painstakingly built around its "seeding" culture.

Notably, despite the initial rumors about entering the secondhand market, Xiaohongshu has been testing the feature for nearly a year without introducing a fixed entry point or a clear strategic upgrade. This prolonged silence seems unusually drawn out for a platform with over 100 million daily active users. The source close to the company elaborated on this anomaly: "If a feature is in testing for a long time without a full rollout, it generally means the internal positioning is that of a supplementary function, or the team may waver in their approach."

The tension between community ecology and commercialization, a persistent internal conflict for Xiaohongshu, appears to be replaying with the "Personal Selling" feature. Some users who have tested the feature have expressed disappointment. One user noted: "I had a few posts with great traffic before, but once I attached a 'Personal Selling' link, the likes immediately dropped; the traffic distribution clearly declined."

Similar complaints have surfaced across social platforms, with multiple sellers reporting a noticeable decrease in organic traffic on posts that include "Personal Selling" links. When asked for clarification, Xiaohongshu's customer service responded: "That won't happen; Personal Selling doesn't affect user traffic."

Li Chengdong offered further analysis: "The deep concealment of 'Personal Selling' suggests it's not a priority. The platform isn't eager to push it forward, especially given the current chaos in the secondhand market. Xiaohongshu needs to weigh the market value of secondhand trading, the compliance risks, and the genuine user experience." He elaborated: "The biggest issue in the secondhand market is fraud and scams, which places higher compliance demands on platforms. If problems arise, the platform bears responsibility, making operations more cumbersome with relatively limited returns. In some ways, the investment doesn't match the payoff, so Xiaohongshu isn't inclined to push it aggressively. But on the other hand, with many female users who have genuine secondhand trading needs, the platform can't completely close that door. It has to remain user-oriented in business decisions, even if this business is unlikely to become a core focus."

Can Xiaohongshu Take a Bite Out of Xianyu's Dominance?

Xiaohongshu's commercialization anxiety is an open secret. According to the latest industry data from Kelaorui for 2026, Xiaohongshu's total revenue in 2025 was approximately 42 billion yuan, with advertising revenue reaching 32 billion yuan, accounting for over 76% of total revenue—up from 65% two years earlier. This heavy reliance on advertising not only leaves the platform vulnerable to economic downturns but also constrains its growth ceiling.

In stark contrast, the platform's e-commerce operations, which have been cultivated for years, have yet to shoulder the burden of a second growth curve. Industry estimates suggest that Xiaohongshu's e-commerce GMV reached 850 billion yuan in 2025, but that is only one-fifth of Douyin E-commerce's 4.3 trillion yuan GMV. Additionally, data indicates that Xiaohongshu's in-site direct purchase conversion rate hovers between just 0.7% and 1.2%, well below the average for mainstream content e-commerce platforms.

To break through growth bottlenecks and accelerate toward an IPO, Xiaohongshu initiated aggressive traffic expansion and commercialization efforts in 2026. The most representative move was its sponsorship of the 2026 World Cup, where the platform spent heavily to secure broadcasting rights in a bid to boost male user acquisition and daily active users, reportedly approaching the 200 million DAU mark. However, from a commercialization return perspective, whether this high-stakes gamble translates into real revenue remains an open question.

As for the secondhand trading track, market sentiment regarding Xiaohongshu's ability to compete with Xianyu is far from optimistic. Gao Pan, a veteran retail industry expert and founder of Jiangnanbei Group, noted: "Xiaohongshu's entry into secondhand trading is an inevitable strategic move for both ecosystem and commercialization reasons. The platform sees extremely high engagement on idle-item content, with users long accustomed to jumping off-platform to transact, resulting in traffic leakage and unguaranteed transactions. Launching a personal selling feature can close the loop between content seeding and idle-item transactions, addressing users' core transaction pain points."

Gao Pan continued: "This is also a critical step for Xiaohongshu to reduce its dependence on a single advertising revenue stream and fill in its commercialization shortcomings. C2C idle-item trading is an asset-light model that effectively boosts user activity and retention, transforming users from content consumers to two-way participants. Combined with the recent shake-up in the secondhand industry, Xiaohongshu can leverage its content advantages to carve out a niche in the mid-to-high-end secondhand market."

However, Gao Pan was also unequivocal: "Xiaohongshu won't be able to replace Xianyu, but it can claim a share of the mid-to-high-end secondhand market through differentiation, forming a twin-platform coexistence." He further elaborated: "Xiaohongshu's core challenges are evident: its transaction infrastructure and after-sales arbitration systems are not yet robust enough to support large-scale transactions; its community attributes restrict the entry of professional merchants, limiting scalability; and its category coverage is too narrow to compete with Xianyu's full-spectrum, necessity-driven trading capabilities."

In Gao Pan's view, Xiaohongshu's off-center competition strategy should focus on quality over scale, and trust over racks, adopting a refined mid-to-high-end route. "In terms of categories, it should zero in on strengths like beauty, affordable luxury, designer toys, and mother-and-baby products, avoiding Xianyu's utilitarian, low-price segments. In terms of model, it should prioritize content-first, trust-driven transactions, distinguishing itself from pure shelf-based price comparisons. And in terms of ecosystem management, it should strictly control professional sellers, maintaining the essence of personal idle-item sharing, and creating a premium marketplace for secondhand goods."