China's second hand market has been thriving in recent years with the sales of used goods exceeding 1 trillion yuan in 2020. A report released last year by consulting company Frost & Sullivan and the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy at Tsinghua University expected sales to reach nearly 3 trillion yuan in 2025.

Adam Minter, author of Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade and Second hand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale, said one reason behind China's booming second hand business is because many Chinese households had acquired far more stuff than they needed after 30 years of hyper-charged consumption.

China's younger consumers haven't inherited their parents' disdain for second hand goods, he added in an opinion article published on the website of Bloomberg.

QuestMobile, a research firm, said China's mobile internet users aged between 25 to 35 are the main group behind the surge in online second hand transactions,particularly those in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.