Why has the "Idle Fish Economy" suddenly become popular?

On the eve of the Spring Festival, DeepSeek ignited the first wave of the AI craze in 2025. While the entire network is struggling with the overloaded DeepSeek server, the most astute young people have already made a fortune - on the Xianyu platform, many people have begun to sell DeepSeek's human-computer love instructions, helping you train your AI boyfriend/girlfriend, who can be both salty and sweet, and easily handle various styles. One can't help but sigh that such a side business is possible, but considering it's Xianyu, it seems normal.

It has to be said that the astonishing Xianyu is extremely fast. When a new trend emerges, Xianyu always promptly refreshes many supporting side businesses. Whenever GPT4 / Doubao / Kimi and other AI assistants are updated, Xianyu will witness a wave of AI website membership purchasing agents; Shortly after Midjourney was born, young people began to sell the "AI Image Generation" service. It is said that the post-95s designers who discovered the business opportunity earlier can earn over 10,000 yuan per month on Xianyu by relying on the AI-generated anime avatar templates to receive orders.

Earning over 10,000 yuan by accepting orders for AI painting and opening a store. Image source: Xiaohongshu @White Potato

Take a stroll on Xianyu, and you will know where young people have discovered the new trend of making money - it has already become their money-making indicator and "new battlefield for getting rich".

01: Xianyu Knows First When the Spring River Thaws

According to the quarterly growth data of the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2024, the overall consumption level in China continues to rise, and it is predicted that China's retail consumption will continue to maintain a growth trend in 2025. The idle e-commerce market is the first to feel this warming trend in the general environment, especially among young people.

The total monthly active users of China's idle e-commerce is 178 million, with nearly half being young people under the age of 30 (QuestMobile data, as of April 2024). Image source: IC photo

Xianyu, which has captured the majority of young people, is the first to be well-prepared.

In 2024, the Guzi economy was booming, and Guzi has become a hard currency in transactions. Every once in a while, a batch of "star Guzi" with soaring sales will emerge on Xianyu. In February, the newly crowned box office champion in Chinese film history, "Ne Zha 2", undoubtedly deserves the title. The blind box jointly launched by Pop Mart and Ne Zha was sold out and urgently restocked. The daily transaction volume of Ne Zha peripheral products on Xianyu exceeded 3 million yuan. The demand for other popular IP figurines continues to be strong, such as My Little Pony, Ye Luoli, Egg Party, and the IP skin figurines of Honor of Kings, which were once in short supply on the platform.

The popularity of the second-dimensional figurine IP on Xianyu at the beginning of the year has soared by 271%, and even the secondary-dimensional handmade pain bag transaction has become a new side business with a monthly income of 1,000 yuan on Xianyu. Image source: Visual China

The astonishing Xianyu has its own set of value algorithms - with different interest circles as camps, young people on Xianyu have created a unique "interest consumption" arena.

According to Xianyu data in March 2024, among the 83 million active users on the platform, 45% of the transactions are related to interests, covering hundreds of categories such as trendy toys, cultural toys, sports and outdoors, pets and plants, digital products, and fashion. This trend has continued into 2025, with the demand for fishing gear, bicycles and their accessories, Polaroid cameras, electric bikes, sports cameras, drones and other technological products increasing by 1 - 3 times.

The search volume of the "Four Pit" cultural circle composed of Hanfu, Lolita, JK uniform, and COS clothing on Xianyu has increased by 170%. Image source: Visual China

It can be seen from the popular sold-out products that young people are increasingly willing to pay for their personal interests and emotional values. Your own idle items may also be the treasures that others dream of. Young people have revitalized the idle economy, allowing wealth to circulate among "like-minded people" again.

Using this as a measurement chip, Xianyu has established a new "emotional market pricing". On February 10, the Xianyu "Rich Su Season" event was launched. To encourage users to "make money easily", the platform launched the AI intelligent publishing function, and young people naturally will not miss these good opportunities to make money. They continue to sell idle items closely following the market trends and start the "0-frame starting style" transaction on Xianyu.

02: From "Shopaholics" to "Recycling Heroes", the "Xianyu Money-Making Philosophy" of Young People

For many young people, Xianyu is a money-making platform. Regardless of the actual amount of income, in the eyes of young people, "making money" is a feeling, focusing on flexibility - selling a batch of idle items and having money in the wallet, it is indeed a profit; and then buying some other people's idle goods at a low price? Subjectively feeling that a large sum of money has been saved, that is also a profit. And the "sense of gain" provided by Xianyu is quite sufficient. Here, you can see many amazing "profit-making" operations of young people.

First, decent saving is an indirect form of making money. When consuming, young people are more inclined to save expenses through price comparison, and Xianyu has become their treasure trove for finding bargains.

CCTV Finance data shows that during the Spring Festival, the transaction orders of card vouchers on the Xianyu platform increased by 100% year-on-year

Buying a monthly gym membership card is a loss, but buying a half-price one-time card on Xianyu is a profit; Buying a full-price video membership of iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video is a sucker, but finding an 88% discount membership recharge on Xianyu is a profit; A movie ticket for 89 yuan is painful, but finding a 29.9 yuan movie ticket on Xianyu is definitely a profit.

Second, buying at the regular price is wasteful, but "taking advantage of discounts to shop" is being thrifty. At the beginning of 2025, the national subsidy was launched, and young people began the trend of trading in old items for new ones, which shows that they also have a strong demand for expensive consumables such as digital home appliances, and only need a reason to shop.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that as of February 1, 2025, the number of applications for new purchase subsidies for digital products such as mobile phones has reached 18.867 million, an increase of 8.081 million compared to January 23. Image source: Visual China

Xianyu precisely hits the consumption psychology of young people that "saving is earning". The "Xianyu Outlets" channel, which was newly launched in September last year, focuses on slightly flawed bargains, 99% new brand products, and clearance sales of end-of-season goods, gathering a batch of products with minor flaws but no impact on use. It's not that new products can't be afforded, but "almost new" products are more cost-effective. Young people have turned from "shopaholics" to "recycling heroes", achieving indirect savings through finding bargains on Xianyu.

Third, paying a small value to earn a large amount of use value, and enjoying the present at a low cost is also a profit. For goods with a low usage rate but a strong desire to purchase, young people are open-minded - renting instead of buying is also a means. In 2024, the demand for concerts was strong, and the rental of concert binoculars on Xianyu also increased threefold.

In 2024, the box office revenue of the national commercial performances (excluding performances in entertainment venues) was 57.954 billion yuan. Image source: Visual China

In 2024, the tourism market recovered, and it became a new trend for graduates to rent a car and travel around. At the beginning of 2024 on Xianyu, hotel reservations, parking fee agency payment, scenic spot tickets, and personal car rentals all showed a doubling growth compared to the same period last year. In the hearts of Generation Z, "ownership is not important, and usage right is freedom". Renting short-term equipment adds a layer of fun to their experience consumption and allows them to better enjoy the present. This is also "doing big things with small money".

03: The Amazing Xianyu Sociology: From a Trading Place to a Youth Culture Observer

Nowadays, Xianyu has quietly evolved into a huge "youth culture laboratory". It is not only a distribution center for idle goods, but also a large social emotion field and a post-modern cyber arena for young people.

According to QuestMobile data, among the three most popular apps among high-value young people in the entire network in 2024, Xianyu is ranked alongside Xiaohongshu and Bilibili. The transactions on Xianyu have long exceeded the basic material level. When young people turn the traditional idle e-commerce platform into a combined platform integrating "side business part-time jobs, interest-based friendships, and subculture communities" with their strange side businesses, the "Xianyu Culture" has already taken shape.

Xianyu has become a big stage for young people to compete for "abstract value". Some people cosplay as butlers and ask young ladies to check the goods; some people use crazy literature to crawl and beg for acceptance. Recently, the popular ancient style young master's quotes have also invaded Xianyu, "How wonderful! I should be in the vast world. Seeing that this young lady has a destiny with this item, why not take it?"

A shipping text can be written as "Crazy Thursday-style" literature that reveals the truth at the end.

A Xianyu side business resume can be densely filled with memes, "McDonald's professional french fries salter, with 24 years of professional salting experience, known as the 'French Fries Hero', handling various agency matters in the same city", "A tall and hardworking male college student athlete over 180cm tall to take children hiking", or write the interest circles they are involved in on the surface to achieve the purpose of making friends while receiving orders.

The image shows a character from the game "Idol Producer 2"