The secondhand smartphone market is growing, customer-to-customer platform Rakuma said yesterday, after it saw 1,815 percent year-on-year sales growth in the segment in the past quarter.
Up to 60 percent of secondhand smartphones listed on the app are sold within 24 hours, Rakuma Taiwan country manager Masato Ishibashi (石橋雅人) said.
“This signifies that Taiwanese smartphone consumers are changing their patterns of consumption,” he said.
One-quarter of secondhand smartphones are resold on the market, constituting up to 10 percent of global smartphone shipments, Counterpoint Research said.
The global refurbished smartphone market grew 10 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of last year in stark contrast with the market for new smartphones, which declined 1 percent annually, Counterpoint’s refurbished handset tracker showed.
The global secondhand market in 2025 is going to reach about US$39 billion in revenue, up from almost US$20 billion in 2017, according to Persistence Marketing Research.
A global market study published by the firm last year estimated that the refurbished and used mobile phone market would expand by a 9.8 percent compound annual growth rate from last year to 2026.
In terms of preference, Rakuma said that Apple remains one of the most popular brands among Taiwanese customers, with 18.6 percent of sales for the iPhone 6 at NT$5,321 per unit.
Samsung smartphones come in second, followed by HTC and Asus.
The used smartphone market is especially popular with people aged 21 to 39, accounting for up to 61 percent of purchases, the Japanese e-commerce platform said.
On a separate note, Rakuma owner Rakuten Inc has announced that it has begun accepting registrations for its new cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet, Forbes reported on Thursday last week.
Cryptocurrency users need to have either a Rukuten Bank account or a Rakuten member ID to sign up for the service.
Rakuten reported consolidated revenue of ￥1.1 trillion (US$9.84 billion) last year, a 16.6 percent increase from 2017 at ￥944.5 billion.
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