JadeShip Blog

The Weidian Revolution or The Weidian Wave. That's how an elite group of people refer to using Weidian instead of Taobao. Today I read the term "Weidian Wave" for the first time and decided that it's time to speak up and say something about this hoax.

A comment

The claim

Weidian supposedly has the same items that Taobao has for cheaper.

Using Weidian will take the "monopoly" away from popular taobao sellers and they will have to decrease their prices.

Weidian vs Taobao - why Weidian is objectively worse

We did not find a single advantage of using Weidian over Taobao.

Fees = Increased Prices

It should be clear to everyone that fees any of these platforms require would be passed on to the customer through the item prices.

Luckily, both Weidian.com and Taobao.com have 0% seller fees.

Both websites make money from transaction fees. But since Taobao uses the widely used AliPay everyone in China uses anyways, I'd argue that sellers on Taobao can use their AliPay credit without moving it around between different services. Thus Taobao is cheaper to operate than Weidian which means cheaper prices for the customers.

But now comes another factor: Agent fees. Superbuy and Wegobuy charge 10% extra for buying from Weidian. That's a lot. Even if you use another agent, expert shopping will always be slower than good old taobao.

Customer experience is worse

Weidian is missing essential features such as: A desktop site, functioning translation, image search. Although you shouldn't ship clothes with direct shipping, it's not even an option on weidian.

You are also missing all the helful support sites, such as JadeShip or Superbuy2Imgur.

There has yet to be a single quality item from Weidian

We've seen many weidian.com items that have the same store pictures and better prices, but somehow they always turn out worse. We have yet to see an item that's better, that's a must buy from weidian.

As we explained before, due to the fact that operating on weidian is never cheaper, it would be illogical if that changes.

Taobao sellers don't charge more because international customers have more money

First and foremost, both Weidian and Taobao are B2C and C2C market places from Chinese for Chinese. They aren't meant for us, that's why we use agents.

While technically a correct assumption that the customers purchase power influences prices, the influence of international customers (repfam) is greatly exaggerated.

There are more Chinese people than repfam, by a large margin. Chinese people also buy reps. As a matter of fact, "flexing" your wealth is a totally accepted in Chinese culture. You probably don't want to hear it, but we barely make a difference. Even the most popular reddit sellers have about 50% Chinese customers. So no, the items aren't priced for us. Unless you buy from sellers that specifically try to sell to international buyers.

Why are items on Taobao getting more expensive?

They are not. It's just a few sellers that increase their prices because people keep buying from them. Now a new generation, mostly young people I'm certain, just think it's cool to be part of a counter cultural movement and to boycott the monopoly. And I'm convinced it's the same people complaining that got us into that mess in the first place. They hyped up the sellers that they boycott now.

The problem is that the so called video sellers or resellers, namely 3125 Tiger, 0832 club and Logan have a big fanbase on reddit. These fans upvote everything. That breeds a new generation of fans that don't know that there are any other sellers.

If you've been following us you know that we have been criticizing them since the very beginning. For us it's been evident that their quality is bad and the items are nothing special. But we don't want to make this post about them.

Everyone who's been around long enough to know JadeShip or the reverse image search knows that there are countless options to get the same items cheaper.

Before you scold us for calling it a monopoly.We use the term monopoly here because that's what we read on reddit. But there is no monopoly. That would mean that they control the supply and that you don't have other options. But you do have plenty, you just have to look further than the reddit front page.

What can we do now and in the future

We actually agree: Don't buy from the video sellers. But don't just move to Weidian. We've established that it's objectively worse. All that will happen is that the same resellers will open a new store on Weidian and you're right where you are now, just with a worse website.

What you should do: Take your time to look for items yourself. Don't buy out of a herd mentality. Don't be afraid to GP, you can return. Don't go to Weidian it's a bad move.

A little inspiration: Look at our finds, we found hundreds of items that weren't found before.

I'm criticizing these sellers personally, but we won't ban them from the site because we believe in transparency and freedom of information. And that our visitors are smart enough to choose wisely.

An example

Look at this item from a unknown seller I found.

[product sku="608341622192"]

Now that's an item I would buy. $30 for an embroidered hoodie is a good price. I asked the seller for pictures and it looks like a high quality item.

I challenge you

Leave a comment with a link to a Weidian item and 1 reason Weidian is better (except "it's cheaper").

If the reason is valid and I cannot find a better deal on Taobao I'll pay for your Weidian item.