--- title: "Shocked by the absurdity on Xianyu, Alibaba is drifting further away from its original aspirations." type: "Topics" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/29503664.md" description: "These 2 days have completely shattered my worldview with Xianyu. It's hard to imagine that an Alibaba-affiliated company could stoop to such shameless levels. Is Alibaba Group that strapped for cash? They've started resorting to all sorts of methods to snatch money from users. The background is that I was selling items on Xianyu, and under the platform's inducement, I activated the Xianyu Coin discount feature (because the platform suggested that enabling it would increase exposure, and not enabling it would affect product visibility. Plus, most people don't have many Xianyu Coins, so normally everyone would enable it). But the rules of Xianyu Coin discounts, including my own understanding as both a buyer and seller, are that buyers use Xianyu Coins to deduct..." datetime: "2025-05-11T04:30:38.000Z" locales: - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/29503664.md) - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/29503664.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/29503664.md) author: "[投资之路](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/1262897.md)" --- # Shocked by the absurdity on Xianyu, Alibaba is drifting further away from its original aspirations. I was completely shocked by Xianyu these past two days. It's hard to imagine that a company under Alibaba could be so shameless. Is the Alibaba group really that short on money? They're now resorting to all kinds of ways to take users' money. Here's the background: I was selling an item on Xianyu, and the platform tricked me into enabling the "Xianyu Coin Discount" feature (they claimed it would increase exposure and that not enabling it would hurt visibility). Since most users don't have many Xianyu Coins anyway, people usually enable it. Both as a buyer and seller, I understood the rule to be that buyers use Xianyu Coins for discounts. For example, if a seller enables a 10% Xianyu Coin discount, for a 100 RMB item, the buyer can use up to 10,000 Xianyu Coins to deduct 10 RMB. I always thought the buyer needed to have Xianyu Coins to get the discount—otherwise, they'd pay the full price. I even checked with deepseek, and they confirmed it's the buyer who gets the discount. Then came the jaw-dropping part. On May 9th, I sold an item for 1,800 RMB. The buyer paid the full 1,800 RMB without using any Xianyu Coins. But without my knowledge, Xianyu applied a 20% "Xianyu Coin discount," effectively taking a 20% cut (360 RMB) from my earnings—even though I had already paid the transaction fee. When I checked my past orders, I realized every single one had a 20% deduction. Since earlier orders were smaller, I assumed the buyers had used Xianyu Coins and didn’t notice. Turns out, Xianyu was pocketing 20% of the payment and giving me Xianyu Coins instead! This is outright robbery in broad daylight! I called Xianyu’s customer service multiple times, but they refused to address the issue. When I asked to escalate the complaint, the agent arrogantly claimed their response was the "best solution" and that there was no escalation process. Having dealt with their customer service before, I can confidently say Xianyu has the worst customer support—no competition! It’s unbelievable that this is a well-known company under Alibaba. I’ve criticized Alibaba’s "shareholders third" culture before, but now it’s clear their "customer first" slogan is also a complete lie. I’d rate Xianyu’s customer satisfaction at 0/10—even Taotian’s support is worse than Pinduoduo’s. A company that fakes its corporate culture—what investment value does it have? As you know, my Hong Kong stock portfolio is mainly Tencent and Xiaomi. In my private groups, I never recommend Alibaba. What has been its return since IPO? All they do is spin-offs and restructuring—no real progress. Meanwhile, Tencent stays focused, never splits, never plays accounting tricks, and is generous with buybacks and dividends. You might criticize some Tencent or Xiaomi products, but their founders and corporate integrity are solid. Without Jack Ma, Alibaba feels like a headless chicken—it’s lost its culture and forgotten its original mission. This Xianyu scandal might just be the tip of the iceberg. Alibaba is no longer the Alibaba we knew! $BABA-W(09988.HK) $Alibaba(BABA.US) ### Related Stocks - [09988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09988.HK.md) - [89988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/89988.HK.md) - [HBBD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HBBD.SG.md) - [BABA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BABA.US.md) ## Comments (18) - **加速到未来 · 2025-05-14T23:08:19.000Z**: Idle Fish is a trap for individual users. For example, affordable and good-quality products are instantly snapped up by resellers using flash-sale bots, leaving no chance for individual buyers. - ***烟火声* · 2025-05-12T16:59:20.000Z**: Too many scammers on second-hand platforms - **Movy · 2025-05-12T04:41:46.000Z · 👍 1**: I suggest you buy more Alibaba's stock to get your money back through day trading. - **投资之路** (2025-05-14T23:13:48.000Z): Why bother with Alibaba when Tencent is such a sweet deal - **FarmerD · 2025-05-12T01:35:15.000Z**: Just use Xianyu! Face-to-face transaction is fine. - **漂洋过海来炒股 · 2025-05-12T00:54:08.000Z**: Are you a professional seller? I've used it before and didn't get this deduction. Can professional sellers stay away from Xianyu? - **newge · 2025-05-11T11:22:41.000Z · 👍 1**: Can I get a discount without using Xianyu coins? 😂 I see some listings with Xianyu coin discounts, where people directly DM to negotiate deducting the Xianyu coin portion. If it works, I'll buy. - **老蒋的交易员 · 2025-05-11T09:45:50.000Z · 👍 1**: East black market🤓 - **财神保佑小马赚钱 · 2025-05-11T08:32:49.000Z**: Did you buy puts? - **投资之路** (2025-05-11T09:49:38.000Z): Not really, given how crappy the stock price is - **黑化的交易员 · 2025-05-11T05:21:20.000Z · 👍 2**: Haven't used Idle Fish for a long time, the service fee is quite expensive now - **劉sir · 2025-05-11T05:02:43.000Z**: How do you know they didn't use Xianyu coins? - **投资之路** (2025-05-11T05:07:40.000Z): Who the hell has 300,000 spare coins lying around? Besides, since I'm posting this, obviously I've already asked around. - **胖 哥** (2025-05-11T05:43:33.000Z): 300,000 idle fish coins are not much for people who often play on Xianyu. - **yazehuang** (2025-05-11T19:14:41.000Z): It seems like you could use it first and pay back later when you have coins. - **JONATHAN-WANG · 2025-05-11T04:33:50.000Z · 👍 2**: That's right, don't like Alibaba ecosystem