Etsy has been growing at a slowed pace in recent years. It bought Depop for $1.6bn, and sold it at a loss.
eBay is acquiring second-hand fashion marketplace Depop from Etsy in a bid to reach a younger, more “fashion-forward” resale-savvy customer-base. The deal is valued at approximately $1.2bn, expected to close in Q2 this year.
A sleeper hit among younger generations, Depop has around 7m active buyers – nearly all Gen Zs and Millennials under the age of 34 – and more than 3m active sellers. The platform recorded around $1bn in gross sales in 2025, a 60pc year-over-year growth in the US.
Depop competitor ThredUp reported that the US second-hand apparel market grew from $28bn in 2019 to $56bn just last year. While other analysts place the global second-hand fashion market at $210bn in 2025, expected to grow to more than $580bn by 2035.
Second-hand fashion is gaining traction among larger swathes of younger consumers looking for more affordable clothing. A 2025 analysis of fast fashion prices found an average rise of $17 across key categories of clothes in the US, with jackets and outerwear prices rising by 24pc.
Meanwhile, Business Insider finds that the fashion industry contributes to around 10pc of global carbon emissions annually, led by brands such as Shein and Zara. For eBay, fashion sales represents an annual gross merchandise volume of more than $10bn.
Etsy purchased Depop for $1.6bn in 2021. The same year, it bought Brazilian online marketplace Elo7 for $217m. In 2019, it purchased music gear marketplace Reverb. Since then, it has sold all three of them.
The 2005-found company has been seeing slowed growth in recent years. Its year-over-year revenue grew by just 2.2pc in 2024, down from 7.1pc in 2023.
Etsy chief executive said that the Depop sale allows the company to focus growing its core marketplace. It plans to use the sale proceeds for general corporate purposes, continued share repurchases and investment in its core marketplace.
“Depop has built a trusted, social-forward marketplace with strong momentum in the pre-loved fashion category, and we are confident that as part of eBay, Depop will be even more well-positioned for long-term growth, benefiting from our scale, complementary offerings, and operational capabilities,” said eBay chief Jamie Ianonne.
The company slashed 1,000 jobs in 2024, 9pc of its workforce at the time.
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