Understanding The C2C Mobile User

Thanks to the rise of services like eBay and Craigslist, it’s easier than ever for people to sell whatever they have at home - and to bypass stores completely and buy anything from furniture to toys and everything in between directly from peers.

But how has the consumer to consumer (C2C) ecosystem evolved in the mobile era? How have smartphones and tablets disrupted peer-to-peer buying and selling? As with most content consumption, the C2C marketplaces have found strong growth in apps, where they can control the variables associated with privacy, user registration and efficient transaction technology.

To find out, we turned to InMobi Pulse. InMobi Pulse builds a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources ranging from InMobi Exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, to permissively-sourced deterministic first-party carrier data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

In particular, we looked at the following C2C marketplaces:

• Letgo app
• Letgo mobile website
• Nextdoor app
• Nextdoor mobile website
• eBay app
• eBay mobile website
• OfferUp app
• OfferUp mobile website
• Mercari app
• Craigslist mobile website
• CPlus app
• VarageSale app
• VarageSale mobile website

So what does the data reveal?

Top Mobile C2C Insights:

Demographics:

• Dedicated C2C apps do particularly well with Hispanic audiences, while those that offer a buying and selling marketplace among other features tend to have a majority White audience.
• Around 25% of everyone who has the letgo app and over 43% of those visiting the offerup website are Hispanic. In comparison, 61% of those who use the app CPlus (a popular Craigslist app) and close to 64% of those who visit the Nextdoor mobile website are White.
• Over half of those with the VarageSale, Mercari and Nextdoor apps on their mobile devices are female. On the flip side, close to three-fourths of CPlus app owners are male.

Income:

• Dedicated C2C apps have a notable portion of their audiences making under $75,000 a year.
• Over half of everyone with the VarageSale app on their mobile device fall in this category, as does over half of those who own the Mercari app.
• Close to 58% of Nextdoor app owners and over 61% of Nextdoor mobile website visitors make over $75,000 annually, making them an outlier in this space.

Interests and Motivators:

• People with these kinds of apps on their mobile devices are more likely to be motivated by money, and are not necessarily just cleaning out junk or decluttering.
• Individuals who own top C2C apps are also likely to own other similar C2C apps.
• People with these kinds of apps on their mobile devices are also likely to have apps on their mobile devices related to buying and selling used cars.
• Common overlapping audience segments for C2C app owners include entertainment enthusiasts, family shoppers and financially savvy individuals.
• C2C app owners often spend around 100 minutes per session using apps like letgo, OfferApp and VarageSale.

Location:

• C2C app owners are often found in rural or suburban areas. For example, seven of the top 10 ZIP codes for letgo app owners fall in these kinds of geographies. The top five ZIP codes most likely to contain OfferUp app owners are suburban. The VarageSale app is particularly popular in rural coastal Texas, while 70% of the top ZIP codes for the eBay app are in rural or suburban areas of the Midwest.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Strategy

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information from InMobi Pulse be used intelligently to further your business aims? For starters, it’s important to note the motivation people have for using these apps. People who have these C2C apps on their mobile devices are looking to monetize their assets or get good deals.

It’s also critical to understand app users demographics and where these app users often live. From a monetization perspective, it can be helpful to stress to advertisers that C2C apps can be a great way to reach rural or suburban populations and/or Hispanic audiences that might be difficult to reach through other app categories.

Curious to see more insights? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.