Key Takeaways:
- eBay’s share of WAUs across the five largest US resale apps fell from 67% in January to 49% in early August. Adding Depop only lifts the combined figure to 65%, below where eBay alone started the year.
- Vinted overtook Depop in US weekly active users the week of May 11 and has held the lead for thirteen consecutive weeks.
- Depop’s downloads have fallen 26% in two weeks. Its 17-to-25 cohort dropped from 47% of its WAUS to 39% over the period.
eBay [NASDAQ: EBAY] closed its purchase of Depop on July 30, paying roughly $1.4 billion after adjustments. Apptopia’s panel shows eBay’s US base skewing older and male while Depop’s leans younger and female. I have to assume it’s not easy to build a Gen Z fashion community from scratch, which is why eBay wanted Depop under its roof. According to Apptopia data, while the acquisition was in the midst of closing, Depop was passed by a Lithuanian competitor.
Vinted entered the US in January and overtook Depop in weekly active users the week of May 11. By August 3, its US downloads ran roughly 3.4x eBay’s own.
In early January, eBay accounted for 67% of weekly actives across the five largest US resale apps, with Mercari [TYO: 4385] and Poshmark [KRX: 035420] splitting most of the rest. By August 3, eBay was at 49%, Vinted at 20%, and Depop at 17%. Mercari’s WAUs fell 28% over the period and Poshmark’s fell 46%, so a shrinking pie was not the problem. Combining eBay and Depop into a single pro forma line gets the company to 65%, still less than eBay held on its own seven months earlier. Time spent shows the same erosion more starkly: Vinted’s US total time spent was just 2.6% of eBay’s in early January and 84% by August 3.
Depop’s downloads tripled between early April and the week of July 20, then dropped 26% over the next two weeks. Its WAUs fell for the first time in months in that final week, while Vinted’s kept climbing. The peak arrived days after Depop launched a national campaign fronted by Zara Larsson on July 17. A curve that spikes on a campaign and gives back a quarter of it in a fortnight looks like purchased reach.
Users aged 17 to 25 made up 47% of Depop’s WAUs in January and 39% by August 3, while Power Users fell from 15% to 12%. Power Users represent the top 10% of users by time spent, often denoting the users who generate the most revenue for a company.
Depop grew, but it grew by adding older and less engaged users, which is the opposite of what eBay paid a premium for. Vinted’s share of young adults (those aged 17-to-25) held flat at 26% across the same stretch, and its Power User share rose from 8% to 12%.
“The Depop cohort that arrived this summer is less engaged than the one that built the platform,” said Tom Grant, VP of Research at Apptopia. “Take rate follows the high volume sellers, not the download chart, so the mix shift matters more here than the growth rate.”
Management has told The Street Depop will be roughly 2.5 points dilutive to 2026 non-GAAP EPS and will not reach operating income accretion until 2028, with a meaningful portion of planned shipping investment landing in contra revenue. Wells Fargo and Citizens both downgraded the stock ahead of the August 5 print, citing Depop marketing costs among other factors.
