Taobao’s ‘ugly’ goods find a growing market among China’s young consumers

Items that might have once been seen as unmarketable are going viral online as shoppers embrace quirkiness and novelty over conventional aesthetics

Products widely considered “ugly” or “bizarre” have gone viral online in China as millions of young consumers embrace the items’ quirky humour and distinctive character.

Cumulative sales of such products on Taobao – an e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group Holding – have surpassed 230 million yuan (US$34.3 million) since 2020, when Taobao launched its so-called Uglies Award to celebrate creatively unusual goods, the platform said recently without specifying exactly what constitutes an “ugly” product.

This year also marks Taobao’s second Treasured Uglies Art Exhibition, themed “Ugly, But Mine”, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where the company is based. The exhibition, which covers an area nearly twice as large as last year’s inaugural event, will be open from Saturday to September 27.

“Consumers are not just buying oddly shaped goods, but the emotions, stories and self-expression they carry,” said Hu Yu, project lead for the Uglies Award. “Some keep these items on their work desks, while others wear them to show their personal styles.

“These offbeat designs help consumers connect with similar people and express who they are.”

On Taobao, small, medium and micro enterprises account for 85 per cent of all products, and the broad range of non-standard offerings, combined with a large base of young consumers, helps niche aesthetics find an audience, according to the platform.

For instance, legendary figures from ancient cave murals in Dunhuang, Gansu province, have been brought into 3D form. The Dunhuang Academy, which oversees the Unesco World Heritage site, has reimagined them as collectable figures.