Ricardo celebrates five million members

Zug, 15 May 2024 – In its 25th year of operations, the Swiss online marketplace Ricardo and its community have surpassed the five million mark. With this milestone, theoretically every Swiss household has a Ricardo account. Founded in 1999, Ricardo passed the million members mark after 6.5 years, with the second million coming five years later and three million registered Ricardo users being reached in 2016. Membership grew the most in 2012, with around 355,000 registrations, followed by 2021 (around 339,000) and 2020 (333,000). Every year, more than 6.5 million items are auctioned or sold on the platform; 71% of these items are second-hand. Some of the most popular categories by the number of transactions are Fashion, Household, Collecting, Toys and Sports. 

A recent analysis of the Ricardo community has shown that the online marketplace is most represented in the 31–45 age group (36%), followed by the 46–60 age group (30%), ‘Zillennials’, i.e. those in the 18–30 age group, and the 61–75 age group (each accounting for around 15%); 4% of Ricardo’s members are over the age of 75. Most Ricardo members live in the cantons of Zurich, Bern, Aargau, Vaud and St. Gallen. The German version of the online marketplace is used by 77.6% of Ricardo members, while 19.4% prefer the French version and 3% prefer the Italian version. If we look at gender distribution, 64% of Ricardo accounts are used by men and 36% by women. However, this figure puts into perspective the fact that a Ricardo account is probably often used by several people from the same household.

Francesco Vass, Managing Director of Ricardo: ‘We are delighted to have reached the impressive milestone of five million members. It is all the more gratifying and motivating that some 1,000 users rediscover Ricardo every day and use the platform to give their used belongings a new lease of life and to look for that special something – all of which promotes the circular economy.’