Etsy is buying social shopping app Depop for $1.6 billion, hoping to woo Gen Z shoppers

• Etsy is acquiring Depop for $1.625 billion.
• Depop, which launched in 2011, is a social shopping app that has been described as a mix of eBay and Instagram.
• It is targeted at Gen Z shoppers.

The online marketplace Etsy is spending $1.6 billion to buy Depop, the social shopping app targeted at Gen Z shoppers.

Depop has been described as a mix of eBay and Instagram. It offers users an easy way to buy and sell a mix of secondhand items including vintage clothing, limited-edition sneakers, or accessories via its app.

The company launched in 2011, and has grown rapidly over the past few years, as hordes of young consumers use it to sell items and make money. Some have pulled in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year selling on the app, and it now has 30 million registered users in more than 150 countries.

Announcing the news early Wednesday, Etsy described Depop as the "resale home for Gen Z consumers."

"Depop is a vibrant, two-sided marketplace with a passionate community, a highly-differentiated offering of unique items, and we believe significant potential to further scale," Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said in a statement Wednesday.

According to Depop, around 90% of its users are under the age of 26. It's also the 10th most visited shopping site among Gen-Z consumers in the US, it said.

Etsy now has the opportunity to tap into this consumer base in a bigger way and learn more about how the next generation of consumers shop.