Is Vinted Just a UK Hobby? How It Compares Across Countries
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If you've been selling on Vinted for a while, you probably think of it as a UK thing — a platform you use to shift old clothes, populated by UK buyers, run vaguely from somewhere in Europe. The reality is considerably bigger than that, and understanding where the UK fits in the global picture is actually useful context if you're trying to get the most out of selling there.
Where Vinted comes from
Vinted started in Lithuania in 2008, founded by Milda Mitkutė after she realised she couldn't figure out how to offload her own wardrobe. The basic idea — a free-to-list secondhand marketplace with zero seller fees — launched first in Lithuanian, then spread across Europe.
It's now headquartered in Vilnius, employs thousands of people, and as of 2026 operates across 16 countries. Its last known valuation was around $8 billion.
The numbers, country by country
Vinted has 75 million members globally. The distribution across countries tells a story:
France leads the platform with around 13 million registered users and the highest gross merchandise volume (GMV) of any single market. The French embrace of secondhand fashion is cultural — buying and selling used clothing is mainstream in a way that's arguably more embedded than in the UK. France is the market Vinted built on.
Germany comes second with around 11 million users, but is the most interesting outlier in the data: it's actually the only major Vinted market showing negative growth in recent figures, down around 25% year-on-year. The reasons aren't fully clear — it may be saturation, competitive pressure, or a particular dynamic in German consumer culture — but it suggests Vinted isn't an automatic winner everywhere it operates.
The UK has around 8 million users and is growing at 54% year-on-year — one of the fastest rates of any major Vinted market. By revenue (GMV), the UK is the second largest market after France. That's worth sitting with for a moment: the UK isn't a secondary market. It's the second biggest market Vinted operates in, by the money actually changing hands.
Spain follows with around 7 million users, and other significant markets include Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Austria, and Ireland.
What the UK growth rate actually means
54% growth in a market of 8 million users isn't a small country catching up to somewhere that started earlier. It's a major market accelerating. More sellers, more buyers, more active listings, more competition for attention — and more opportunity for sellers who price correctly and present their items well.
The context matters for a practical reason: the UK secondhand market is still in a growth phase. Buyers are still forming habits. The sellers who establish themselves now — with good reviews, accurate pricing, and consistent quality — are building accounts during an expansion, not a saturation. The secondhand market in France looks different to the one in the UK because France is several years further along.
The US: late arrival
Vinted actually launched in the US back in 2013, tried and failed to gain meaningful traction, and pulled back to focus on European growth. It's now attempting the US market again, with more resources and a stronger position to work from.
The US secondhand market is large but structured differently — dominated by apps like Poshmark, Depop, and ThredUp, with eBay still a major force. European secondhand culture has historically been more embedded, particularly the culture of buying and selling rather than only buying new. Vinted's zero-seller-fee model is a differentiated offer in the US market, but it's entering late.
For UK sellers, the US expansion is also relevant because Vinted has opened up cross-border selling — including UK to US. More on that in the separate piece on cross-border selling.
Germany's decline: a cautionary note
The -25% figure for Germany is worth acknowledging specifically, because it's the most mature major Vinted market showing a contraction. There are several plausible explanations — platform saturation, competition from Kleinanzeigen (Germany's dominant classified ads platform), changing consumer sentiment — but the precise cause isn't established.
What it does suggest is that Vinted's growth isn't inevitable in every market. Sellers benefit from understanding the platform's health in their own market, and the UK's strong growth trajectory is a positive signal for sellers operating there in 2026.
Why this matters if you're selling
The practical upshot of all this is that UK sellers are operating in a healthier, faster-growing market than most Vinted sellers elsewhere in Europe. The platform is investing in the UK market. The buyer base is expanding. The price benchmarks are still forming.
The most common mistake UK sellers make isn't platform-specific — it's not knowing what their items are worth. In a growing market with an expanding buyer base, underpricing is a particularly acute waste: you're selling to an increasingly active audience of people who are forming their view of what things cost on Vinted. If your good-condition North Face jacket sells for £30 because you didn't check what it was worth, you've contributed to a price expectation that costs other genuine sellers too.
Worthmore is built specifically for UK secondhand pricing — covering the brands and categories most actively searched on Vinted UK. Knowing what your items are worth, in this market, is the foundation of selling well.
The UK Vinted market is growing faster than almost anywhere else on the platform. The sellers who understand its scale — and price accordingly — are the ones making the most of it.