Kun Dai launched one of China's first online used-car sites, CarResume.com, in 2005. Six years later he founded Uxin in Beijing to take the idea much further. By its 2018 filing, Uxin ran online markets where consumers and dealers bought secondhand cars, with loans arranged on the same platform. China had become a nation of new drivers, and millions of their cars would one day need second owners.

From CarResume to Uxin

Dai spent 2007 to 2011 at BitAuto, a listed car information company, rising to vice president. Then he left to build Uxin. The company ran two businesses: a consumer site for buying used cars, and an online auction where dealers traded cars with each other. The bet was trust. In a market full of hidden accident histories, a platform that inspected cars and arranged loans could win nervous buyers.

Nine Dollars and a Long Road

Uxin priced at $9 per ADS in June 2018 and listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol UXIN. The stock soon fell far below the offer. Uxin sold its dealer auction business and shifted to selling cars from its own large used-car superstores. In 2025 it signed up $50 million in new funding from NIO Capital and a partner. Uxin still trades on Nasdaq.

Cover: Untitled (Horse-Drawn Carriage), Unknown. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a horse-drawn carriage (a secondhand ride).