Isabelle Bousquette: Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Friday, February 13th. I'm Isabelle Bousquette for the Wall Street Journal. While secondhand electronics have long been popular in Europe, the trend is now catching on in the US. We dive into how President Trump's tariffs are convincing some to go for refurbished devices when updating their tech. Then a new matchmaking algorithm is taking college campuses by storm. We look at how it works and why it's so addictive. But first, sales of secondhand technology are surging in the United States as consumers worry about the price of the latest electronic devices going up. And now online marketplaces for used electronics are booming. One startup Back Market, which connects third-party refurbishers with customers, saw net sales grow 27% year-over-year in 2025. WSJ's Belle Lin sat down with our consumer goods reporter Aimee Look to learn more about what refurbished tech is trending in the US and where it might go from here.
Belle Lin: To start, why is the secondhand tech market booming?
Aimee Look: So basically in 2014, this company called Back Market started in Europe and they had a lot of success in Europe at first, but were struggling in the US. Now because of Trump's tariffs, it's made it a lot more expensive for companies to have their supply chains abroad. So it's really given a boost to secondhand goods and buying and selling things that are already in the US rather than looking at things that could be produced abroad and therefore for a higher price.
Belle Lin: And in contrast, why have European consumers been more willing to buy refurbished electronics or secondhand tech?
Aimee Look: Yeah, so for years it's been easier for European consumers to buy secondhand tech and especially phones because their telecom contracts are typically much shorter and they're more heavily regulated than in the US, where telcos can have longer-term contracts and incentivize people to trade in their phones rather than buying secondhand. But then there's the other aspect, which is just interest in sustainability in general. People in Europe have more easily gravitated towards sustainable goods.
Belle Lin: Tell us a little bit more about the companies behind buying refurbished tech. One you mentioned is Back Market. Tell us a little bit more about how it works and what it is and who's been using it.
Aimee Look: So Back Market basically connects third-party refurbishers with customers, and that means that they work with the refurbishers, they vet them, and they basically connect them with consumers to sell their products. And they’ve really taken off. They’re kind of the first refurbished tech company and they’re also the biggest. There are other giants like eBay and Amazon that have also tapped into this market a bit. But Back Market is the only one that does it exclusively at such a large scale and has such high standards in terms of how they vet refurbishers and also how they connect people in terms of their shipping networks across different countries.
Belle Lin: And why is it not so clear-cut that putting tariffs on electronics will just automatically benefit the secondhand tech market?
Aimee Look: When it comes to tariffs, there are also knock-on effects on parts of the supply chain that are required for refurbished goods such as batteries or different types of tech that will be needed to repair those phones. Raw materials might have tariffs on them as well, so that could add a knock-on effect and also raise the price of secondhand tech.
Belle Lin: How are, let's call it, first-hand market companies reacting to this? Is it impacting their profits?
Aimee Look: Right now in the US, it hasn't been impacting their profits as much. In Europe, there is a much bigger effect because people are adopting secondhand goods a lot better, but there hasn't really been a concrete effect. There haven't really been any big tech companies to come out and say that this is posing a real challenge.
Isabelle Bousquette: That was Belle Lin speaking with WSJ consumer good reporter Aimee Look. Have you considered buying more secondhand tech? If you're a listener on Spotify, let us know in the comments. Coming up how a new artificial intelligence platform is changing the dating game for singles at Stanford, that's after the break.
Dating apps on college campuses are nothing new, but a platform that uses artificial intelligence to match singles based on values, lifestyles, and political views—that's something that’s taken Stanford’s campus by storm. More than 5,000 Stanford students have used Date Drop this new matchmaking platform and it’s raised $2.1 million in venture capital funding. But have any of its users actually found love yet? WSJ News associate Jasmine Li joins us for a look at the latest algorithm-fueled dating craze.
Jasmine Li: Date Drop is essentially a matchmaking platform for college students. What these students do is they fill in a survey of 66 questions that are meant to get a picture of who they are. So these are questions like, "Do you want to have kids? Do you have expensive taste? Are you a morning person?" These responses are fed into an algorithm that matches these students with people on campus that they'll be compatible with. And then it's just up to the students to set up a date and take it to the next level.
Isabelle Bousquette: And so why is this such an addictive experience for them? Why are they so obsessed with this?
Jasmine Li: So what I hear from college students about dating culture on campus is that you’re not really going up to people and asking them out anymore. Some students are on mainstream dating apps, but there is a sort of desire for something else, a different way to meet people. And when students use a platform like Date Drop, the hope is that if they put in the work, answer all these questions, the algorithm is going to know them well enough to pair them with somebody that’s high quality, that’s going to be a good match. And a lot of these students just think there’s something sort of appealing about surrendering themselves to the algorithm. It’s also just a fun group activity. These students are crowding around in their dorm rooms and seeing who they’re matching with, who their friends are matching with. It’s just a fun social thing for some of these students.
Isabelle Bousquette: So how did this new dating platform come to be? How was it created?
Jasmine Li: Date Drop was created back in September by a grad student at Stanford. His name’s Henry Weng and Date Drop evolved from a project he did last year called Senior Scramble, which is something similar. The idea is to help graduating seniors make a last-ditch effort to find the love of their lives on campus. And Date Drop Henry said he coded it in about three weeks; marketed it; sent it around to students. It’s taken off at Stanford. Over 5,000 students have used it and Date Drop is now being used at 11 schools.
Isabelle Bousquette: You also reported that this isn't the first sort of trendy, data-driven dating experience that's hit a college campus. What kinds of apps have we seen here in the past?
Isabelle Bousquette: So our students at Stanford actually finding relationships out of this because I thought it was really funny. One of the students you interviewed said he didn’t actually find a relationship, but he did make some good LinkedIn connections.
Jasmine Li: It definitely remains to be seen how successful this experiment is, but people are definitely going on dates. I heard from students who said, “I didn’t find love just yet, but I made some new friends.” I spoke with a physics major who said he doesn’t really hang out with art majors or psych majors, but he met a few through Date Drop and he was happy he got to connect with people from seemingly a totally different part of campus. So I think a lot of students are using this as an opportunity to just maximize the limited time that they have on campus. And the thinking is maybe you’ll meet the love of your life. If not, you’ll make a new friend. Or if you get lucky, maybe you’ll meet your future co-founder or future chairman of your board.
Isabelle Bousquette: That was WSJ News Associate Jasmine Li. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang. I'm your host, Isabelle Bousquette. Additional support this week from Melony Roy, Jessica Fenton and Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Our supervising producer is Katie Ferguson. Our development producer is Aisha Al-Muslim. Chris Zinsli is the deputy editor and Philana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. We'll be back later this morning with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.