Teens have their own ways of doing things.

They have their own way of dating online, their own way of speaking to each other, and even their own way of earning money.

Using an app called Depop, since 2012 it has offered users a platform to sell and buy goods in an Instagram-like format, explains Vogue:

On Depop, users can “like” pieces, message each other to haggle, and leave comments on items listed by their fellow users. You have the option to follow friends, celebrities, or strangers, so as to be among the first to find out when they post new wares. It’s basically Instagram, but instead of celebrities subtly hawking props in sponsored posts, it’s the conversation around the piece that is really the point.

But what allows Depop to stand out from the rest is its minimum sign-up age of 14, reports The Telegraph:

The phone-based trading site has more than seven million users worldwide. One in seven is under the age of 16.

By contrast, the average seller on Etsy, the online marketplace for handcrafted and vintage goods, is 38-years-old. Depop will not reveal how much its average seller makes.

But it has said that its biggest businesses take in revenues of as much as £30,000 (R500 000) – and that’s per month.

Although it has a really crummy iTunes store rating (2,4 stars), the app has opened the doors for teens to make their own pocket money.

Here’s just one example:

It is three years since Katie Mortimer, now 16, turned to the internet to sell her unwanted jewellery. She hasn’t looked back.

Since then she has sold £40,000 worth of accessories, clothes, bedding and stationery bought from Chinese wholesalers and sold mainly to girls her age at prices marked up by as much as 250pc.

Katie believes in the time she has been selling her profits are in the order of £31,000. She was already receiving £25 a month in pocket money when she started.

This formed the seed capital of her venture. Among her first purchases were phone cases and clothes from a Chinese wholesaler.

Katie, who spends about one to three hours per day on her activities, which include processing sales, ordering stock and uploading pictures of the items on to the Depop app, said she can buy T-shirts and vests for £3 and sell them on the app for £10.50.

Of course, Katie isn’t the only one. Depop’s Instagram account profiles various users of the app and what they are into – check it out here.

Let’s hope it lasts – Instagram’s sneaky decision to move into the shopping sphere might kill it sooner rather than later, just like it has basically, nearly, killed Snapchat.

[source: thetelegraph&vogue]