What is Buff 163?
And why is it the biggest pillar of the skin economy.
People in the trade and investment community probably know Buff 163, but what makes this site so special?
The biggest marketplace for CS Items
As you can see in the spreadsheet above, Buff 163 is big. It covers 96.27% of all different items in the game and the overall value listed on the site is 14x larger than on the steam market. It is in fact bigger than all other marketplaces for skins together.
Why is it so big?
The main reason for the size of Buff 163 is that its located in a very important country, China. The Chinese player base makes up just 2.5% of all countries that play CS, but Chinese investors trade the highest tier of items. A big chunk of the site’s trading volume comes from regular trades of the rarest knives, gloves, and other special stuff.
Who is behind this thing?
The owner of Buff 163 is called NetEase Inc. a Chinese internet technology company that is listed on the Nasdaq and made 7.4 billion dollars of revenue in 2019. They own a search engine, a music streaming service and they’re big on e-commerce.
The number 163 is a symbol for “have a nice trip” and is often used in NetEase’s Domains. The fact that the company sits in china is a potential warning sign.
Buff is in constant danger
China as you might know is one of the most restricted countries on earth. If their government decides to shut down all market action on Buff, they will succeed with it, and 115.000.000$ of value goes down the drain. With recent developments (china banning steam) this fear just gets bigger.