Xiaohongshu

This article is about the social media platform. For the book of quotations by Mao Zedong, see Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

Xiaohongshu

Company type	Social Networking & E-commerce
Founded	June 2013
Founder	Miranda Qu Fang & Charlwin Mao Wenchao
Headquarters	Shanghai, China
Products	REDnote (Xiaohongshu)
Owner	Xingyin Information Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd
Website	www.xiaohongshu.com

Xiaohongshu
Simplified Chinese	小红书
Traditional Chinese	小紅書
Literal meaning	'little red book'
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiǎohóngshū Gwoyeu Romatzyh Sheauhorngshu Wade–Giles Hsiao^3-hung^2-shu^1 IPA [ɕjàʊxʊ̌ŋʂú]

Xiaohongshu (Chinese: 小红书; pinyin: Xiǎohóngshū; lit. 'little red book'), also known as RED,^[1][2] REDnote,^[3] or more commonly as XHS,^[4][5] is a social media and e-commerce platform. In the Xiaohongshu community, information is presented in a Pinterest-style layout, but combined with video and live streaming features, and users can also share product reviews and text descriptions of travel destinations.^[6] It has been described as "China's answer to Instagram"^[7] or simply as "Chinese Instagram".^[8][9]

70% of the platform users are reportedly born after 1990,^[10][11][12] and nearly 70% of them are female.^[10] The app allows users and influencers to post, discover and share product reviews, most frequently related to beauty and health.^[13] Xiaohongshu has its own influencer company Pugongying (Chinese: 蒲公英; pinyin: Púgōngyīng; lit. 'dandelion'), which gives influencers the opportunity to participate in paid sponsorships.^[14]

Users can blog on Xiaohongshu, covering various subjects such as beauty, fashion, food, travel, entertainment, fitness, parenting and more. The social feature of Xiaohongshu is to discover new brands.^[15] The platform also includes an in-app shopping interface for users to browse, search, and purchase products.^[16]

Xiaohongshu's headquarters are in Huangpu District, Shanghai.^[17]

History

Xiaohongshu was founded by Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao in 2013 as an online tour guide for Chinese shoppers, providing a platform for users to review products and share their shopping experiences with the community. In October 2014, the founders started focusing on connecting Chinese consumers with global retailers and established its own cross-border e-commerce platform, where Chinese consumers could buy products from overseas and order directly.^{[citation needed]}

In 2015, Xiaohongshu set up its warehouses in Shenzhen, Guangdong and Zhengzhou, Henan.^[18]

By May 2017 Xiaohongshu had over 50 million users and earned nearly CN¥10 billion, making it one of the world's largest community e-commerce platforms. That month, Xiaohongshu's international logistics system REDelivery went into service.^[19] On 6 June that year, Xiaohongshu held a shopping festival to celebrate its fourth anniversary, which saw the sales revenue exceed CN¥ 100 million in 2 hours, while the app ranked in first place in the iOS App Store under the "Shopping" category that day.^[20]

In June 2018, the Alibaba Group and Tencent invested US$300 million in Xiaohongshu, with a valuation of US$3 billion.^[21]

In 2018, Xiaohongshu became an internationalized platform that attracted many overseas users. However, at the end of that year, Xiaohongshu encountered regulatory problems and its app store shelves were suspended.^[22]

Due to the platform's early focus on fashion and beauty trends, Xiaohongshu's user base was predominantly female in its early years. 90% of Xiaohongshu users were women, according to a report published in April 2021.^[23][24] The app had attracted affluent Gen Z female users in urban China as an alternative to Instagram, which is blocked in the country.^[25] Xiaohongshu subsequently adjusted its corporate strategy to attract more male users to maintain its growth. In 2021, it announced that the platform would promote male user content.^[26][27]

In 2023, Sequoia China bought the Xiaohongshu shares in multiple transactions at a valuation of $14 billion.^[28]

According to the Financial Times, Xiaohongshu completed a round of stake sales of existing shares to new and former investors around July 2024 that valued the company at around $17 billion. This round saw participation from prominent venture capital investors, including DST Global, HongShan (formerly Sequoia China), Hillhouse Investment, Boyu Capital, and Citic Capital. The platform, which already has significant backing from Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba, achieved profitability in 2023 with a net profit of $500 million on revenues of $3.7 billion.^[29] It generates revenue primarily through advertising, particularly from cosmetics brands. However, it faces challenges as many users purchase recommended items on other platforms such as Taobao and Tmall, limiting Xiaohongshu's direct e-commerce potential. Despite having a large user base of over 300 million monthly active users with high engagement, its total revenue remains significantly lower than Douyin's.^[30]

Content Community

Upon its launch, Xiaohongshu's initial focus was to provide overseas shopping advice to people through digital community interaction. Later, Xiaohongshu launched the function of Posting shopping notes in the community to provide customers with more timely shopping information. In 2014, it launched a "welfare service" function for cross-border shopping.^[31] In the past few years, these functions of Xiaohongshu have fueled the creation of new brands; Other brands have also received widespread attention and promotion.^[32] In terms of authentic self-management, the app has reached strategic cooperation with a number of domestic and overseas brands such as Australian health care brands Blackmore, Swisse,^[33] Marc Jacobs, Sephora^[34] and so on. These partnerships ensure that users of the app are buying genuine products. Xiaohongshu has established overseas warehouses in 29 countries around the world, and has built more than 150,000 square meters of bonded warehouses in Zhengzhou, Shenzhen and Ningbo. The app has built REDelivery to provide international logistics services to third-party merchants.^[35] In the five months since Xiaohongshu launched its e-commerce model, sales have reached more than 200 million renminbi. As of June 2017, the revenue of Little Red Book was nearly 10 billion yuan.^[35]

Xiaohongshu is an innovative social media platform and e-commerce platform. In addition to users sharing overseas shopping experiences and recommending brand products, it also covers many aspects of daily life.^[36] Two of the most common aspects are Lifestyle Tips and Tutorials. The Xiaohongshu content community has a wealth of information on practical lifestyle, daily life tips, health advice, and so on. Users of the platform could find out what they want to know by searching for keywords. Tutorials have received widespread attention in terms of beauty, fashion and cooking.^[37]

Public charity

On January 31, 2020, the first batch of 200,000 protective masks donated by Xiaohongshu arrived in Wuhan. These materials were handed over to the Wuhan East Lake Hi-Tech Zone Command Center for COVID-19 Control and Prevention for coordinated distribution to hospitals and communities in urgent need. Additionally, Xiaohongshu's overseas procurement of more than 100,000 medical-grade protective items, including European standard FFP2 medical masks, has also been dispatched to China.

Xiaohongshu plans to allocate 10 million yuan for COVID-19 assistance, focusing on three main areas: First, the domestic and international procurement of masks, protective clothing, and other epidemic prevention materials to support the hardest-hit areas directly. Second, the establishment of a special psychological assistance fund, in partnership with professional psychological counseling agencies, to provide free counseling for healthcare workers, patients, and citizens affected by the epidemic. Third, Xiaohongshu will match user donations raised from the community “Come on Wuhan” public welfare live events and Spring Festival activities, with funds directed to public welfare and charitable organizations supporting the affected areas.^[38]

On September 7, 2024, Xiaohongshu Public Welfare announced the establishment of “BCAF-Xiaohongshu non-heritage new” special fund in conjunction with the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (BCAF), and set up “Xiaohongshu Rural Workshops” for the featured non-heritage villages, linking the strengths of many parties to help non-heritage workshop leaders and young fashion The Little Red Book Rural Workshop was set up for characteristic non-heritage villages, linking multiple forces to help non-heritage workshop leaders and young fashion designers to realize one-to-one pairing, helping to create new non-heritage products on the ground, and realizing two-way flow of resources and value sharing; through diversified support measures, it empowers characteristic non-heritage villages and craftsmen, activates the endogenous dynamics of rural cultural revitalization, and gives full play to the role of the cultural industry in empowering rural revitalization to assist rural cultural revitalization.^[39]

Controversies

In October 2021, Xiaohongshu received criticism for condoning heavily filtered, stylized photographs and perfectly captured imagery that was becoming increasingly common on the platform's feeds. On 17 October 2021, the platform issued a statement on WeChat to acknowledge that there was a problem of travel influencers posting "overly beautified" photos of scenic spots. According to the statement, Xiaohongshu issued an apology and indicated that because "bloggers did not clearly label their works as creative photography, people interpreted them as part of travel guides. Users who visited the locations were disappointed by the differences between their expectations and reality".^[40][41] Moreover, Xiaohongshu decided to transfer the IPO from the United States to Hong Kong. According to a Bloomberg report in July, this included requiring all companies holding the data of more than 1 million users to submit a cyber security review, which was one of the reasons for the suspension of Xiaohongshu's listing in the United States.^[42]

In December 2021, in response to loss of public trust towards the authenticity of content hosted on its platform, Xiaohongshu formed a dedicated team to identify and remove fraudulent content. A system that uses algorithms and human checks to block falsified content was also implemented. Since then, the platform has banned 81 brands and merchants, deleted 172,600 fake reviews, and disabled 53,600 accounts, according to the company.^[43]

On 19 January 2022, an announcement was made by Xiaohongshu indicating that the company had filed a lawsuit against four companies behind several ghostwriting broker sites in an attempt to restore consumer trust. In an official statement made by Xiaohongshu, the company alleged that the four companies had set up marketplaces for merchants and gig writers to carry out fraudulent practices, including the production of fake reviews and click farming. Xiaohongshu asked for US$1.57 million in compensation for damage to its reputation and the infringement of consumer rights on its platform.^[43][44]

On 25 January 2022, reports emerged that Xiaohongshu has received a fine totaling ¥300,000 from local authorities in Shanghai for failing to remove content that was deemed harmful to minors. The fine relates to a violation of cybersecurity law that guarantees protection for minors after an earlier media report was made by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) in December 2021, that it found videos posted on Xiaohongshu showing underage girls in various states of undress, featured in advertisements for underwear brands.^[45]

In December 2022, the government of Taiwan banned public sector employees from using Xiaohongshu on official devices due to national security concerns.^[46]

References

1. Wan, Alex (May 16, 2022). "What Is RED (Xiaohongshu) And How Can It Unlock A New Revenue Stream?". Forbes. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
2. "RED (Xiaohongshu) – the most powerful Chinese app you cannot ignore". China–Britain Business Council. 6 June 2023. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
3. "REDnote—小红书国际版 - Apps on Google Play". Google Play Store. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
4. "Chinese Little Red Book | XHS Marketing Strategies | Comms8". Comms8 - Cross-Border Marketing Agency. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
5. Gao, Coco (2024-08-27). "XiaoHongShu (RED): China's Rising Social Platform – Impact, User Demographics and Marketing Solutions". The Egg. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
6. "Ecommerce Solutions & Platform Setup in China | Hongda Service". www.hongdaservice.com. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
7. "China's answer to Instagram is sorry for over-filtered images". South China Morning Post. 2021-10-18. Archived from the original on 2022-01-03. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
8. Tang, Shiyi (2022-03-03). "How to Grow Your Business in Xiaohongshu - GPI Translations Blog". Globalization Partners International. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
9. Perik, Nina (2022-09-13). "Little Red Book Marketing — How to Advertise on the "Chinese Instagram"?". MAF. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
10. 益普索 x 小红书 | 2020小红书年中美妆洞察报告 (PDF) (in Simplified Chinese). Ipsos (益普索). 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
11. Wei, Daniela; Banjo, Shelly (24 April 2019). "The Future of Shopping Is Already Happening in China: China's Gen Z Skips the Stores and Shops on Social Media". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2019.(subscription required)
12. "小红书_标记我的生活". www.xiaohongshu.com. Archived from the original on 2020-02-01. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
13. "Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) is fostering e-commerce via word of mouth - WalktheChat". WalktheChat. 10 June 2018. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
14. Shu, Xiao Hong. "小红书蒲公英". pgy.xiaohongshu.com. Retrieved 2024-08-23.
15. "2024 Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) Marketing – A Complete Guide". WalkTheChat. 2024-05-12. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
16. "What is XiaoHongShu 小红书 and How to Use It". FirstCom Academy. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
17. "Home". Xiaohongshu. Retrieved 2022-04-22. 地址：上海市黄浦区马当路388号C座
18. "Billion Dollar Unicorns: Xiaohongshu Leverages Social Commerce to Join the Club". Sramana Mitra. 19 June 2018. Archived from the original on 22 June 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
19. Sentance, Rebecca (23 October 2018). "Xiaohongshu: How a Chinese ecommerce app built a thriving community around UGC". EConsultancy. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
20. Dudarenok, Ashley (17 June 2018). "How to launch your product on China's popular Xiaohongshu fashion platform". The Next Web. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
21. Udemans, Christopher (1 June 2018). "Alibaba leads $300 million investment in Xiaohongshu". Technode. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
22. "What is XiaoHongShu 小红书 and How to Use It". FirstCom Academy. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
23. "千瓜：2021小红书活跃用户画像趋势报告（附下载） | 互联网数据资讯网-199IT | 中文互联网数据研究资讯中心-199IT" [2021 Xiaohongshu Active User Portrait Trend Report] (in Chinese (China)). 2021-04-23. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
24. Zhang, Wanqing (2022-03-18). "China's Instagram Wants More Male Users. It's Using Women as Bait". Sixth Tone. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
25. Soon, Weilun. "China's popular Xiaohongshu app counts Kim Kardashian and Eileen Gu as users. Sources say it's staffing up to launch internationally". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-03-11. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
26. Xiong, Caicai (2021-08-17). "「爹味更重」的小红书，它的二次发育诊断如何". m.jiemian.com. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
27. "男人跑来小红书教女人做事了?". www.jiemian.com. Archived from the original on 2022-03-19. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
28. "Sequoia Capital China Buys Discounted Stake in Prominent E-Commerce App". The Information. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
29. Olcott, Eleanor (2024-07-11). "Chinese social media sensation Xiaohongshu wins major foreign VC backing". Financial Times. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
30. Zhou, Cissy (2024-07-19). "Xiaohongshu: Can China's wildly popular app raise its profit game?". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
31. Li, Zicheng (2015-09-10). "Community e-commerce platform "Xiaohongshu" rapid growth". International Business: 1 – via finance.china.com.cn.
32. "李强走访小红书：精准有效搭建消费平台、释放消费潜力、做强消费品牌 | 北晚新视觉". www.takefoto.cn. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
33. "Swisse小红书种草大法揭秘：销量飙升166%，多品类夺冠！_营销_产品_消费者". news.sohu.com. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
34. "科蒂就旗下高端香水品牌莫杰与丝芙兰中国达成全新独家零售战略合作-美通社PR-Newswire". www.prnasia.com (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2024-11-04.
35. "Everything began from shopping". Forbes China. 12 March 2018.
36. "Xiaohongshu Content Creation | China Marketing Corp". 2023-03-09. Retrieved 2024-11-09.
37. siyad (2023-08-14). "XiaoHongshu Marketing Strategy Operating Guide for 2023". Gab China. Retrieved 2024-11-09.
38. 舒靓. "小红书首批20万件物资已运达武汉，出资1000万元驰援武汉". caijing.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
39. "小红书公益设立"非遗上新"专项扶持基金 助力乡村文化振兴-公益时报网". www.gongyishibao.com. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
40. "Xiaohongshu faces crisis of trust over edited photos that 'deceive' users". KrASIA. 2021-10-20. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
41. 小红书. "坚持真诚分享，坚信普通人帮助普通人". Weixin Official Accounts Platform. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
42. Fioretti, Julia (Oct 11, 2021). "China's Little Red Book to Shift IPO to Hong Kong From U.S." Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
43. "Xiaohongshu sues ghostwriter brokers over fraudulent promotional content". KrASIA. 2022-01-20. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
44. 小红书. "小红书起诉微媒通告等4家涉虚假种草通告平台及MCN机构，索赔1000万元". Weixin Official Accounts Platform. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
45. "Authorities fine Xiaohongshu RMB 300,000 for failing to protect minors". KrASIA. 2022-01-25. Archived from the original on 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
46. Graham-Harrison, Emma; Lin, Chi-Hui (2023-08-13). "'Into brain and the heart': how China is using apps to woo Taiwan's teenagers". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2023-08-15.

External links

• Official website