{"id":9936,"date":"2022-04-11T07:30:20","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T07:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=9936"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:43:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:43:01","slug":"how-does-xiaohongshu-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/how-does-xiaohongshu-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How does Xiaohongshu work and why is it so popular?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Often compared to Instagram or Pinterest, Xiaohongshu (or RED in English) helps users discover and buy luxury, fashion and beauty products. It can also be an essential tool for building community around a brand in China, writes Mark Bellamy<\/strong> from Aiken Digital.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Comparing Chinese platforms to those we are familiar with in the West often provides a helpful analogy for understanding the way they work: WeChat and WhatsApp; Tmall and Amazon; Douyin and TikTok. However, the reality is often quite different from the analogy; most of the Chinese platforms mentioned may have started out conceptually similar to their Western counterparts, but they have evolved to incorporate a much more dynamic and multi-faceted set of functions and utilities. Even Douyin is light years ahead of TikTok in terms of e-commerce, and they are owned by the same company. One of the rising forces in Chinese eCommerce that you may have heard a lot about recently is the \u2018Instagram of China\u2019 Xiaohongshu (aka Little Red Book or RED).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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But once again the comparison does not do the Chinese platform justice. RED started off more like Pinterest, a lookbook platform for users to mostly list and share images of their favourite fashion and beauty items with friends. But today, RED is much more than content. Targeting 18-to-35-year-old Chinese urban females, the platform helps users discover and buy luxury, fashion and beauty products from overseas as well as share shopping tips and swap fashion ideas. Over 50% of RED users are under 30 years old, and more than 80% of them are female. 56% live in first and second tier cities. More than 50% belong to the upper-middle and middle classes.<\/p>\n

As with most successful social media and content platforms, RED has introduced commerce to the platform, allowing users to either buy directly from a brand-owned RED store, or by linking externally to a Tmall or WeChat store to purchase. But user generated content (UGC) is still the lifeblood of RED, so when it comes to standing out and succeeding on RED, recommendations are everything. To get brand exposure, it is not about how much you pay, but how big is your brand\u2019s tribe of followers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The RED \u2018tribal commerce\u2019 cycle<\/em><\/p>\n