What is XIAOHONGSHU and why does it appeal to young Chinese consumers?
XIAOHONGSHU (Little Red Book or RED) is a social sharing APP with UGC (user-created content) and, at its core, a life-sharing platform. It was established in Shanghai in 2013 to share information about overseas shopping. Users search for luxury fashion and beauty products overseas and shared shopping tips with others. As the platform grew, XIAOHONGSHU gradually became a life-sharing community platform encouraging users to share their experiences in all aspects of life, including beauty, fashion, travel, food, education, etc.
This APP targets middle and high-end young consumers, encouraging users to post short videos or pictures to show their lifestyles. It is equivalent to Instagram and Yelp. It also enables users to become “bloggers”, and anyone can express their opinions on products or services. This helps users navigate the platform for valuable tips and information. The “Everyone is a user, and everyone is a blogger” concept makes XIAOHONGSHU one of China’s most popular and engaging social media platforms. XIAOHONGSHU has over 200 million+ monthly active users, 50% from first and second-tier cities, 72% of users are millennials, and most of them are women. These users are dynamic, quick to accept new things and avid consumers of social media.
The usage scenarios of XIAOHONGSHU
The main sectors covered by XIAOHONGSHU are fashion, food, beauty, travel, mother and baby, education, etc. Any user can post their opinion on a particular topic: an item of clothing, restaurant, cosmetics, or electronics. Other users will discuss their views with the blogger in the comment that’s at the bottom of the post.
Advantages of XIAOHONGSHU over other social media
Influence and impact:
- One of the most influential and engaging social media in China.
- This platform plays a significant role in users’ purchasing decision-making, especially regarding Key Opinion Leaders.
- Enriching customers’ shopping experiences.
High awareness and exposure:
- A great tool connecting Chinese consumers to foreign brands.
- It is particularly good at selling skincare and beauty products from international brands (including dietary supplements).
- Luxury goods, the travel industry, and all lifestyle-related brands have a high level of attention on this platform.
Growing and high-end consumer:
- An extensive young user base with high purchasing power.
- The usage has been growing exponentially, especially with overseas Chinese students and residents.
Trustworthy and community base:
- The content on the platform is of higher quality and more trustworthy.
- Bloggers often guide users to go to the brand’s shops online to offline.
- Closer-to-life scenarios interact with users and their community base.
Functions and how to use the XIAOHONGSHU APP
The XIAOHONGSHU homepage is divided into three modules: follow, discover and nearby. Here the users can see posts from their favourite bloggers and recommended posts based on previously browsed or geolocated posts.
For example, the ‘Nearby’ feature of XIAOHONGSHU can provide accurate information about the user’s city. Users in London can view posts shared by other users in the city, such as restaurant experiences, shopping information, and practical tips. This makes the content much more relevant to the users.
There are two main ways to post on XIAOHONGSHU: short video or graphic posting. Users can upload short videos or pictures through XIAOHONGSHU’s editing function, classify posts by title and hot tags, and promote them accurately according to geographical location. Users will comment, retweet, and collect the posts they like. XIAOHONGSHU has lowered the threshold of becoming a blogger so much that everyone can make beautiful pictures or videos. Thus, more people are willing to publish their content on this platform.
An interesting fact that overseas merchants should know: Chinese tourists on their first trip abroad do not search for ’10 best restaurants in Barcelona’ or ‘most popular restaurants’ on Google. They are more likely to search for ‘restaurants Barcelona’ and ‘tapas Barcelona’ on XIAOHONGSHU to check other people’s recommendations and experiences. Other bloggers’ content is more relevant to the users’ life scenarios and in Chinese, so they are more inclined to trust the content generated on XIAOHONGSHU. For example, the tapas restaurant LA FLAUTA in Barcelona is very trendy on XIAOHONGSHU, and the “honey cod”, recommended by many users on this platform, has become one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes.
How merchants can take advantage
In recent years, the use of XIAOHONGSHU overseas has been increasing rapidly, mainly because of the platform’s core: recommending and recording good life experiences. More than 2.5 million Chinese in Europe often use the APP to look up local information and experiences. They also share their living or travel experiences in foreign countries.
This month, China’s epidemic policy has been completely lifted, and quarantine is no longer required for entry. This means Chinese tourists can finally travel abroad with ease and at a lower cost. Demand for outbound travel in China will resume after three years of restrictions.
Therefore, overseas brands must be prepared and develop marketing strategies to attract Chinese customers. XIAOHONGSHU is one of the most influential platforms for attracting consumers. This platform has robust interactivity and the user stickiness of it is very high. We can help you apply and set up the XIAOHONGSHU account, create post content with our in-house Chinese team, push posts of your business on XIAOHONGSHU to make your services known to Chinese consumers, thus attracting consumers to your online and offline stores, and achieving the word-of-mouth effect at the same time.
We also provide value-added marketing services to target the Chinese market. Additionally, we can help you set up a Chinese payment system with WeChat Pay and Alipay so that Chinese consumers can feel at home with a better payment experience.
