RedNote

Xiaohongshu (XHS; zh, s=小红书, p=Xiǎohóngshū, l=little red book), known in English as RedNote, is a Chinese social networking and e-commerce platform.

, 70% of the platform's users are reportedly born after 1990, and nearly 70% of them are female. In January 2025, the app gained an influx of new users from the United States and other parts of the world due to the anticipated shutdown of TikTok's U.S. operations in accordance with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Xiaohongshu has been called "China's answer to Instagram".

Etymology

The app was initially called "Hong Kong Shopping Guide" and targeted Chinese tourists. According to co-founder Mao Wenchao, the name Xiaohongshu () was inspired by his career at Bain & Company and education at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; both institutions feature red as their main color. "Little Red Book" is also the English nickname for the 1964 ''Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung''. The company has stated that the platform's name is not a reference to the compilation book.

Internationally, the app was branded as ''RED'' from 2022 through 2023, then listed under the name ''REDnote'' on the Google Play store beginning in September 2024. The latter name is often used by many US users. Since January 20, 2025, the app has been styled ''rednote'' on both the App Store and Google Play.

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 2015, Xiaohongshu set up its warehouses in Shenzhen, Guangdong and Zhengzhou, Henan.

On 6 June 2017, Xiaohongshu held a shopping festival to celebrate its fourth anniversary, which saw the sales revenue exceed CN¥100 million in two hours, while the app ranked in first place in the iOS App Store under the "Shopping" category that day.

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

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. The app had attracted affluent Gen Z female users in urban China as an alternative to Instagram, which is blocked in the country. 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. By 2022, 30% of Xiaohongshu users were male. There was criticism that the strategy, as well as Xiaohongshu's algorithm, increased harassment on the platform and made women feel less welcome. An external advertising agency marketed Xiaohongshu on other websites as a place to see "Beautiful ladies... without spending any money!" and "Sexy, beautiful car models and stylish beauties", which the company later apologized for.

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

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. 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.

2025 influx of American users

In January 2025, the banning of TikTok in the US caused many US users to look for a TikTok alternative, which led to a significant increase in Xiaohongshu downloads. It was the most-downloaded free app in the App Store on 14 January and #TikTokRefugee became a trending topic, referring to former TikTok users as "refugees". Reactions to the influx of American users were mixed in China, as state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) supported the influx while some Chinese nationalist bloggers warned against American influence.

Features

Users can share, search and bookmark product reviews and introductions to travel destinations, known as ''grass-planting'' (, slang for "sharing and recommending a product") notes, while selling and purchasing goods.

Search

As Xiaohongshu focuses on lifestyle topics, the ecosystem has given it a growing advantage in competition with traditional Chinese search engines, making it a new generation search engine and earning it the reputation of "National Lifestyle Guide". Xiaohongshu recorded almost 600 million daily search queries in Q4 2024, reportedly half that of Baidu and doubled over the past year.

In January 2025, Xiaohongshu is introducing Diandian, an AI-powered search tool, which is currently in beta testing.

Shopping

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. Xiaohongshu provides international logistics services to third-party merchants. In the first quarter of 2024, Xiaohongshu reached a revenue of 1 billion dollars, partly generated from these services.

Content moderation and censorship

Xiaohongshu strictly prevents advertising and linking to external websites or apps. Actions such as sending WeChat contacts in posts or DMs or inquiring about prices of goods can lead to account suspension.

In 2022, ''China Digital Times'' published leaked documents showing how Xiaohongshu's content moderation teams censor or limits posts about topics sensitive to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including mentions of derogatory nicknames for CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, and discussion of events such as labor strikes, geographic discrimination, student suicides and criticism of the CCP. Users noted that topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre or Free Hong Kong are censored on the platform.

Following the growth in users from the United States, Xiaohongshu was said to be exploring adjusting its content review processes as American influencers began sharing posts. According to ''Wired'' and ''The Beijing News'', Xiaohongshu announced an urgent recruitment of English content moderators to expand its content moderation team. On 14 January 2025, Xiaohongshu announced that it would direct users to more "positive" content in line with a November 2024 directive from the Cyberspace Administration of China. That same month, when asked about the platform's censorship in a press briefing, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun replied that "no matter what platforms you use, it's a personal choice" further adding that the Chinese government encourages and supports "person-to-person exchanges". ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that officials have instructed Xiaohongshu to make it less likely for Chinese users to see politically sensitive posts from overseas users, according to "people familiar" with the matter. Most Americans on Xiaohongshu did not touch on such taboos, although some accounts were flagged or suspended for reasons such as wearing revealing clothes.

Reception

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". Moreover, Xiaohongshu decided to transfer the IPO from the United States to Hong Kong. According to a Bloomberg News 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

In December 2022, the government of Taiwan banned public sector employees from using Xiaohongshu on official devices due to national security concerns. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council referred to the app as a vector for united front propaganda. In January 2025, Texas governor Greg Abbott prohibited the app on all government devices.

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