Xiaohongshu
 | |
| Type | Social media and social commerce platform |
|---|---|
| Author | Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao[1] |
| URL | https://www.xiaohongshu.com/ |
| Launched | 2013[2] |
Xiaohongshu (小红书, literally "Little Red Book"), also known as RedNote, is a Chinese lifestyle-focused social media and social commerce platform. It combines an algorithmically recommended feed of user-created text, photographs and short videos with livestreaming and shopping features.[1][3]
History
Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao founded Xiaohongshu in Shanghai in 2013. It began as a shopping guide for Chinese travelers seeking recommendations for purchases abroad, then developed into a social network centered on lifestyle content.[2][1] By July 2024, the platform had expanded its e-commerce business around merchants, influencers and livestream shopping; the South China Morning Post reported that it had 300 million monthly active users.[4]
Platform and commerce
Users publish posts about subjects such as travel, shopping, fashion and other lifestyle topics. The home feed uses personalized recommendations and supports photographs, text and short-form video.[1] Product discovery and peer advice are linked to storefronts, livestreams and other purchasing features, placing commerce within the same platform as user-generated content.[3][4]
Unlike ByteDance's separation of Douyin in China from TikTok internationally, Xiaohongshu has generally served domestic and overseas users through the same platform. Its audience and interface have nevertheless remained primarily Chinese, and the service operates under China's content regulations.[3][1]
International growth
Xiaohongshu received widespread attention outside China in January 2025, when users anticipating a United States ban on TikTok joined the service and called themselves "TikTok refugees". The app reached first place in the United States' free-download charts on both iOS and Android during the influx.[3] A Rest of World analysis of Sensor Tower data found that Xiaohongshu ranked among the three most downloaded apps in 42 of 63 surveyed non-Western countries at some point from 13 to 21 January.[5]
The company added in-app English translation and bilingual subtitle features and began testing services aimed at overseas commerce. The initial surge did not fully persist: Sensor Tower data reported by Rest of World placed daily active users outside China at 8 million in January 2025 and 6.1 million in March, still 28 percent above the December 2024 level.[2]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Rest of World Staff (15 January 2025). "Everything you need to know about Xiaohongshu". Rest of World. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Peiyue Wu (26 March 2025). "Xiaohongshu's global pivot: The surprise winner of the TikTok ban wants to keep its new users". Rest of World. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Fu Ting; David Cohen (17 January 2025). "TikTok refugees are pouring to Xiaohongshu. Here's what you need to know about the RedNote app". Associated Press. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Wency Chen (28 July 2024). "China's Xiaohongshu carves out a niche in an increasingly crowded e-commerce market". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ Khadija Alam (24 January 2025). "'TikTok refugees' drove a global Xiaohongshu boom". Rest of World. Retrieved 17 September 2026.