In pursuit of users, we are going on Xiao Hong Shu
Xiao Hong Shu has become the default search engine for lifestyle choices for Chinese expats, especially women. It's huge. It's aspirational. Content is genuine. So, is it the next Tiktok? 🤯
👋 Hola! Welcome to Out of Singapore. I am Shantanu and I write about building businesses from scratch. I share stories about my initiatives, failures and learnings to encourage you.
I am in India, at my home in Dhanbad. I will be working from here this week. I attended a Meta organised conference (albeit a small and closed one) in Delhi on Friday before I came home. They were showing off product innovations in their marketing suite. A large part of this was about content creators and how to work with them. If I have to summarize the session, it was “create engaging short form video, like normal people in real life, and leave the ads performance to us”. They key solution, Advantage+ shopping campaigns, is completely automated. You need to provide at least 20 creatives to the campaign and then Facebook does the rest. We will see how it works for us.
Marketing now is more content creation rather than campaign setup and optimization. Now is the right time for creative agencies and content creators to offer services to consumer brands.
I missed my flight, again. Second time in the same year. From the same airport - Changi. So I flew to Mumbai and then Delhi overnight. Instead of sleeping in my hotel room, I slept on a seat on Indigo flight. Only Indians can tell you how uncomfortable Indigo seats are. Then the next day I flew from Delhi to Durgapur, the nearest airport to my home. Delhi’s T1 terminal is under renovation, with all shops closed. I could not buy a single gift for my two tiny cute nieces 🥹.
On the topics of kids, let’s take a quick poll
I always wanted my own kids for the longest time. Things have changed now. They are cute, but do I need my own kids? 🤨
Let’s start with our topic for the day - marketing on Xiao Hong Shu. I will give you an introduction since I am also starting out. Here are the topics I will cover
Why does Xiao Hong Shu matter?
Short backstory of the platform (promise short)
The unique userbase of women and affluent
How are we going about launching on Xiao Hong Shu?
You will get to know more about our experience on the platform as we continue our efforts. I expect it to be a big learning experience and be able to tap into a new user base - Chinese expats. Let’s start.
#1 The Little Red App is making waves across the worl
Read this headline - How China’s hottest social media app turned Düsseldorf into a foodie destination. A few posts on Xiaohongshu can transform a normal eatery to a trending hotspot with queues.
During my meeting with our Xiao Hong Shu marketing partner, they mentioned food stalls and brand stores in Thailand seeing a sudden frenzy with long queues, all thanks to Xiao Hong Shu. The platform does not have a billion plus userbase like Instagram, WeChat or YouTube. However, you would be surprised by the amount of time it gets a mention.
Some numbers - there are 200 mn monthly active users, with 70% of them being women and 50%+ being from Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.
Chinese expats and travellers swear by it. It is their default search engine before making a decision to buy something or visit somewhere. Let me give you some real examples.
What shall we have for dinner? “Wait, let me check Xiao Hong Shu”
How should we plan this trip? “Wait, let me check Xiao Hong Shu”
What should we know before going to this new city? “Aah, wait ma. I will check Xiao Hong Shu.
What shall we eat at this restaurant? “Give me a second, let me check Xiao Hong Shu”
It is a lifestyle recommendation platform. Creators share their real life experience of visiting a new country, city, home decoration tips and restaurant guide.
Here is excerpt from an article in Rest of the World
In Europe, Xiaohongshu has become central to the lives of students and young professionals in the Chinese diaspora. With its trove of reliable crowdsourced information on everything from visa procedures to home decoration to regional travel, the app functions like a search engine for daily practicalities.
#2 Is this a new app?
No, the platform started in 2013 in Hong Kong. The first version of Xiao Hong Shu launched was a Hong Kong shopping guide in PDF format. Between 2013 to 2016, the curation was inhouse and not open to public. They changed this in 2016. Until 2018, it did not have an Android app. Images and text dominated the app until 2020, after which the Founders decided to start investing in video. While the platform is old, it has evolved 2018 onwards and taken a rapid pace in last 2 years.

This excerpt from another article summarizes the platform well -
Founded in 2013 as a Hong Kong-specific guide for wealthy, mostly female travelers looking for shopping recommendations, Xiaohongshu has since expanded into a platform with 200 million monthly active users, who use the app to share tips on everything from dieting to dating to language learning. Information has become so abundant and diverse on Xiaohongshu that many users — young, affluent, urban, and predominantly female — use it as their primary search engine.
Over the past few years Xiaohongshu has added social commerce and livestream to boost commerce - giving marketeers a new platform to go crazy about.
#3 Unique advantage is its guide-centric ethos and affluent creators
At its core the platform is different from Instagram or Tiktok, which prioritizes attention and engagement. Xiaohongshu aims to be a lifestyle recommendation source. Even the algorithm prioritizes this habit. Look at this news excerpt.
A guide-centric ethos is baked into the platform’s user experience, reflecting Xiaohongshu’s origins as a PDF guide to Hong Kong shopping. Search results sort posts by how often they’re bookmarked rather than by the number of likes, incentivizing users to post guides that others will save as useful.
Travel posts, for example, often offer detailed logistical tips, step-by-step itineraries, and ranked lists — a cross between a niche subreddit, a Tripadvisor page, and a videogame walk-through.
The second advantage of the platform is its pool of creators - successful individuals, who are unassuming, showing their life and driving the aspirations that every middle class person has.
From young urban women and later international students, Xiaohongshu’s core users happen to be the most knowledgeable people in China who are actively exploring and discovering lifestyles.
Xiaohongshu has successfully captured a group of young women in the city who pursue a refined life. This user group continues to share interactive creations on Xiaohongshu, making today's Xiaohongshu a representative of aesthetics and high-end products in China.
Here is a summarization the article provides about how users view the platform.
Chinese people consider Xiaohongshu to be jingzhi, or polished. The app entices users by presenting an idealized urban lifestyle — filled with elaborate skincare routines, weekend brunches, and overseas vacations — that remains out of reach for many.
This creator’s overseas life and travel content went viral on Xiaohongshu.
Now that we have established Xiaohongshu as differentiated and popular platform, the next stage is - how do we leverage its reach?
#4 What’s our approach on Xiaohongshu?
Here is the simple step by step answer.
🏗️ Generate organic content with product seeding to content creators.
🔥Boost organic content with marketing money.
💹 Run ads with user generated content.
What I didn’t mention before is that Xiaohongshu users don’t like sponsored content. It has to be real experience and authentic recommendation from a person unlike affiliate marketing and sponsored posts prevalent in other platforms.
We will work with creators who believe in us and our products. It needs to work for them. When we say Resveratrol prevents inflammation led issues, they need to see it by using our products for reasonable time.
Xiaohongshu influencers are often based outside of China, travelling to new destinations or living in country outside of China. Creators can recommend new brands they during their travel or stay in a new country. These brands could be lifestyle, apparel, home decor or restaurants. For us, it is tricky since we sell direct to consumer and don’t have storefront.
We will work out new content angles with the creators. One storyline could be - a fitness creator tries our product for a few weeks in China and then visits Singapore for a day in “the best gym of the world” (could be MBS). It could be followed with a visit to our office and manufacturing set up to get an inside view of the brand.
Let’s see how this goes. I will keep you guys updated.
Thanks for reading again. You are a superstar! 😍
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I would start promoting Out of Singapore starting next month. I am aiming to reach 100 readers by Nov’23. Would you like to help spread the message?
I am worried operating from India for a week would be troubling. I will have to be extra cautious and vigilant to ensure work moves as expected.
In another news, I will be in Kolkata this coming weekend. The city is close to my heart for its culture and food. I expect to get some good pictures. Yay!
Finally, here is a cuteness overload from Jisoo. If your day isn’t going well, just look for her.

Have a great week ahead folks! You are amazing 🌟