Author丨Wang Haoran
Editor丨He Yang
After a month of settling down, the tide of TikTok refugees on Xiaohongshu is gradually falling back.
TikTok’s banning crisis in the United States has been temporarily lifted, and some of the American users have returned to their original home. After a short period of time, the domestic users of Xiaohongshu are no longer swiping and liking the pictures and videos of overseas users as they did in January.
Sensor Tower data shows that in the past two months, the peak DAU of Xiaohongshu’s U.S. region appeared on January 19th precisely on the eve of Trump’s signing of a reprieve for TikTok. By February 18, this figure was only about 30 of the peak hovering at 900,000, less than 1 of the daily activity of Xiaohongshu.
Data source Sensor Tower
At the end of January, Xiaohongshu placed an advertisement in New York’s Times Square, bringing the global village connection of get together for love to the Nasdaq screen. However, after that, Little Red Book gradually stopped the placement in the United States. According to AppGrowing’s data, the peak of Xiaohongshu’s advertising in the U.S. appeared on January 22, and since then the amount of ads placed has slipped rapidly until February 20, when it almost came to a standstill.
Image source AppGrowing
Xiaohongshu has dropped out of the App Store’s total list in the U.S. iOS App Store Source Qimai Data
While overseas voices have been pouring out of the platform, Xiaohongshu’s own attitude seems to be more wait-and-see than active intervention. Judging from the actions in the past month, its pace can also be described as conservative Before the year, in addition to the development of the translation function and the launch of the RedNote version, Xiaohongshu did not have more proactive actions After the year, Xiaohongshu opened a few offline activities related to creators in North America and Southeast Asia, but it is more like a continuation of the previous actions aimed at the Chinese e-commerce market.
However, the players who captured the opportunity on Xiaohongshu did not leave the table. On the contrary, some of the early mix of the new ecosystem is beginning to emerge
A domestic blogger started a live broadcasting business, broadcasting at a fixed time every day, allowing people from all over the world to gather on a stage and communicate with each other in the sound of bared headsets Overseas users have fallen in love with the exquisite pots and pans in the notes of Xiaohongshu, and have been asking around when the Xiaohongshu store will be open to foreigners Foreign trade salesmen, who used to write letters of development on the Alibaba international website, have begun to try to leave their recommendations in the comment sections of overseas users. The voice of the product The official account of Rookie Express has published a new post on Xiaohongshu, teaching overseas users how to place orders on Taobao and send them to the United States via express shipping.
When these voices are intertwined and fermented, a new user and demand interaction, a picture of the future jumped into view Xiaohongshu may be able to create a new cross-border e-commerce model, in China’s e-commerce four little dragons outside the sea, social-driven borderless consumption platform style, holding up the global buy global sell the world’s e-commerce imagination.
New possibilities are brewing, even if it is just a possibility.
And the cross-border independent station that has not eaten the cake yet.
When TikTok refugees flooded into Xiaohongshu, some cross-border merchants initially judged it to be a short-lived frenzy, and made up their minds to get some money and leave. Some independent station sellers in Shenzhen quickly set up a live room in Xiaohongshu, attracting traffic to the independent station, and some people even said that the effect of that period of time is comparable to the Black Friday.
But as the tide recedes, these exuberant voices also quickly dissipate. Yibang power to a number of industry insiders for confirmation found that so far it is difficult to find a really run through the independent station case on the small red book. Some service providers revealed to Yibang Power that after the TikTok refugee incident, the demand for consulting Little Red Book’s advertisement casting flow related business surged, but did not get substantial progress Little Red Book’s overseas user base and directional casting system have not yet matured.
Dramatic turnaround occurred in another battlefield Cross-border overseas independent station did not eat the wave of traffic, but domestic Taobao merchants in turn nibbled a mouthful of cake.
Aeriya, a U.S. user on Xiaohongshu, compared and found that a fall and winter embroidered sweater sold for $75 in a local store, about 545 yuan, ordered on Taobao, plus the shipping cost of the hand price of only 136 04 yuan Another engineering student, bought a bunch of Deli sticky notes on Taobao, flipbooks and other stationery, such as replacement cores, the postage is quite expensive, but even with shipping costs, the price is a lot cheaper than buying in the United States. But even with shipping, the price was much cheaper than buying in the U.S.
American student who bought stationery on Taobao.
Amazon doesn’t have the same variety of products as Taobao, especially in the small goods category. One U.S. user had this to say.
For international students and Chinese communities far across the ocean, reverse seafood amassing has long been a survival strategy etched into muscle memory. Constrained by limited local supply and expensive prices overseas, they often choose to shop on Xiaohongshu or Taobao and have their goods shipped to them through a consolidation service. Little red book is also filled with a variety of reverse nautical tutorials from air transport direct mail to sea transport, from general cargo to sensitive goods, pull out a long list of transportation companies, the first weight renewal weight Transportation time is clearly marked.
After seeing the potential of overseas Chinese e-commerce market, Taobao also began to increase investment last year, the launch of the global package plan, part of the goods more efficient delivery to overseas Chinese users. It is reported that during last year’s Double 11, nearly 70,000 merchants participating in the program doubled their turnover, and the turnover of large apparel global shipping merchants increased by 207 percent year-on-year. At the beginning of last year, Cainiao also announced that it had formally entered the U.S. collector market, providing e-commerce parcel collector services for millions of overseas Chinese and international student groups across the United States.
Little Red Book officials are also supporting overseas Chinese e-commerce business to a considerable extent. Not long ago, Xiaohongshu united with related ecological service providers to open several consecutive offline creator activities in North America, focusing on the U.S. Chinese e-commerce market. And Mexico Some local businesses in Southeast Asia and other places, in order to attract Chinese customers, will also choose to market on Little Red Book.
As a result, although the Little Red Book store has not yet been opened to overseas users, the shopping chain has essentially been through. When there is a large influx of overseas users, all parties begin to try to explore, hoping to take advantage of the east wind to ride on the freeway. Some freight forwarding companies doing consolidation and transshipment have been soliciting business under different posts, or posting tutorials on their Xiaohongshu accounts to teach overseas users how to use their services to shop on Taobao.
Figure Rookie forwarding Xiaohongshu official account
On the contrary, Little Red Book is perhaps not completely indifferent to these voices.
In the early days of the traffic explosion, the official account of Xiaohongshu posted a thread teaching overseas users how to make purchases at Xiaohongshu, following the shopping path of overseas Chinese.
Another sign of this is that Yibang Power searched and found that after the Spring Festival, Xiaohongshu released two social recruiting positions related to cross-border logistics on its official recruitment account, with the following responsibilities Responsible for the planning and design of cross-border export logistics fulfillment products Design targeted logistics solutions for consumers and merchants, and be responsible for the cross-border fulfillment experience for users Familiarize yourself with the operation modes of the mainstream logistics providers on the market, and explore efficient platform fulfillment programs. Familiarize with the operation mode of mainstream logistics service providers in the market, explore efficient platform fulfillment solutions Propose logistics product solutions suitable for the current business Insight into the user’s fulfillment experience requirements, and continuously optimize the user experience.
Figure Little Red Book Recruitment WeChat public number
Everything is still in the rough groping period. The problem also happens to be that the platform ecology is still immature, the market is mixed, and the e-commerce circulation for overseas Chinese that has been running in the past does not have an official unified path, and it is more dependent on the user to find a reliable consolidation company to complete the cross-border shopping If we want to expand to a wider global consumer market, without an official unified control intervention, how can we ensure that the overseas users get a good experience?
In any case, Xiaohongshu provides a new possibility for the market Taobao and overseas users, who rarely interacted with each other in the past, have begun to have new interactions on a new platform.
How to understand the world e-commerce of global buying and global selling?
In the traditional cross-border e-commerce narrative, the story often revolves around how to go to sea From Shein’s independent station to sweep the global fast fashion market, to Temu’s extreme cost-effective to enter the American middle-class hinterland, to TikTok Shop with content e-commerce to open up a new pathway, Chinese enterprises to do e-commerce business for the global market has always been to follow the iron law of commodity operation, such as the production of content, to move to overseas. Both platforms and merchants must compete for users in the overseas arena.
So, how will the world’s e-commerce companies, which buy globally and sell globally, participate in this narrative?
We may look at this matter from the logic of content interaction.
The participants of global e-commerce content marketing are roughly divided into four types Chinese professionals Chinese users Overseas professionals Overseas users. The interaction between the four types of groups constitutes four different e-commerce forms
Chinese users x Chinese Darren. This is the basic plate of domestic e-commerce, where the content e-commerce of Jittery Voice and Little Red Book take root, and where the content exploration of shelf e-commerce such as Taobao live broadcasting and Jingdong picking and selling also wrestle.
Overseas users x overseas celebrities. This is the main battlefield for overseas local e-commerce, with Meta YouTube building a giant wall and TikTok trying to revive the myth of China’s live video broadcasting e-commerce as a latecomer. Cross-border merchants favor reddit marketing, but also with overseas celebrities, so as to reach their fan base through the channel.
Chinese users x overseas celebrities. When the influence of American celebrities crosses national borders and reaches Chinese users, it is a marketing position for platforms such as Tmall International and Jingdong International, which are well known to the general public, to connect overseas goods to Chinese users. This is also the path that Xiaohongshu took in its early days A cross-border shopping guide consisting of 7 PDFs.
Overseas users x China’s people. This is exactly the new chapter that Xiaohongshu is writing nowadays Global users will follow the fresh content to enter the country actively, and Chinese merchants do not need to travel across the ocean, and can complete the penetration of overseas users directly at their doorsteps. Overseas warehouses, independent station, the complete flow of the chain is formed, the rest is to go through the cross-border e-commerce infrastructure again.
From the logic of demand, American users are not searching for products for a clear need, but are inspired to buy by the content of Chinese celebrities. An American user who still stays on Xiaohongshu described the image of Xiaohongshu in his mind to Yibang Power Diamond and Pearl.
Four groups Four combinations of ecological intermingling, all of which can be seen on Xiaohongshu.
Chinese Darren and Chinese Users The combination of Chinese users and overseas Darren naturally needs no introduction. As for American darens, a source close to Xiaohongshu told Yibang Power that since last year, Xiaohongshu has internally planned to introduce overseas red people to the main station of Xiaohongshu to serve the domestic ecology. Yibang power also previously reported exclusively that Xiaohongshu announced the recruitment of overseas MCN organizations to introduce overseas celebrities in bulk.
The unexpected migration of TikTok refugees is the last piece of the puzzle for this ecosystem, outlining the prototype of a world e-commerce.
Of course, it’s all still very preliminary and rough, and Xiaohongshu’s attitude is very cautious. When American users start to be interested in Chinese goods, or want to find some business opportunities on Xiaohongshu, the comment area underneath is often a copy and paste of the machine flipping sales pitch Quite a number of American users, including the Chinese counterpart of the account has also gone through a round of blocking. Controlling cultural boundaries is a problem for everyone.
DeepSeek commented on Little Red Book’s World E-commerce The logic of interaction can be inverted, but globalization is never a simple switch between home and away, but a comprehensive reconstruction of the platform’s technological infrastructure, merchant cognitive ability, and user habits.
The blockage of Xiaohongshu to the world of e-commerce
When Xiaohongshu stirred up a storm overseas and gradually stabilized, it did not seem to be a very surprising thing to some overseas reddish organizations.
Little Red Book was not prepared. Harriet, head of marketing at Bandalabs, an overseas reddit marketing agency that has long served overseas head brands, told Yibang Power.
She said that the outbreak of the TikTok refugee incident was completely unexpected for Little Red Book . In the past, most of the cooperation between Little Red Book and overseas reddit agencies was to serve the domestic community ecology and expand more diverse creators.
The importance of the community ecology The importance of the community tone has always been placed in the forefront of the Little Red Book. In the process of building the domestic e-commerce business of Xiaohongshu, it was once faced with the problem of balancing the governance of community tone and e-commerce.
In the country, the competitive position of Xiaohongshu lies in the people, with countless waist-tailed professionals and even vegetarians to support a unique community ecology, giving up the low-priced wars, but also give up the standard products. This set of playing method in the country has become a school of its own. For example, the actor Dong Jie’s live broadcast to the unfolding leisure, pulling up the passenger price of the small red book live broadcast, it is very good to highlight the community tone of the small red book.
Little red book has also had several overseas experience, in Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe and the United States have left footprints, but not once like today this rushed to such a high position. The idea of Xiaohongshu in the past is more inclined to recreate a new community overseas, to copy the experience of domestic community operation to overseas, to make a new overseas local community ecology. But it has not been able to take off. Part of the reason may be that overseas local competitors are too strong, in these areas where Xiaohongshu has been involved, Instagram has completed deep penetration.
Today’s opportunity is unique. For many overseas users, Xiaohongshu’s biggest attraction is the interesting Chinese information and community tone. There is no shortage of overseas users expressing that they don’t want to brush up on posts in the same language as their own in Xiaohongshu, and they keep refreshing their searches to like Chinese posts in the hope that the algorithm will remember their preferences. For them, the important thing is not to localize Xiaohongshu to them, that is, to use their context and habits to serve them, but to let them enter a new unique, even exotic community ecology.
But how to retain these users, as well as the subsequent community governance issues brought about by the new users, is the first thing that Xiaohongshu should consider. Today, the daily activity of American users of Little Red Book is still falling.
Harriet told Yibang power, even if you see the future potential of Xiaohongshu, but its main energy is still in Europe and the United States Latin America and other regions of the local social media platforms and people to build links to help Chinese and global merchants to do overseas Darren marketing, rather than the introduction of overseas Darren into the Xiaohongshu, or in the Xiaohongshu to expand new overseas Darren.
Their concern is that Xiaohongshu’s business model in the overseas darlings section is still immature and lacks complete supporting facilities. The bigger problem is the freedom of expression, which is hard for Agencies to get right. She said: So when TikTok’s banning crisis in the United States had room to maneuver, people still chose to return to TikTok.
Another problem to be solved is the source of goods. From the point of interest of overseas users, what attracts them is a richer supply and cheaper prices outside of Amazon. In other words, it is products outside the existing cross-border e-commerce. However, in the transaction path, overseas users choose to go directly to Taobao to select goods seems to be more fluid. Therefore, for some time to come, the ecological position of Xiaohongshu will continue to be grass.
In addition, when the platform is facing the world with the attitude of ecological seafaring, the cultural divide, compliance risks and other variables will also test the toughness of this model of Xiaohongshu.
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