{"id":17893,"date":"2023-11-07T15:23:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T20:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/?post_type=hck-submission&p=17893"},"modified":"2023-11-07T15:41:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T20:41:50","slug":"little-red-book-an-everything-app-for-genz-people-in-china","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/little-red-book-an-everything-app-for-genz-people-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Red Book, an EVERYTHING app for GenZ people in China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

For GenZ people in China, Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) is now becoming an integrated platform alternative to the combination of Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Zillow, Amazon, etc., encroaching almost every corner of their lives. Little Red Book was founded by Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao in 2013. The platform allows users and influencers to post, discover, and share content through photos, text, videos, live streaming, etc. With 200 million monthly active users, Little Red Book is one of the most popular and trusted social media apps<\/strong> in China. According to a CBN data report, around 70% of Little Red Book users are female and over 80% are between 18-34. Besides, 50% of users come from first and second-tier cities1<\/sup> with high disposable income and cultural openness<\/strong>. It makes Little Red Book a great platform for young and wealthy customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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Inspire rather than search: purchases happen out of serendipity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before Little Red Book became popular, Chinese people switched between different review platforms for advice on travel destinations, restaurants, and products. However, people have to actively search for something even if they don\u2019t know what they need. So, the ranking on those platforms often blocks the discovery of new or less-known but great things. Besides, as those traditional review platforms target customers from all segments, young people often have a difficult time finding recommendations that they\u2019re truly interested in. However, Little Red Book effectively solves all pain points from those platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, people don\u2019t need to search for keywords all the time. People often don\u2019t know what exactly they want or even don\u2019t know they want something, so Little Red Book aims to inspire rather than recommend<\/strong>. Secondly, as the app has a great recommendation engine<\/strong> based on demographics and past views, likes, and search history, most users are very happy about the content recommended to them. The user engagement and user retention are very high.<\/strong> Thirdly, the high-quality posts make users trust the platform<\/strong> a lot\u201481% of Little Red Book users are willing to buy a product after viewing content4<\/sup>. Lastly, the content is also a mix of different things<\/strong>, so people won\u2019t feel tired viewing similar information-heavy posts. <\/p>\n\n\n

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A community to share life and experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

User-generated content is key for Little Red Book. Little Red Book builds a community where users share and get useful content and connect with people with similar interests. On other social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube, often there is difficult growth or bottleneck for bloggers. On Little Red Book, however, with a large number of active users and high user engagement, even a new user or normal user can easily get his or her posts viewed by thousands of people of interest<\/strong> via the recommendation algorithm. This further motivates users to create content and enrich the community. Review is also an important part of Little Red Book. People like to interact with content they\u2019re familiar with or interested in, so there are many high-quality reviews for posts. On the other side, those high-quality reviews<\/strong> also make the posts more comprehensive and less biased for other interested people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, many people also like to share their life stories<\/strong> such as relationships, job seeking, and school experiences. This gives users a chance to know people and stories outside of their zone. Many users, especially international students, use the app as a \u201cfriend seeking app\u201d<\/strong> to find friends when they go to a new city. Thus, Little Red Book demonstrates its effectiveness in building a real offline community for its users.<\/p>\n\n\n

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E-commerce<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To build user trust, Little Red Book resolutely refuses to use advertising as its business model<\/strong>. Instead, it makes money via traditional e-commerce<\/strong>. In 2015, Little Red Book started commerce with the \u201cLonely Planet for Shopping.\u201d Little Red Book makes strategic partnerships with brands and maintains its own inventory instead of selecting a marketplace model5<\/sup>. Now, users can purchase products directly from the brand after viewing views. The quality and authenticity<\/strong> are ensured. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s e-commerce revenue is expected to reach $1,309.5 billion by 2024, with Little Red Book being a key player. As the platform has maintained a double-digit user growth rate, it is becoming one of the leading platforms in China\u2019s cross-border e-commerce market6<\/sup>. With Little Red Book\u2019s high engagement, user trust, and strategy for an expanding user base, the app is poised for scalability and sustainability. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Citations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. \u201c2022\u5e74\u6d3b\u8dc3\u7528\u6237\u753b\u50cf\u8d8b\u52bf\u62a5\u544a\uff08\u5c0f\u7ea2\u4e66\u5e73\u53f0\uff09.\u201d CBNData<\/em>, www.cbndata.com\/report\/2891\/detail?isReading=report&page=9. Accessed 7 Nov. 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. \u201cXiaohongshu.\u201d Wikipedia<\/em>, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Nov. 2023, en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Xiaohongshu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. YouTube<\/em>, YouTube, 17 June 2022, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_yvSAXXbWMM. Accessed 7 Nov. 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. \u201cComplete Guide on Advertising on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book).\u201d FirstCom Academy<\/em>, 18 July 2023, www.fca.edu.sg\/blog\/advertising-on-xiaohongshu-little-red-book\/#:~:text=XiaoHongShu%20User%20Demographics&text=88.80%25%20female%20users%2C%2011.20%25,46.39%25%20users%20aged%2018%20%E2%80%93%2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Teo, Alicia. \u201cWhere Content Meets Commerce: \u5c0f\u7ea2\u4e66 Little Red Book.\u201d Medium<\/em>, Medium, 11 Jan. 2020, medium.com\/@aliciateolixia\/where-content-meets-commerce-%E5%B0%8F%E7%BA%A2%E4%B9%A6-little-red-book-4bffa17f39f1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Brain. \u201cExplaining Little Red Book and Its Market Potential for Premium Brands \u2022 Melchers China.\u201d Melchers China<\/em>, 5 Aug. 2020, www.melchers-china.com\/posts\/explaining-little-red-book-and-its-market-potential-for-premium-brands\/. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Described as an \u201cInstagram-meets-Pinterest-meets-Amazon\u201d platform, Little Red Book has become one of the most popular social media apps in China in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19392,"featured_media":17895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-17893","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/platform-variety-4\/","yoast_head":"\nLittle Red Book, an EVERYTHING app for GenZ people in China - Digital Innovation and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/little-red-book-an-everything-app-for-genz-people-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Little Red Book, an EVERYTHING app for GenZ people in China - 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