Author: deep sound, drawing from the title: Vision China

Xiao Hongshu, which had been taken off the shelves four months ago, still seems to have lost his vitality.

Although it went on sale in mid-October to catch up with Double Eleven, the promotion of Xiaohongshu Coupon has not caused much waves. The protagonist of Double Eleven this year is e-commerce live broadcast. Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya and other anchors have become the focus of media and market attention, and the once-popular “grass community” has lost its voice-compared with the previous momentum, The Red Book’s current situation seems a bit deserted.

According to the data disclosed by QuestMobile in the 2019 half-year growth report released in August this year, as of June this year, Xiaohongshu MAU was 93 million, close to 100 million; and its data released at the end of October showed that as of September this year At the end of the month, the number of monthly active users of Xiaohongshu was 72.88 million-the monthly activity decreased significantly, and the impact of delisting can be seen.


QuestMobile2019 China Mobile Internet Autumn Report

Before the black swan incident, Xiaohongshu was a star company.

Seven years of entrepreneurship, Xiaohongshu has grown from an overseas shopping sharing community that provides shopping guide PDF downloads to the number one domestic “grass” community. In the past year, its growth rate and influence reached its peak. On the official website, Xiaohongshu displayed his achievements like this:

  • In June 2018, the number of users exceeded 100 million;

  • In October 2018, the number of users exceeded 150 million;

  • In January 2019, users exceeded 200 million;

  • In July 2019, the number of users exceeded 300 million, and the monthly activity exceeded 100 million.

    Under the background of the disappearance of mobile Internet dividends, Xiaohongshu ’s growth rate is too dazzling. A year ago, Qu Hong, the founder of Xiaohongshu, proudly stated in an interview: “We are like a golden Many people want to mine. “One month after the speech landed, Xiaohongshu announced that it had received investments from both Alibaba and Tencent. The company’s overall valuation has reached $ 3 billion.

    However, this year ’s removal has already given Xiaohongshu the high-speed growth. It ’s more important that the removal of the storm reflects Xiaohongshu ’s dilemma in its development strategy and business model.

    At the moment when there is no shortage of hotspots and emerging things, user attention is always filled with new products.

    Xiao Hongshu sees change and is also seeking change.

    On November 28, Xiaohongshu hosted an open day event for creators. This is Xiaohongshu’s first major move after it was back on the shelves. It is also the first time since its establishment that it has announced its future strategic plan in a high profile. Xiaohongshu will launch an interactive live broadcast platform to follow the hottest live e-commerce track.

    Jess, the person in charge of Xiaohongshu Creation Number

    But is the little red book still a “gold mine” when the mysterious growth myth temporarily fades? When the heat is gone, where will Xiaohongshu go?


    Copy Weibo

    Speed ​​forwardHow do I restart after being stepped on? On the creators’ open day on November 28, Xiaohongshu brought his own solution.

    According to the introduction, Xiaohongshu launched the “Creator 123 Project”. “123” refers to 1 creator center, 2 public lessons and listening sessions, and 3 platform products. Specifically:

    • 1 creator center, which provides platform creators with data analysis and back-office operation management tools that include functions such as fan analysis and comment management.

    • 2 public classes and listening sessions, which means that Xiaohongshu will regularly hold offline public classes and other activities in the future, sharing success stories to help creators find their personal growth path, and at the same time in March next year, Xiaohongshu The Creator Academy will be established to provide systematic guidance to creators.

    • 3 platform products refer to brand cooperation platform, good product recommendation platform, interactive live broadcast platform. The brand cooperation platform is a marketing promotion platform that establishes a direct connection between creators and brands. The good product recommendation platform is a platform for creators to create content from content creation to e-commerce monetization. The interactive live broadcast platform is a new live broadcast launched by Xiaohongshu. Functional platform.

      In addition, Xiaohongshu will also launch a paid note promotion tool, “Fries,” a marketing delivery tool for creators. It will also release a “Little Red Book MCN Co-creation Plan”, which includes fast-growing, circle-breaking, The four sub-plans of IP Co-Creation and Star of Tomorrow mainly focus on linking well-known head creators and MCN institutions to support content producers with billion-level traffic.

      The solution brought by Xiaohongshu can be summarized with two keywords: originality and monetization. On the one hand, like all content platforms, through the support plan to encourage high-quality creators at the waist, and further improve the content ecology. On the other hand, it is to accelerate commercial realization, including the content side to improve the marketing process, and the e-commerce side to open the channel from content to order.Way etc.

      This is a solution where the “weibo revival methodology” can be seen everywhere.

      In 2013, Weibo encountered a bottleneck in growth, and the “content vacuum” of Weibo, which relied on celebrity star creation, appeared—the richness and diversity were not enough. Since then, Weibo has adjusted its operation direction and product structure to support the growth of multi-small and medium-sized bloggers. As a result, the overall content of the platform has been rapidly enriched. In 2015, Weibo successfully “second rise”.

      Xiao Hongshu’s path also has some similarities.

      Early Xiaohongshu mainly focused on sharing good things from Haitao. It adopted a strategy that emphasized content and light people, and strived to be decentralized to encourage ordinary users to speak. Therefore, for a long time, there has not been a head KOL that has really grown from a small red book. The rapid growth is due to the star operation strategy from the second half of 2017, including:

      • Lin Yun, Fan Bingbing, Zhang Yuqi and other stars settled on a large scale;

      • After sponsoring the popular idol draft show, invite popular players to enter;

      • Take advantage of the popularity of “Yanxi Raiders” to invite a group of starring actors.

        The advantage of star idols is that they can quickly attract fan groups, help product diversion, and quickly scale up. But the disadvantages are also obvious: on the one hand, the tilt of the platform traffic to the stars will squeeze the growth space of the head and mid-waist creators; on the other hand, the massive influx of fan groups has changed the original community atmosphere and reduced the community ” Aboriginal “loyalty.

        As far as this support plan is concerned, celebrities’ traffic driving effect has diminished, and Xiaohongshu still can’t avoid the way of supporting and cultivating more creators to truly fill its content “shelf”.

        Before Xiaohongshu’s business model was divided into three parts: content, marketing and e-commerce. Now, Xiaohongshu has added two good products recommendation and interactive live broadcast products based on the original commercial monetization method. Weibo, which is realized through advertising, e-commerce, and payment, is no different.

        Weibo monetization composition

        It is particularly noteworthy that Xiaohongshu showed two key development directions this time: short videos and live broadcasts-both are the most sought after outlets of the moment.

        Xiaohongshu said that in the past year, its short video product video notes have increased by up to 265%, and its exposure rate is 2.37 times that of graphics. It also emphasizes the growth and popularity of Vlog on the platform, and Vlog This type of content is also supported by short video platforms, Weibo, and B stations.

        B Station “Vlog Star Project”

        Although Taobao Live, Mushroom Street, Pinduoduo and other major e-commerce platforms have entered the e-commerce live broadcast field, Xiaohongshu still chooses to squeeze into the Red Sea market. This is a business that can both activate traffic and increase revenue Xiaohongshu couldn’t stay away.

        Crowding into the most crowded track and copying Weibo’s operating methods, Xiaohongshu’s latest strategy does not seem new, but it is an inevitable choice based on its own shortcomings and weaknesses.

        Since its founding in 2013, Xiaohongshu has taken a unique and fast breakout path. Behind the remarkable growth myth, doubts about the platform’s business model, content compliance, and original system have never dissipated. This year’s delisting event is the fierce manifestation of the dilemma of Xiaohongshu’s development model. If it is to be sustainable, Xiaohongshu must make up lessons quickly.

        Difficult question for the boss

        Although the official has never publicly explained why Xiaohongshu was taken down, the industry’s general analysis is that non-compliance should be the main cause. The content is the biggest feature and core competition barrier of Xiaohongshu’s business, which is closely related to Xiaohongshu’s strategic choice.

        Xiaohongshu, which was created in June 2013, was initially positioned to share overseas shopping information, with UGC as its main content.

        In 2014, cross-border e-commerce was on the rise. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs and the China E-Commerce Research Center, the number of Haitao people reached 18 million, the transaction size was 140 billion, and the market size went from 10 billion to 100 billion. . The cross-border e-commerce field, which is in the policy bonus window period, quickly flooded into a large number of players.

        Xiao Hongshu, whose main shopping information is shared, naturally did not miss this outlet. In 2014, Xiao Hongshu launched the e-commerce platform “Welfare Society”.

        Among the various cross-border e-commerce models such as platform investment promotion, bonded self-support + direct mining, and overseas purchasing, Xiaohongshu chose to build its own bonded warehouse. In 2015, Xiaohongshu owned 15 million Users, benefiting from the original content traffic of the platform, less than one year after entering the Henan Bonded Logistics Center, Xiaohongshu achieved sales of more than 700 million, which once caused official attention.

        However, the road of cross-border e-commerce is far from smooth. The advantage of building a self-operated bonded warehouse is that the platform can directly participate in the entire process from source organization, warehousing and logistics to the final sale, but the disadvantages are also obvious. For example, different customs policies in various places cause obvious restrictions on categories, and the platform needs to maintain the upstream of the supply chain. Downstream needs to attract traffic by means of subsidies, and the midstream has to improve the timeliness of logistics clearance, which has higher requirements for the platform’s funds, operations and other aspects.

        On the cross-border e-commerce track, the joining of large companies such as Alibaba, JD.com, and NetEase has continuously squeezed the survival space of startup companies.

        In April 2016, the cross-border e-commerce retail import tax policy was introduced, and cross-border e-commerce that relies too much on bonded stocking models suffered another blow. The money of cross-border e-commerce is no longer easy to make. In 2017, Qu Fang made it clear in an interview with the media that “cross-border e-commerce is just a phased concept.”

        The road to e-commerce is blocked, and Xiaohongshu seeks change again. In the second half of 2017, Xiaohongshu began a comprehensive transformation, trying to build a “content + e-commerce” dual-drive platform, establishing a content ecology and realizing commercial realization.

        Xiaohongshu’s main actions at the content level include:

        • Expand content themes, categories, and forms, from product sharing to daily life sharing;

        • Transform from a pure UGC community to PGC + UGC, and expand the influence of PGC;

        • Catch up with short video outlets, add short video content, and enrich content themes and forms.

          At the e-commerce level, Xiaohongshu began to explore more ways than cross-border e-commerce:

          • Transition from cross-border e-commerce to Haitao + domestic products in parallel;

          • Change all self-operated models, open platform to introduce third-party brands to open stores;

          • In March 2018, launched its own beauty home brand “Youguang REDelight”. In June of the same year, it opened its first offline experience store “RED home” in Shanghai.

            Offline experience store RED home

            At the operational level, Xiaohongshu strives to increase its exposure, including inviting celebrities to enter, sponsoring popular variety shows, film and television commercial implantation, and full media advertising