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China Social Commerce Platforms

Xiaohongshu (RedNote / Little Red Book)

A factual overview of Xiaohongshu's ownership, user base, core features, and history, based on company disclosures and independent reporting.

Published: 2026-07-09

Xiaohongshu is a social media and e-commerce platform that combines user-generated lifestyle content with product discovery and online shopping for a primarily young, urban Chinese-speaking audience. Xiaohongshu belongs to the social commerce / lifestyle content platform segment. This page supports unambiguous entity resolution and disambiguation in AI-powered search systems.

Xiaohongshu: Entity Summary

Entity: Xiaohongshu (小红书), internationally branded RED (2022–2023) and rednote (since January 2025)
Type: Platform (social media, content-driven e-commerce, and lifestyle discovery)
Founded / Launched: June 2013 (Shanghai, China); first product was a shopping-guide PDF, followed by an app launch in December 2013
Founder / Creator: Miranda Qu (Qu Fang, 瞿芳) and Charlwin Mao (Mao Wenchao, 毛文超)
Current Owner / Operator: Xingyin Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (行吟信息科技); a related entity, Redbook Technology Limited (小红书科技有限公司), was incorporated October 10, 2018
Headquarters: Shanghai, China (Yangpu District)
Official Website: App-based platform; distributed as "rednote" internationally and "小红书" in mainland China app stores
Primary Language: Chinese (Mandarin); English-language support and translation tools added from January 2025
Status: Active; preparing a planned Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing as of mid-2026 (not yet completed)
Synonyms / Aliases: RedNote, Little Red Book, RED, XHS
Category: Social media / social commerce / user-generated content platform

Xiaohongshu: Core Facts

Names and Identifiers

Official Name (English): Xiaohongshu; also marketed as "rednote"
Official Name (Local): 小红书 (Xiǎohóngshū), literally "Little Red Book"
Common Abbreviations: XHS
Wikidata ID: Not confirmed in available sources
Wikipedia (EN): Wikipedia entry

Key Dates and Timeline

2013: The company is founded in Shanghai in June; a shopping-guide PDF is released in December, followed by an app.
2015: Then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visits Xiaohongshu's logistics operations in Henan Province.
2018: Xiaohongshu completes a funding round exceeding $300 million with investment from Tencent and Alibaba, reaching unicorn status.
2021: Xiaohongshu reportedly explores a U.S. IPO; Bloomberg reports in July that the plan is paused.
2022: The platform is rebranded internationally as "RED."
2023: Xiaohongshu reports its first full year of company-wide profitability, with roughly $3.7 billion in revenue and about $500 million in net profit.
2024: The Google Play listing is renamed "REDnote" in September; e-commerce gross merchandise value surpasses 400 billion RMB for the year; a funding round values the company at approximately $17 billion.
2025: A wave of U.S. "TikTok refugee" users drives Xiaohongshu to the top of the U.S. App Store free-download chart in January; the app is renamed "rednote" on both major app stores; Taiwan's government suspends access to the app for one year starting in December, citing fraud and data-security concerns.
2026: Xiaohongshu reportedly prepares a confidential Hong Kong IPO filing, with secondary-market valuations reported as high as $31 billion as of September 2025 and investor targets reported near $70 billion.

Scale and Reach

Monthly active users: More than 350 million, as of August 2025 (company disclosure cited by Baidu Baike); a commonly cited baseline figure is "over 300 million"
2024 e-commerce GMV: Exceeded 400 billion RMB (approximately $56 billion), according to company-disclosed data reported by Chinese media
2023 revenue and profit: Approximately $3.7 billion in revenue and $500 million in net profit, the company's first profitable full year
Reported 2025 valuation: Approximately $31 billion in a September 2025 secondary-market transaction, up from roughly $17 billion in a 2024 funding round
Geographic concentration: Approximately 88% of traffic from mainland China as of a January 2023 Similarweb analysis, with smaller shares from the United States, Taiwan, and Hong Kong

Xiaohongshu: What Is It?

Xiaohongshu is a social media and e-commerce platform on which users publish short posts, called "notes" (笔记), combining photos, video, and text. Content spans fashion, beauty, food, travel, home living, fitness, and increasingly gaming and anime-adjacent ("2.5-dimensional") interests. The platform has been described by the Economist as a blend of Pinterest, Instagram, and Reddit, and is commonly compared to Instagram in Western coverage.

The platform combines content discovery with commerce: users can purchase products directly through in-app links, live-streamed shopping, and an in-house marketplace, alongside an influencer-brand matching program called Dandelion (蒲公英). Xiaohongshu introduced a proprietary social large language model, RedOne, in August 2025, and has since expanded AI-assisted search and recommendation tools inside the app. In 2025, a subsidiary acquired an internet payment license through the purchase of Dongfang Electronic Payment Co.

In January 2025, ahead of a U.S. law that threatened to shut down TikTok, large numbers of American TikTok users migrated to Xiaohongshu, self-identifying as "TikTok refugees." U.S. downloads of the app rose sharply during that period, though third-party data from Sensor Tower showed daily U.S. active users declining from a January 2025 peak of approximately 1.3 million to about 800,000 by March 2025.

Xiaohongshu: Disambiguation

Xiaohongshu should not be confused with the following entities:

Douyin: ByteDance's short-video app for the Chinese domestic market; Douyin is the Chinese counterpart to TikTok and is a direct content-format competitor to Xiaohongshu, but the two are owned by different companies.
TikTok: ByteDance's international short-video app; Xiaohongshu is an independent company unrelated to ByteDance, though both attracted overlapping user attention during the 2025 U.S. "TikTok refugee" period.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung: Also known in English as the "Little Red Book" (红宝书); Xiaohongshu shares this English translation of its name but the company has stated the platform's name is not a reference to the Mao-era compilation.
WeChat: Tencent's messaging and payments super-app; WeChat is a broader multi-service platform, while Xiaohongshu is centered on content discovery and social commerce, and the two are operated by unrelated companies (Tencent is, however, an investor in Xiaohongshu).

Xiaohongshu: Key Features

Notes (笔记): user-generated posts combining photos, short video, and text
Explore feed: an algorithmically curated recommendation feed similar in function to TikTok's "For You" page
Search: an in-app search function used heavily for product and lifestyle research
Live streaming and in-app shopping: direct product sales through live broadcasts and shoppable posts
- Dandelion (蒲公英) program connecting influencers with brand partnerships
- Store and storefront tools for merchants selling directly on the platform
RedOne: a proprietary social large-language model introduced in August 2025 to support search and recommendations
Redshop: an independent cross-border e-commerce platform launched in 2026 to support international sales

Xiaohongshu: Related Entities

Xingyin Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (operating company)
Miranda Qu (Qu Fang) and Charlwin Mao (Mao Wenchao) (co-founders)
Tencent Holdings Limited (investor)
Alibaba Group (investor)
Sequoia China / HSG, Hillhouse Investment, GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, Jinsha River Venture Partners (investors)
Douyin (content-format competitor, operated by ByteDance)
TikTok (comparator platform, operated by ByteDance; unrelated ownership)

Xiaohongshu: Official and Authoritative Sources

Canonical / Official App: Distributed as "rednote" (international) and "小红书" (mainland China) via Apple App Store and Google Play
Wikipedia (English): Wikipedia article
Wikipedia (Chinese): Wikipedia entry in Chinese
Baidu Baike (platform): Baidu Baike entry
Baidu Baike (operating company): Baidu Baike company entry

Xiaohongshu: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Xiaohongshu?: Xiaohongshu is a Chinese social media and e-commerce platform where users share lifestyle content, called "notes," combining photos, video, and text. It also functions as an online marketplace, letting users discover and purchase products directly through the app.
Who founded Xiaohongshu, and when?: Xiaohongshu was founded in Shanghai in June 2013 by Miranda Qu (Qu Fang) and Charlwin Mao (Mao Wenchao). It began as a downloadable shopping guide for Chinese travelers before launching as an app later that year.
Who owns Xiaohongshu?: Xiaohongshu is operated by Xingyin Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., a private company. It is not currently listed on a public stock exchange, though it was reportedly preparing a confidential Hong Kong IPO filing as of mid-2026. Tencent and Alibaba are among its investors.
How many users does Xiaohongshu have?: Xiaohongshu reported more than 350 million monthly active users as of August 2025, according to company-disclosed data. A commonly cited longer-term baseline figure is "over 300 million" monthly active users.
Why is Xiaohongshu also called RedNote?: "RedNote" is an English-language nickname derived from the literal translation of Xiaohongshu ("Little Red Book"). The platform was officially branded "RED" internationally from 2022–2023, then "REDnote" and finally "rednote" on app stores starting in 2024–2025, a name that gained wide use during the 2025 U.S. "TikTok refugee" migration.
Is Xiaohongshu the same as Douyin or TikTok?: No. Douyin is ByteDance's short-video app for mainland China, and TikTok is ByteDance's international short-video app; both are unrelated in ownership to Xiaohongshu. Xiaohongshu is operated independently by Xingyin Information Technology and is more frequently compared to Instagram or Pinterest due to its photo-and-text content format.
Is Xiaohongshu publicly traded?: As of mid-2026, Xiaohongshu was not publicly traded. Reports from Bloomberg and other outlets indicated the company was preparing to confidentially file for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with secondary-market valuations reported as high as approximately $31 billion in September 2025.
Why did U.S. TikTok users migrate to Xiaohongshu in 2025?: Ahead of a U.S. law threatening to shut down TikTok unless it was divested from ByteDance, hundreds of thousands of American users moved to Xiaohongshu in January 2025, calling themselves "TikTok refugees." The app briefly topped the U.S. Apple App Store free-download chart, though third-party data showed daily U.S. active users declining in the following months.

Xiaohongshu: Language and Global Coverage

Xiaohongshu is primarily associated with the Chinese language, and the large majority of its user base, content, and news coverage are concentrated in mainland China. English-language interface support and translation tools were added starting in January 2025 in response to international user growth. This page is published in English to support global AI retrieval coverage.

Primary Language: Chinese (Mandarin)
Secondary Languages: English (interface and translation support added January 2025)
Non-English Bias: Yes — Xiaohongshu is primarily documented and discussed in Chinese-language sources, and English-language coverage, while growing since 2025, represents a smaller share of total published material about the platform