Xiaohongshu (小红书), also known as Little Red Book or RedNote, is a Chinese lifestyle app that combines a photo and video feed with a search engine people trust for real-life advice. More than 400 million people use it every month to decide what to buy, where to eat and where to travel. For hotels, destinations and consumer brands that want Chinese customers, it is often the first place those customers look you up.

Xiaohongshu at a glance

The user and search figures were first disclosed in late May 2026 by Yunfan, the head of community operations at Xiaohongshu, as reported by iFeng Tech and Huxiu. Third-party trackers count lower: data platform Qiangua put monthly users at about 350 million in May 2025, up from 300 million a year earlier, according to AFP.

Either way, the audience is very large and still growing.

From shopping guide to lifestyle search engine

Xiaohongshu did not start as a social network. In 2013 the founders published downloadable PDF shopping guides for Chinese consumers buying products overseas, and the bundle of guides gave the app its name, Fortune reported. The name has nothing to do with Mao Zedong’s book of quotations. A year later, the app let users buy imported goods that were hard to find in China. The founders then decided their recommendation algorithm was the more valuable asset and turned the app toward user posts.

That history explains how the platform still works. The core unit is the “note” (笔记), a post that combines photos or video with a detailed write-up: what someone bought, what it cost, whether it was worth it, and how to get the same result. Chinese users call the effect of a persuasive note zhongcao (种草), “planting grass”: a recommendation that plants the desire to try something.

Over time, people started using Xiaohongshu the way they use Google. Daily searches reached about 600 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, roughly double the level a year earlier, according to Zhoutian Finance as cited by Woshipm. By May 2026 the company put the figure at more than 800 million. The platform’s own search trends report found that more than 70% of monthly users search on the app, averaging six searches a day (same source). For comparison, Baidu, China’s largest search engine, handles a little over one billion searches a day.

The content is also getting longer. Videos over two minutes accounted for more than half of total viewing time in April 2026, and the company is backing long-form video with creator funds and traffic support, BigGo Finance reported. For brands, that means detailed, useful content tends to travel further than a polished 15-second clip.

Who uses Xiaohongshu?

Xiaohongshu skews young, female and urban. In 2024 the company said almost three-quarters of its users were female and half were born after 1995, according to Fortune. Qiangua describes the core audience as young women in China’s more affluent cities (AFP). Men are a growing share: Sacra estimates they rose from about 10% to 30% of users (Sacra), while Dentsu puts them at about a quarter (Dentsu).

For international hotels and premium brands, that profile is close to the guest they want: urban, digitally native, and used to deciding based on what peers say rather than what brands claim.

The app is also gaining Chinese-speaking users outside the mainland, including in Malaysia and Singapore, according to the same AFP report.

Xiaohongshu vs RedNote: what changed in 2025

In January 2025, as a US ban on TikTok looked imminent, American users moved to Xiaohongshu in large numbers. On January 14 it was the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store (Rest of World). The company had used the name REDnote overseas since September 2024 and switched to lowercase “rednote” around January 21, 2025 (Tech Buzz China).

Most of that wave did not stay, and the platform has since drawn a clearer line between Chinese and international users. As of April 2026, signing up with an overseas phone number tags an account as international. International users are offered automatic translation, and their feed favors English content and posts made by or for foreigners, according to Bellingcat. Searching in simplified Chinese surfaces a different, more local set of results than searching in English.

In addition, Xiaohongshu and RedNote are slowly being transitioned into two independent apps, but, for now, Xiaohongshu and RedNote still draw on one shared database of posts, as Tech Buzz China reported in April 2025.

In our own testing as of October 2026, the phone number you register with decides which version you land on: a non-Chinese number leads to rednote.com, and a +86 number leads to xiaohongshu.com. The feed also favors content near you, so someone browsing in the US mostly sees US posts, although notes by Chinese users can still be found. TechBuzz compares the move to the TikTok and Douyin split, but the line between the two apps is not that hard yet. The commercial value of the platform sits in its Chinese-language content and its mainland audience, so your strategy and your research should be built around that.

If you are signing up from outside China, our RedNote verification troubleshooting guide covers the most common account problems.

Why Xiaohongshu matters for hotels and travel brands

How Chinese travelers use it

Travel is one of the platform’s strongest categories. AFP describes Xiaohongshu as the first place many younger Chinese travelers look for inspiration, and users told AFP they rely on it to find destinations, build itineraries and choose photo spots (AFP). A search for “citywalk,” for example, returns full-day routes with places to eat and how to get between them. Rest of World credits the app with helping turn Düsseldorf into a food destination for Chinese visitors and with fueling trips to Thailand and Vietnam (Rest of World).

The platform also follows travelers through the whole trip. A Dentsu study of Chinese visitors to Japan found they used the app before, during and after their trips (Dentsu):

• Before the trip: visa procedures topped searches, followed by country, city and guide terms.

• During the trip: dining and shopping searches rose sharply after arrival, and general guide searches stayed high, which suggests many plans are still open once travelers land.

• After the trip: travelers wrote their own notes, often modeled on popular posts, which feeds the next wave of searches.

What it means for hotels

For hotels, the trip cycle above is the opportunity. A guest who finds you in a trusted note, books, and then posts their own review becomes free content for the next traveler. A hotel with no presence on Xiaohongshu is missing from the research stage entirely, even if it ranks well on Google and has strong TripAdvisor reviews.

There is one practical limit to plan for. Xiaohongshu is a discovery and research channel, not a booking engine. In our experience, guests who are ready to book usually move to WeChat to ask questions and confirm details, so the two channels should be planned together.

How brands use Xiaohongshu

Foreign brands can run official accounts and paid campaigns on Xiaohongshu without a Chinese company. These are the main tools:

Professional account. A verified brand account is the starting point, and it is required before you can advertise. You do not need a Chinese business license: a foreign business license can be used to register and verify the account.

Notes and search. Think of each note as a small landing page. The title, the text and the tags determine which searches it appears in, so write in natural Chinese and use the words travelers actually type, such as your destination plus “hotel recommendation” or “honeymoon.” Content that answers real questions (room size, what breakfast includes, how to get there from the airport) tends to earn saves, and saves help notes keep ranking.

Creator collaborations. Pugongying is Xiaohongshu’s official platform for brand and creator partnerships, and paid promotions are expected to be declared through it. Undeclared promotion is treated as a violation, Jiemian reported. Working through official channels protects your account and your reputation.

Advertising. Juguang offers in-feed ads, which appear as native notes, and search ads, which appear when users search related keywords. Our complete guide to the Juguang platform covers account requirements, ad formats and setup in detail.

Paid support often decides whether good content gets seen. For a premium Bali resort, we tested six versions of a Chinese New Year package organically, then promoted the two best performers through Juguang. About $2,750 in ad spend generated about $52,000 in sales. Here is how we ran that campaign.

Common mistakes international brands make

• Treating it like Instagram. Beautiful photos without useful detail get scrolled past. Xiaohongshu users want specifics they can act on.

• Posting in English. Your target audience searches in Chinese. English-only content mostly reaches the international feed, not mainland travelers.

• Judging the platform from an overseas account. As Bellingcat notes, international accounts see a filtered version. Research with Chinese search terms, ideally from a China-registered account.

• Expecting direct bookings. Plan the path from note to message to WeChat to reservation, and make sure someone who speaks Chinese answers quickly.

• Paying creators off-platform. Undeclared sponsored posts break platform rules and can hurt your account.

FAQ

Is Xiaohongshu the same as RedNote?

Yes, mostly. Xiaohongshu and RedNote are the same app run by the same Shanghai company, and they still share one database of posts. RedNote is the name used outside China. There are early signs of a split: users who register with an overseas phone number are tagged as international and see a different feed from users with a Chinese number, according to Bellingcat’s 2026 guide.

Who owns Xiaohongshu?

Xiaohongshu is a private company founded in Shanghai in 2013 by Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu, who serves as president. Tencent, Alibaba and DST are among its investors. Reuters reported in June 2026 that the company had hired Goldman Sachs and CICC for a possible Hong Kong IPO, with private secondary trades valuing it at up to $50 billion in late 2025.

Can foreigners use Xiaohongshu?

Yes. Anyone can download the app worldwide and sign up with an overseas phone number. International users are offered automatic translation of posts and comments. Search still works best in simplified Chinese, and the content most relevant to brands is written by and for mainland users, so foreign businesses usually need Chinese-language support to use it well.

How much does Xiaohongshu advertising cost for hotels?

Budgets vary widely, but a realistic starting point for a luxury hotel is around $1,500 a month for content, ad spend and reporting, based on our own client work. Creator fees range from about $50 to $200 per post for small creators to $2,000 or more for larger ones. Our Xiaohongshu budget guide for luxury hotels breaks this down.

What Xiaohongshu means for your brand

Xiaohongshu is where Chinese travelers and shoppers go to check whether something is worth their money. If your hotel, destination or brand is not there in Chinese, with useful notes and credible creator content, you are invisible at the moment they decide. If you want to see how visible you are to Chinese travelers today, book a free visibility audit with BWB and we will show you what they find when they search for you.