Power Plant | Xiaohongshu really has "books": opening up online literature business, will it be the next Tomato Novel?

In the wave of digitalization, Xiaohongshu has become a fashion trendsetter for young people with its unique social e-commerce model. Now, it has extended its tentacles into the field of online literature, opening up a new world for novel reading. This is not only a subversion of traditional reading habits, but also a bold innovation in the content ecology.

Xiaohongshu's business is extending into the field of online literature.

In late August, the power plant noticed that Xiaohongshu had embedded a novel reading section on the site, and users could directly access the entrance by searching for the keyword "silent impact". Currently, the section is redirected through Xiaohongshu's mini-program, and the content of the works mainly comes from third-party platforms, all of which are completed free novels.

On Xiaohongshu and the online literature exchange and interactive platform "Dragon's Sky", some authors posted discussions on this issue, asking each other for further details, such as "whether it is official" and "whether it will be paid", and seeking channels for submissions.

An online literature author told the power plant that for authors, "the more platforms to submit works to, the better." After all, the signing thresholds for Jinjiang Literature City and Qidian Chinese Network are high, Tomato Novel has previously attracted criticism due to the "AI Training Supplementary Agreement", and Zhihu's producer model process is slow and the review results are linked to personal preferences. Therefore, authors need more diverse platforms to bring more opportunities.

The power plant asked Xiaohongshu officials about the specific actions and plans for this business, but no response was received as of press time. However, graphic content has always been Xiaohongshu's advantage. Although it is increasing its support for video content creators, the purpose of focusing on video and exploring the novel reading business is not contradictory - whether it is doing it on its own or cooperating with third-party platforms, retaining users and their time as much as possible is related to the prosperity of the content ecosystem and also affects the imagination space for commercialization.

1. What is it like to read novels on Xiaohongshu?

Now, when users open Xiaohongshu, they can indeed see "books" - after the launch of the novel reading section based on the mini program, "reading books on Xiaohongshu" is truly worthy of its name.

After entering the novel reading section of Xiaohongshu, the power plant found that the page was relatively simple. In addition to the bookshelf and the user's personal homepage, there were two columns: "Short Stories" and "Long Stories". Multiple classification labels were displayed below the works, covering themes such as rebirth, fairy tales, sweet pets, time travel, and fantasy.

In addition, there are more works for women, and they are all free novels. All works are "hotly recommended". The page displays 20 works when it is first loaded, and new works can be browsed after each refresh. If you search for keywords, you will jump directly to a related work. However, the search results need to be optimized, and most works do not have author information, so you can only rely on recommendations to read randomly.

From the information on the page, this mini program is associated with the "Daju Story" Xiaohongshu professional account, which is owned by Hangzhou Yaochi Culture Communication Co., Ltd. The latter's official website shows that Yaochi Culture is a comprehensive content company integrating online reading, work creation, wireless value-added, and full copyright operation. It has planned the male-oriented novel website "Datang Chinese Network" and the female-oriented novel website "Anxia Academy", and has established in-depth strategic cooperation with more than 100 content platforms, film and television production companies, video websites, publishing companies, etc.

This inevitably led users to speculate that Xiaohongshu was about to compete with Tomato Novel Platform, which is owned by ByteDance. The power plant called the contact number displayed on the mini program page, but no one answered. But in mid-August of this year, Xiaohongshu released the "Xiaohongshu Online Novel Interest Survey" to some of the creators who tweeted and read on the site. The questionnaire covered reading platforms, reading habits, payment habits, derivative content and other aspects. At that time, a user who received a push from the "Captain Potato" system asked: "Is Xiaohongshu going to create novel content?"

The power plant also found that in July this year, Xiaohongshu "urgently recruited" interns for the vertical operation of online novels. The latter's job responsibilities include event operation, creator operation and content insight, that is, to promote the production and implementation of content based on the content characteristics of online novels on the site or in combination with film and television IP cooperation, and increase the number of notes published; sort out the creator operation process, disassemble the vertical creator types and connect with high-quality creators; disassemble the content types of online novels and high-quality content standards, discover and support high-quality popular notes, and provide methodologies to creators.

It is worth mentioning that the first recruitment condition is "experienced online novel lover, especially female-oriented novels/fan fiction", and internship experience in online literature business on platforms such as Zhihu, Yuewen, Fanqie, and Qimao is considered a plus.

As of press time, Xiaohongshu officials have not disclosed detailed information about the novel reading business, such as business models and follow-up plans, to the power plant, but it is known that not every Xiaohongshu mini program can be presented after searching. In other words, the "Daju Story" Xiaohongshu professional account and the Yaochi culture behind it can be understood as Xiaohongshu's partner. After the online trial, user data and user behavior over a period of time will provide a reference for its future actions. This is also the only way and consistent operation for Internet companies to deploy new businesses.

2. User Time Desire Behind Content Adaptation

Previously, in the Tomato Novel "AI Contract Terms" controversy, Xiaohongshu was one of the main social platforms for authors to express their opinions and communicate. In addition to online literature authors updating their daily writing here, readers also share and recommend their works. In the process of communication, a group of reading bloggers based on online literature have grown up. Similar to the "planting grass + pulling grass" chain of e-commerce, if the closed loop of "tweeting + reading" can be run through, the user usage time of Xiaohongshu will also benefit from it.

Data released by QuestMobile shows that during the 618 promotion this year, thanks to live streaming, the overall usage time of Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu increased. Even so, Xiaohongshu's user usage time is still inferior to Douyin and Kuaishou, which mainly use short videos and live streaming as their content. The former is 77.2 minutes, while the latter are 118.5 minutes and 107.1 minutes respectively.

For Xiaohongshu, average searches prove the value of information, and user time is the continuation of value. This is reflected in its attitude towards the video business. In July of this year, some users found that the "Shopping" label at the bottom of their Xiaohongshu App homepage had become "Video", and the video display page became more "TikTok-like" - the user interaction behavior button was moved to the right. Mao Wenchao and Qu Fang, the two founders of Xiaohongshu, mentioned the "Video 3.0 Campaign" in their 11th anniversary internal letter. This is another effort by Xiaohongshu in the direction of videoization after the "Video 2.0 Campaign" in June 2020.

A former employee of Xiaohongshu told the Power Plant that in recent years, Xiaohongshu’s business focus has been “making videos” and “the product form has been repeated several times” with the aim of boosting user time.

To some extent, Xiaohongshu's involvement in online literature is similar to its efforts in video. The "2023 China Online Literature Development Research Report" shows that the overall scale of online literature will continue to expand in 2023. The reading market size reached 40.43 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%, and the online literature IP market size jumped sharply to 260.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 10 billion; the number of writers, works, and readers showed a steady growth trend, with 24.05 million authors, 2.25 million new authors, 36.2 million works, 4.2 million new works, and 537 million users, a year-on-year increase of 9%.

Xiaohongshu's user group is highly compatible with the online literature reading group, and many authors support and look forward to it. Of course, compared with signing authors and collecting manuscripts on their own, the volume of works accessed through cooperation with third parties is lighter and the costs are lower, which can be regarded as a test-the-water strategy. However, it takes time to cultivate user habits, and the process of purchasing third-party works in small quantities and in large quantities is only the first stage. If Xiaohongshu hopes to create higher value in its novel reading business, in addition to trying to sign high-quality works, it will also need a clear and systematic layout in the future.

In addition to novel reading, similar business entrances presented in mini programs also include AI. Searching for the keyword "Mirror Gou" on Xiaohongshu will lead to a creative image generation page that provides "AI ever-changing style experience", which is officially created by Xiaohongshu. Users can upload a photo and apply different templates to get AI photos.

In other words, Xiaohongshu, which is good at graphic content, should not only seize the opportunities brought by videos, but also continue to move forward on the road of "pictures" and "texts". Regardless of the effect, give it a try first - perhaps this is one of the forces driving the increase in the number of daily active users, user time, and commercialization.