Analysis of Xiaohongshu search user portrait in 2024

The search function is probably the most frequently used function. As a tool for promoting products, what are the characteristics of users who use the search function of Xiaohongshu?

Qianmo believes that since search has an important influence on users' decision-making mentality on Xiaohongshu, it is necessary to take a peek at the information officially released by Xiaohongshu to help us further understand our customer base during daily promotion and maximize the benefits of promotion.

Therefore, this article mainly focuses on insights into the search behavior of Xiaohongshu users, and I hope it can provide a reference for everyone.

1. Proportion of Search Users

According to the latest official news, we know that Xiaohongshu platform has 260 million monthly active users, over 80 million content sharing users, and the originality of note content is as high as 90%. Perhaps this is the influence of mass power.

Then among these 260 million monthly active users, 70% of them have search behaviors, and 88% of all search behaviors are active searches. This is why Qianmo believes that the search behavior of this user is quite important. This is also why we find that some of the notes published in the past always have a steady stream of long-tail traffic.

2. Basic portrait

Judging from the basic portraits of these search users, the gender ratio is needless to say, but an interesting point is that the search growth rate of male users of Xiaohongshu is much higher than that of the overall search users, with a year-on-year growth of 63%. Therefore, the legend about the popularity of male brands on Xiaohongshu is indeed possible, it’s just a matter of scale, and Qianmo also looks forward to more manifestations of this sector in the future.

Then looking at the age group of the overall search users, 74% of the search users are under 30 years old, so now you know where the main age group of people who are looking for grass-planting products lies. Unless you just want to try something different, just add the age group. However, Qianmo believes that the effect may not be as fun as you imagined.

We learned from Xiaohongshu's search users that the main reason why they prefer to use Xiaohongshu for search is high authenticity (75%), and other reasons are high relevance (45%), strong interactivity (40%), strong empathy (38%), and strong timeliness (36%). Therefore, the real sharing and friendly interaction mentioned in Xiaohongshu's community convention are also OK from the perspective of search users' content preferences.

After talking for so long, we finally know how much influence do Xiaohongshu search users have on search results? Nearly 90% of users believe that Xiaohongshu search results have an important impact on their consumption decisions. In terms of the level of influence, they are: significant influence (66%), influential (24%), slightly influential (4%), and no influence (6%).

3. Interaction Logic

Since it has such an obvious influence, Qianmo feels it is necessary to further understand the complete product purchase path pattern of these search users on Xiaohongshu. However, it is found that this search is the same as the basic conversion logic of the platform's overall users, that is, it is also based on the five dimensions of cognition, grass-roots planting, deep grass-roots planting, purchase, and sharing.

1. Cognition: This also includes browsing, that is, browsing and searching through Xiaohongshu to find content that they are interested in. This is also the initial mental behavior of search users.
2. Planting grass: When using Xiaohongshu, you often see evaluation content of a certain type of product or service, which forms an awareness of it and generates interest. Here, for search users, there will be a wide range of keyword searches and initial planting of related interest content.
3. Deep seeding : If you want to buy a certain type of product, you will then accurately search for related notes to gain comprehensive information about the product. You may also take screenshots of the information obtained from the search and forward them to friends, etc., to look for purchasing opinions. Similarly, the search users here will use precise keywords to search, and the impression of being seeded will be deepened.
4. Purchase: Make a purchase in the note content information flow or search, and purchase decisions made through self-search will be given priority here
5. Sharing: Buyers publish notes based on their product experience, and the notes are recommended to relevant users for browsing and reference, completing a cycle of the platform’s operating mechanism. This is the source of searchable content for searchers.

At this point, the entire interactive process of the above Xiaohongshu search users throughout the brand product has been completed, which is also the basic operating model of content seeding users.

4. Content Area Preference

Ok, since we are concerned about the search behavior of Xiaohongshu users, it is necessary to know which content areas are their favorites in Xiaohongshu. According to the data from the official platform, education and training, clothing, shoes and bags, food and beverages, travel, home furnishings, beauty and personal care, medical health, technology and digital, mother and baby, and fashion are the top 10 popular search areas of Xiaohongshu.

Among them, the industries with the fastest year-on-year growth in search traffic are: travel and tourism (242% year-on-year growth), education (173% year-on-year growth), 3C home appliances (84% year-on-year growth).

If we look at it from the perspective of the gender of search users, in addition to beauty and personal care, technology and digital, and food and beverages are also favored by male and female users, while education and training, clothing, shoes and bags, travel, home decoration and home furnishings, and medical care and health tend to be more female, while local life, games, film and television, home appliances, and car travel tend to be more male users.

From the perspective of their search decisions, 100% of users who are used to searching for the following categories on Xiaohongshu will make decisions through search before purchasing beauty, luxury goods, and digital technology. More than 80% of people will use search to help make decisions before purchasing maternal and child care, automobiles, food and beverages, clothing, and home furnishings. In other categories such as photography, users also have a strong search decision-making mentality.

This shows that users generally have a strong search decision-making mentality before consumption. This behavioral habit also reflects that they focus on information acquisition and comparison when making consumption decisions.

5. Search term type

The last point is their choice of search terms, which can be divided into precise search and broad search.

Precision search: refers to precise search through brand words or brand-related words, usually with direct brand and brand product reference, such as "Brand A" or "Brand A + eye cream"

Broad search: that is, search for words related to non-brand words, such as efficacy words, scene words, information words, inspiration words, current hot words, etc., such as "staying up late skin care remedy", "staying up late skin care products", "Harbin skiing outfits" and other words

At the same time, precise search and broad search will form a "funnel" relationship

According to official information, precise search and broad search will form a "funnel" relationship. Of course, this triggering behavior accounts for 64%. Specifically, Xiaohongshu users first conduct a broad search and then gradually narrow the scope of the search to obtain more precise query results. Moreover, each search will gradually get closer to the decision and conversion point.

For example, the user's search terms for skin care products are as follows:

When those who stay up late want to learn about skin care products, they will first search for "staying up late to work overtime skin care", brands or products (such as a certain brand of essence) in general to supplement the information.

For example, you can first search for "skin care products suitable for oily and acne-prone skin" and "anti-aging" and then search for specific product reviews and user experiences to obtain the basis for the final consumer decision. After a preliminary understanding of the situation, you can further search for specific products.

For example, the user's search terms for clothing:

For example, you can search for scenario words such as "how to dress to look slim in winter, "Christmas outfits", and "what to wear when meeting parents" to find the most matching clothing products.

For example, users search for travel terms:

For example, you can filter travel destinations by searching for the scenario term "winter ski resort".

Therefore, Qianmo believes that this is also the core reason why brands can carry out soft implantation on Xiaohongshu. Because the platform users themselves have the original gene of precise search + extensive search, many brands can enter on a large scale, thereby influencing users' decision-making minds and improving conversions.

I hope the above content is useful to you.

Author: Ckay