When they started using Xiaohongshu, I felt that Baidu’s winter was coming.

Is Xiaohongshu following Baidu's lead? Ask Xiaohongshu when you are in doubt? Xiaohongshu is gradually replacing Baidu and becoming the search engine for young people's daily lives, but it also has Baidu's biggest problem - false information. Let's take a look at the analysis in this article.

Recently, a friend is planning to go to Chaoshan for a trip and asked me to give some suggestions.

Unfortunately, I am a Chaoshan native who is not familiar with Chaoshan. I was confused and quickly searched on Baidu. When I saw the result, I just wanted to curse.

Fortunately, a friend came to my aid and searched on Xiaohongshu, which revealed many nanny-level travel guides that completely stunned me.

Xiaohongshu can be used in this way.

1. Xiaohongshu is slowly replacing Baidu

On Xiaohongshu, if you search for the keyword "Chaoshan three days and two nights guide", you can find numerous notes.

These notes are well illustrated, clearly organized, and comprehensive.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Many bloggers are willing to provide nanny-level tutorials, teaching you how to play step by step. Each step has detailed annotations, and there is even a lot of additional information in the comment section.

Image source: Wuxiang (Xiaohongshu)

If you are still unclear, you can communicate with the blogger to get more information.

In comparison, Baidu, the number one domestic search engine giant, searches using the keyword “three days and two nights in Chaoshan guide”.

What catches your eye are two ads, and then there are two more ads at the bottom. I can only say that it is very Baidu.

Familiar taste, familiar recipe.

Image source: Baidu

Looking at other search results on the homepage, the content is very stereotyped, with little effective information, and it is equivalent to not reading them at all. No wonder there are always users complaining that Baidu search is useless.

Image source: Baidu

On the Internet, users search for information with a strong purpose.

Are the results accurate and reliable? This is extremely important to users.

In this regard, Baidu barely passes, while Xiaohongshu is relatively excellent.

Searching on Xiaohongshu is simple and convenient, and the content is highly relevant, so users don’t have to spend too much energy to filter content.

Bloggers answer all users' questions in the form of pictures and texts. There are so many notes that there is always one that suits you.

Obtaining information easily and efficiently may be the main reason why young users like to search on Xiaohongshu.

In addition, since Xiaohongshu is a UGC social platform, its content is more human, and users have a feeling of face-to-face communication, which reduces the coldness of the information.

2. Xiaohongshu, a search engine for young people’s daily life

The life experiences of 200 million people are all on Xiaohongshu.

In 2022, Xiaohongshu's monthly active users reached 200 million, 72% of users were born after 1990, 50% of users were from first- and second-tier cities, and more than 43 million sharers gathered on Xiaohongshu.

Young people who are curious about life, love life and know how to live are the main user group of Xiaohongshu.

Source: "2022 Qiangua Active User Portrait Trend Report (Xiaohongshu Platform)"

This year, at the Xiaohongshu WILL Business Conference, Xiaohongshu COO Conan said that "search" has become one of the most frequently used behaviors of Xiaohongshu users.

Xiaohongshu has over 20 million monthly active creators, with an average of over 3 million notes published every day. Nearly 60% of Xiaohongshu’s daily active users actively search, with an average daily search query volume of nearly 300 million times.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

In this way, Xiaohongshu is a bit like a generalized, life version of Zhihu.

At first glance, Xiaohongshu’s search seems perfect, but it has its flaws.

3. Xiaohongshu has the same problem as Baidu

Speaking of Baidu, many people will think of a famous incident - the Wei Zexi incident.

After the incident, Baidu's reputation suffered a setback and Baidu was severely damaged. Many people stood up to question whether the search results were true and reliable.

False advertising has become a thorn in Baidu's heart that cannot be removed.

As the platform ecosystem becomes increasingly complex, many problems have arisen in Xiaohongshu’s search content, the most serious of which is false advertising.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Photo fraud is the most common phenomenon and is also a behavior that many people hate. Here we are not talking about people, but about scenery and objects.

Ordinary scenery, shops or dishes, after being beautified by software, are not even a little bit different from the real thing.

Image source: iFanr

Before going, users were full of expectations. But after arriving, they returned disappointed.

In addition, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether a note is a product implant, especially in the three areas of beauty, food, and travel guides.

Today, let’s take the beauty industry as an example.

On Xiaohongshu, search with "whitening" as the keyword and click on the first note. The whitening method is clearly described and the steps are easy to understand. Most of the products introduced do not have a single direction, except for the product in the red frame.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Image source: Xiaohongshu

In addition, combined with the pictures posted, other products have corresponding brand masking, while the red-framed products mentioned above are not masked, which inevitably makes people feel that it is an advertisement.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

To be honest, these kinds of notes make it difficult for ordinary users to judge authenticity.

If you take money from a merchant, it is certainly difficult to say anything bad about it, and it is also difficult to tell whether the experiences you share are true or false.

In any case, users have the right to know and should not be kept in the dark.

For Xiaohongshu, harmonious community culture is its cornerstone.

When there is too much false advertising, it is easy to mislead and lead to unfair competition, causing unnecessary trouble to users and possibly destroying the community environment on which Xiaohongshu depends for its survival.

If Xiaohongshu wants to go all the way in search, it needs to put in more effort.

References:

"ChatGPT is a search engine that cannot be replaced for the time being, but Xiaohongshu is indeed replacing it" iFanr

"Xiaohongshu, "stealing the tower" from Baidu" Internet Brand Official

Author: Weaving

Source public account: Weiguojiang (ID: wjam123456), focusing on the forefront of new media and insights into new consumer fields.