Xiaohongshu: Why is it so difficult to “plant grass” overseas?

This article deeply analyzes the difficult process of Xiaohongshu going global and the certain progress it has made in the overseas Chinese market. It describes the plight of Xiaohongshu's products in Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, which have all failed. In contrast, Lemon8, launched by ByteDance, experienced rapid growth in the short term but then gradually declined. It has a strong inspirational effect on readers' understanding of the localization of Internet products.

Since its inception, Xiaohongshu has been full of "foreign" flavor. It became popular on the Internet with a PDF of "Xiaohongshu's Overseas Shopping Guide", which received over 500,000 downloads as soon as it was released. On the Xiaohongshu App today, we can see a lot of sharing about overseas shopping, overseas travel, overseas work, overseas study, etc., with the "foreign" content leading other apps.

In March this year, there was even a hot search on Xiaohongshu #Xiaohongshu has conquered Spain#. After all, detailed notes about real-life travel or living experiences in Spain that cannot be found on Baidu or Google can be found on Xiaohongshu.

So, for Xiaohongshu, which has its own Western style, is it a more logical path for it to "go overseas"?

After all, while other apps are still struggling to figure out how to create overseas content to attract overseas users, Xiaohongshu already has a large amount of overseas UGC (user-generated) content.

However, Xiaohongshu's overseas journey has been full of twists and turns.

In the past three years, Xiaohongshu has launched a number of independent overseas apps in an attempt to replicate the success of domestic lifestyle communities, but none of them have achieved good results.

ByteDance, a powerful competitor with rich overseas experience, also launched an overseas version of Xiaohongshu - Lemon8, which uses lemon yellow as its theme color and is commonly known as the "Little Yellow Book". With the help of TikTok, it caused a stir, but then returned to normal.

Why is it so difficult to "plant grass" overseas? Is it because there is an insurmountable gap between Chinese and foreign cultures? Let's talk about it today~

1. Xiaohongshu’s bumpy journey to overseas markets

In the past three years, Xiaohongshu has launched different independent apps for different overseas markets:

1. For the Japanese market, Xiaohongshu has launched three products: the fashion community Uniik in February 2021, the camping enthusiasts community Takib in October 2022, and the beauty community habU in March 2023;
2. For the Southeast Asian market, Xiaohongshu will launch Spark in April 2022, which is highly similar to Xiaohongshu in China;
3. For the European and American markets, Xiaohongshu launched the home sharing community Catalog in November 2022.

It is said that "cultural differences" must be considered when going overseas. Xiaohongshu has taken this into consideration very seriously and has taken great pains to carry out localized design.

Take Uniik, a fashion community launched by Xiaohongshu in Japan, as an example.

Why choose fashion as the entry point? After all, Japan has been the fashion trendsetter in East Asia for a long time.

• Japan has a vibrant fashion street culture, such as Harajuku style, Lolita, Shibuya Gyaru style, Mori Girl style, etc.
• Japan has produced many top fashion design masters, such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Kenzo Takada, etc., whose design styles have influenced the aesthetics of several generations;
• Japan is the birthplace of leading brands in the fashion industry, such as MUJI, UNIQLO and other world-renowned brands, which have become synonymous with simplicity, comfort and versatility.
• As the source of East Asian fashion, Japan can theoretically provide Xiaohongshu with a lot of creative inspiration and materials.

After Uniik went online, it held several themed events in Japan. For example, in October 2021, Uniik launched the "What is high fashion for me" theme event in Japan, encouraging creators to share their daily outfits in Uniik; in April 2022, Uniik created the first fashion exhibition specifically for independent and young designers; in May 2022, Uniik held the "Uniik Fashion Night-Pop or Dark" event that combined music and fashion.

However, Uniik downloads failed to achieve sustained breakthroughs.

Uniik received 200,000 downloads within a year of its launch, but the growth rate has declined significantly. According to Sensor Tower data, the iOS version of Uniik was downloaded only 20,000 times in May 2022.

In October 2022, Uniik stopped updating.

In addition, several other apps have not achieved obvious results: Takib, a camping enthusiasts community that is also aimed at the Japanese market, and habU, a beauty community, have not yet achieved obvious results; Spark, which is aimed at the Southeast Asian market and is highly similar to Xiaohongshu in China, has seen its growth slow down since January 2023; Catalog, a home sharing community for the European and American markets, closed in February 2023 after two months of operation.

So far, Xiaohongshu has not yet found a successful path to overseas expansion.

However, Xiaohongshu has launched independent vertical applications, which are also quite flexible and can conduct rapid experiments and innovations in different markets.

Among them, Xiaohongshu chose Japan, which has a cultural background highly similar to that of China, as its "key testing ground", but no app has yet been able to stir up waves in the consumer market.

2. ByteDance also goes overseas to "plant grass"

Since Xiaohongshu’s overseas “grass planting” strategy was not going well, ByteDance, which has deep pockets and rich experience, decided to give it a try as well.

After all, ByteDance has rich experience in overseas expansion, and its TikTok already has a massive user base.

Therefore, in March 2020, ByteDance launched the "grass planting" application Lemon8 (formerly known as Sharee) overseas, with its first stop in Japan.

Lemon8's product positioning is similar to Xiaohongshu, focusing on community content shared by users such as beauty, fashion, food, and travel.

The product design is also very similar to Xiaohongshu, except that it uses lemon yellow as the theme color, which is consistent with the name of Lemon8.

Unlike Xiaohongshu, which focuses on vertical categories in overseas markets, ByteDance directly "copies" Xiaohongshu to create a comprehensive lifestyle community and launch multilingual versions, currently supporting six languages: English, Indonesian, Japanese, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese.

Lemon8 leverages TikTok influencers for promotion.

Before Lemon8 went online, ByteDance had quietly sent invitations to many TikTok creators, inviting them to become the launch creators of the Lemon8 platform. Therefore, Lemon8 has received a lot of praise from users during the internal testing phase, and has received more than 1,000 reviews on the App Store before it was launched; in contrast, Xiaohongshu's Uniik has ceased operations so far and has only more than 1,000 reviews on the App Store.

Many KOLs commented that Lemon8 is like "Instagram and Pinterest having a baby" because it combines the functions and features of the two apps. Like Instagram, it encourages users to share their interests, hobbies and lifestyles in the form of photos or videos, but does not support vertical scrolling. Like Pinterest, it allows users to create favorite lists and recommend new content based on their preferences, but Lemon8 has the function of supporting product tags and a personalized recommendation column similar to TikTok's "For You". This also confirms that Lemon8 is like a replica of Xiaohongshu.

Lemon8 is more successful than the overseas version of Xiaohongshu.

In the Japanese market, as of March 2022, Lemon8 has been downloaded 5 million times; in the US market, Lemon8 ranked first in the App Store lifestyle app category within one week of its launch, and as of April 2023, it has been downloaded 290,000 times.

However, coincidentally, Lemon8's user growth rate is also slowing down.

As of April 2023, Lemon8 has 5 million monthly active users worldwide. In comparison, Instagram has 2.3 billion monthly active users worldwide, and Pinterest has 450 million monthly active users worldwide. It can be seen that Lemon8 still has a big gap from Instagram and Pinterest. However, Lemon8's ranking on the App Store has declined since late April 2023, and it has fallen out of the top 25 app downloads in the United States.

Although Lemon8 has gone through a phase of spending a lot of money to expand its user base, such as paying KOLs to post, advertising on its own TikTok and other people's Instagram, and gaining the first batch of seed users, the sustainability of Lemon8's business operations is still a question mark.

3. Why is it so difficult to “plant grass” overseas?

If Xiaohongshu doesn’t spend enough money to expand overseas, its team isn’t professional enough, and its support for bloggers isn’t strong enough;

If ByteDance has done all of this, why can't Lemon8 continue to be popular and become the third largest lifestyle app after Instagram and Pinterest?

In terms of functionality, Lemon8's product features are not as disruptive as TikTok's.

Because Lemon8 is like the child of Instagram and Pinterest, combining the characteristics of both, it is almost equivalent to having no irreplaceable characteristics. For users, why should they spend energy to migrate to a completely new platform?

In terms of content, neither the overseas version of Xiaohongshu nor ByteDance's Lemon8 has inherited the core advantage of the domestic version of Xiaohongshu - community content.

Xiaohongshu is a UGC (user-generated content) platform, and most of the community content still relies on the creation of ordinary users rather than professional bloggers.

Community content is personal and subjective, but these personal thoughts and experiences are very valuable.

KOLs motivating ordinary users to create is just a technical means of cold start.

When the users who are attracted cannot find topics that they care about and are willing to discuss, they will naturally leave quietly.

In the 1.0 stage of Xiaohongshu, users shared their first-hand and exclusive overseas shopping experiences. People liked to discuss shopping and were willing to listen to others' shopping experiences, forming the initial community culture atmosphere. At that time, China's outbound tourism was on the rise, and more and more Chinese consumers traveled overseas and bought products, creating a demand for overseas shopping information. Xiaohongshu effectively filled the gap in the Chinese consumer market;

In the 2.0 phase of Xiaohongshu, the influence of the App gradually increased, and the community content began to expand to lifestyle areas such as beauty, food, travel, fashion, and the workplace, becoming a life encyclopedia for users to replace traditional search engines such as Baidu and Google. At that time, Weibo focused more on current affairs and news, WeChat focused more on social networking and communication, Bilibili focused more on the second dimension and games, Zhihu focused more on knowledge and learning, and Douban focused more on film and television and culture. Xiaohongshu created the first lifestyle community in the industry.

Our previous thinking might be -

First build this platform, and then encourage everyone to create.

But the reality is often that just because you have a platform, it doesn’t mean I’m willing to share my story.

Is it because it was the first social interaction platform (similar to Weibo)?

Is it because all my friends and family are using it (similar to WeChat)?

Is it because it creates a unique entertainment experience (similar to Douyin/TikTok)?

Is it because other platforms are difficult to use and have too many restrictions (similar to Twitter)?

Is it because of the niche culture (similar to Bilibili)?

The overseas version of Xiaohongshu does not seem to meet these conditions.

Xiaohongshu has no shortage of overseas competitors, and mature social platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest have already occupied the minds of users. They are all visually oriented, can share photos and videos, and are ideal for sharing products and lifestyles.

What's more, the independent apps launched by Xiaohongshu overseas are not endorsed by brands. Uniik in Japan, Spark in Southeast Asia, and Catalog in Europe and the United States all make people feel unfamiliar.

Even Lemon8, launched by ByteDance, became popular with the help of TikTok's strong promotion, but it has gradually cooled down.

There are many paths to achieve overseas lifestyle communities, whether vertical or integrated, the key lies in whether the platform can bring "differentiated value" to users.

4. Xiaohongshu enters overseas Chinese-speaking circles

Fortunately, Xiaohongshu has achieved good results in overseas Chinese circles.

According to data shared by a Singapore Xiaohongshu trainer (sourced from the self-media Zhixiang Overseas), in 2022, approximately 550,000 people in Singapore used Xiaohongshu, approximately 1.5 million people in Malaysia used Xiaohongshu, and a total of more than 100,000 people in Thailand and Indonesia used Xiaohongshu.

Overseas users on Xiaohongshu mentioned:

"I check Xiaohongshu every day, mainly to read discussions about mainland TV dramas."

"In Barcelona, ​​many international students and Chinese use Xiaohongshu"

"There is a signboard next to the Cambridge cruise ship that says 'Xiaohongshu Recommends'"

"We went to don asador in Spain to eat barbecue. After the meal, the waiter asked us to write a good review for them on Xiaohongshu."

"Xiaohongshu is equivalent to Baidu + Weibo + Dianping + Zhihu + social software abroad. Xiaohongshu is used to make travel guides, find nearby food, and even avoid pitfalls."

Why can Xiaohongshu attract overseas Chinese?

• Xiaohongshu is positioned as a "lifestyle community", so naturally people with the same cultural background will resonate more.
• Overseas Chinese have the same Chinese stomach, Chinese aesthetics, and similar interests and hobbies.
• For example, if a restaurant abroad is delicious, the taste buds may be biased towards Chinese people;
• Which places abroad are worth visiting? Maybe the travel preferences are also biased towards Chinese people;
• What are some good domestic and foreign dramas that might be more interesting to communicate with Chinese people?
• The cultural differences between China and foreign countries may resonate better when discussed with Chinese people.

Xiaohongshu has a lot of room for expansion in overseas Chinese-speaking circles. Take the number of Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand as an example:

• In Malaysia, there are about 6.9 million Chinese, accounting for more than 20% of the total population;
• In Singapore, there are about 5.64 million Chinese, accounting for about 75% of the total population;
• In Thailand, there are approximately 9 million Chinese people, accounting for approximately 11%-14% of the total population.

A simple calculation shows that Xiaohongshu has 1.5 million users in Malaysia (assuming they are all Chinese), which means that on average 1 in every 5 Chinese uses it, and 4 do not use it yet; Xiaohongshu has 550,000 users in Singapore, which means that on average 1 in every 10 Chinese uses it, and 9 do not use it yet.

At the same time, Xiaohongshu began to get involved in the "cross-border e-commerce" business of overseas Chinese merchants.

In June 2023, Xiaohongshu cooperated with Youzan AllValue, a third-party SaaS company, to launch a new function called "Xiaohongshu E-commerce Mini Program" to help overseas Chinese merchants quickly connect to Xiaohongshu, open overseas stores, and sell products and services to users in China and other regions with large Chinese communities.

According to Youzan AllValue's official website, 200 overseas merchants are currently being recruited. It only supports applications from enterprises, institutions, and other types of organizations. Individuals and self-employed individuals are not supported to settle in Xiaohongshu for the time being, and applications from companies in North America will be given priority.

In this business sector, Xiaohongshu began to compete with Tmall Global, JD Global Shopping, Kaola Global Shopping, and Vipshop Global.

At present, Xiaohongshu has the smallest market share. Tmall Global and Kaola.com both have a cross-border e-commerce share of more than 20%, followed by JD Global Shopping and Vipshop Global, which account for about 15% of the market share, while Xiaohongshu only has about 3.1% of the market share.

However, Xiaohongshu’s advantage is that it is social and lifestyle-oriented, opening up a new path for cross-border e-commerce. For overseas Chinese merchants, it is also a new blue ocean.

Final Thoughts

Xiaohongshu has encountered many setbacks in the process of launching independent overseas apps, but unexpectedly gained a large number of overseas Chinese users in the operation of the main site. After all, there is no shortage of good-looking photo and video sharing channels for overseas users, and Instagram and Pinterest are already very mature social platforms. Therefore, it is particularly important whether the culture and lifestyle displayed by the community content are strongly related to "me" and whether they can bring deep resonance to "me".

Short-term traffic explosion can be achieved through activities + KOLs; but deep-level content needs to be cultivated slowly over time. Perhaps, building a lifestyle community is not a "fast win" business model. The gradually accumulated reputation and the growing trust may be the magic weapon for building a lifestyle community.

Author: Vinky, WeChat public account: Sanyanliangyu