China's Popular "Lifestyle-sharing Platform" Facing Tougher Regulation
- Chaileedo Press
- Jul 6, 2022
- 3 min read
Since December, Xiaohongshu has been cracking down on misleading and exaggerating sharing content with several rules released to that end.CHAILEEDO observes that against such backdrop, brands are opting to leave Xiaohongshu for TikTok China.
Since December 2021(China Standard Time), China's lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu launched a special campaign to address "unrealistic sharing". So far, it has banned more than 57 brands, disposing of over 172.6 thousand relevant notes and more than 53.6 thousand illegal accounts. Among the banned brands, there are also well-known beauty brands like Little Dream Garden, Dove, Neutrogena, RNW, Nivia and so on.
Xiaohongshu is a lifestyle-sharing platform for the young generation founded in Shanghai, in 2013, according to its website. Users can showcase their experiences on the platform daily-record their lives through a variety of formats including photos, text, videos and live streaming and be inspired to discover and connect with a range of diverse lifestyles. As of October 2021, its monthly users topped 200 million. This community has drawn 130 thousand brands from more than 200 countries and regions worldwide as of now. Because of Xiaohongshu's "attention-catching feature", consumers can find the desired products while brands can precisely cater to target group customers, hence it had gained wide popularity among consumers and brands.
Xiaohongshu has an ultra-high customer stickiness for 90% of its users have resorted to it before product purchasing, according to reports from Dongxing Securities. This also leads to many brands, through external intermediaries or platforms, utilizing product replacement or cash to create a large number of average note sharers of false content, which prompts such a black and grey industry chain of false marketing.
Recently, CHAILEEDO searched some keywords of certain brands on Xiaohongshu and got corresponding feedback, meaning that the previous bans on many beauty brands have been lifted. Search keyword "Dove", for example, relevant notes come out again but with no official accounts presented; "Neutrogena" search results revealed that, other than relevant notes, advertising pages of the product also appear with no official brand accounts attached.
Despite that the bans were lifted, the disruption caused is here to stay for relevant brands. As for the Chinese skincare brand Little Dream Garden, the person in charge reported that it's been a month since the followers left and it's hard winning them back at the current stage. On top of that, its reputation also plummeted.
If you search Little Dream Garden On Xiaohongshu, only relevant notes will appear. And the first 4 notes shown are all of the negative content, "Little Dream Garden's body lotion isn't worth the price" "Little Dream Garden's tone-up body cream is an absolute disaster, come on" and "Little Dream Garden's tone-up body cream so lousy, no match for xx".In addition to the above-mentioned dissatisfaction with the product per se, the note also indicated that its brand marketing is over the top, "Overwhelming advertising, absolutely bad experience for such click bait" "I've come across so many users recommending video notes, but it was a real sell. I guess the advertising is the brand's core business".
In addition to the special campaign for strict governance, in April this year, Xiaohongshu launched "illegal score of brand marketing", with more transparent and visible production-oriented means, continuous monitoring and disposal of brand marketing behavior on the site. In June, Xiaohongshu issued a "Public Notice on the Account Trading and Pageview Fabricating of MCN Institutions" on the site to mete out punishment to the institutions and authors who take advantage of such practices of accounts buying and selling, meaningless content sharing, unusual means to churn out fans and fabricating likes for notes.
Some industry insiders reckon that such a fight against fake content sharing will raise the cost of user sharing. Providing that large-scale Kol does not work, brands would opt out of Xiaohongshu and choose platforms such as TikTok China with greater online traffic.
Other media outlets have reported that the Chinese brand Perfect Diary, which had established its name via Xiaohongshu, is now giving less priority to its cooperation with it. Insiders of Yatsenglobal, the parent company of Perfect Diary, claimed that the company is squeezing its marketing budget, hence investment in Xiaohongshu will also be reduced significantly. And the company also dissolved its MCN Yatsenglobal, whose operation focuses on Xiaohongshu.
However, the Perfect Diary is getting more involved in its TikTok China operation after shifting its focus from Xiaohongshu. With similar marketing effects and other platforms being less stringent on regulation, it is no surprise that brands are turning to TikTok China for more traffic.
Comments