Xiaohongshu Pilots Enterprise WeChat Integration as It Seizes Every Opportunity for Commercialization

Xiaohongshu, also known as "Little Red Book," is a popular Chinese social media and e-commerce platform where users share lifestyle content and shopping recommendations. It has over 300 million monthly active users, making it a significant player in the online content and shopping community.

The year 2024 is crucial for Xiaohongshu in its push towards commercialization. Recently, the platform has taken a small but significant step in this direction by testing a new feature that allows users to jump to Enterprise WeChat, currently available only to select merchants.

According to the feature's introduction document, accounts with this function enabled can add a "Consultant" button below their posts. When users click this button, they see a prompt to "Add on WeChat," which then redirects them to the Enterprise WeChat add page. Previously, users had to manually add contacts on WeChat after messaging the Xiaohongshu account.

This seemingly minor feature is a significant leap for Xiaohongshu. To prevent excessive advertising and traffic diversion, Xiaohongshu has traditionally maintained a strict stance on outbound links. A manager of an offline clothing store mentioned that they had considered seriously operating on Xiaohongshu, but the platform's sensitivity to content like adding WeChat contacts and inquiring about prices often led to account suspensions, making them shift focus to promoting their WeChat account instead.

Despite the feature being in the testing phase, Xiaohongshu's cautious approach to traffic redirection is evident. For instance, in a conversation with a real estate agent on the platform, phone numbers and images containing phone numbers could not be displayed in the chat, although messaging and calling functions were available. Certified enterprise accounts can display customer service WeChat contacts normally.

Xiaohongshu has always been conservative about "redirecting" users. In 2021, several luxury brands enabled a feature to jump to WeChat mini-programs from Xiaohongshu. As of March this year, new brands continue to try this feature. For example, Givenchy has enabled a function where users can search for Givenchy on Xiaohongshu, click the shopping button, and be redirected to a mini-program page in the WeChat app.

It is important to note that WeChat mini-programs are considered external links. An e-commerce analyst explained that brands aim to leverage Xiaohongshu for initial consumer interest, and jumping to WeChat avoids redundant development while allowing the platform to charge for advertisements. In e-commerce external link jumps, service providers like Youzan and Weimob play significant roles.

However, a Xiaohongshu insider told Jiemian News that jumping to Enterprise WeChat differs from external links. This feature caters to merchants' needs for traffic acquisition, particularly targeting industries like education, photography, and interior design, which have become more active on Xiaohongshu in the past two years.

Xiaohongshu's product design differs significantly from other content platforms. As a user-generated content community, its dual-column content layout offers users a wide range of choices and dictates a unique logic for merchant advertisements. Consequently, Xiaohongshu has developed a B2K2C business model, where merchants use KOL (Key Opinion Leader) posts to drive consumer interest and present content directly to users.

The Enterprise WeChat jump feature meets some merchants' customer acquisition needs, regardless of whether it is an external link jump. Especially in an era where the internet industry's overall growth is slowing, Xiaohongshu is one of the few platforms still experiencing traffic growth. The latest data reveals that Xiaohongshu has over 300 million monthly active users.

A member of Xiaohongshu's commercial department stated that the requirements for enabling this feature are stringent. Besides needing an Enterprise WeChat customer acquisition assistant, advertising is a must, and only Xiaohongshu search ads can display Enterprise WeChat links, not across the entire site.

This further demonstrates Xiaohongshu's urgency in its commercialization efforts. According to the Financial Times, Xiaohongshu achieved profitability for the first time in 2023, with a revenue of $3.7 billion, up 85% year-over-year. On April 29, market reports suggested that Xiaohongshu was undergoing a new round of financing, valuing the company at $20 billion.

Although Xiaohongshu denied these claims, stating they were "untrue," 2024 will indeed be a pivotal year for its commercialization push. Jiemian News has learned that cross-border marketing will also be a key focus for Xiaohongshu this year.

In this process, Xiaohongshu faces challenges beyond just making money. For example, the Enterprise WeChat jump feature indicates that Xiaohongshu is also aggressively developing its closed-loop e-commerce. WeChat mini-program jumps and Enterprise WeChat customer acquisition suggest brands' favor toward Xiaohongshu's traffic, but they also challenge the growth of in-platform transactions. Balancing these aspects is a more difficult task than seizing opportunities.

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