Xiaohongshu, the platform long celebrated as China’s premier lifestyle and shopping manual, is aggressively moving beyond its short-form roots. At its recent 'RED New Generation' summit in Hangzhou, the company signaled a major strategic pivot toward mid-to-long-form video (MLV) and long-form articles. This shift represents a direct assault on the traditional territory of Bilibili, the long-reigning king of China’s 'pioneer' video content.
To facilitate this transition, Xiaohongshu has introduced significant platform upgrades, including a default horizontal viewing mode for longer videos and free 4K high-definition access for all users. More importantly, the platform is recalibrating its core algorithms to favor depth over brevity. Metrics such as watch time, save rates, and long-term engagement are now prioritized over the fleeting 'viral' clicks that define the short-video era, with a recommendation window extended to 90 days.
The logic behind this evolution is rooted in a fundamental challenge: the 'growth bottleneck' of being a utility tool. While Xiaohongshu boasts over 400 million monthly active users, it has historically suffered from a 'find and flee' user behavior, where visitors search for specific advice and leave immediately. By cultivating deeper, more immersive content, the platform aims to transform from a shopping assistant into a permanent interest-based ecosystem, thereby capturing more of the user’s daily screen time.
However, the move into mid-length video is a notoriously difficult business. Bilibili, the incumbent leader, took over a decade to achieve its first full year of profitability, highlighting the high costs and slow monetization cycles of high-production content. Xiaohongshu plans to mitigate this through a diversified monetization suite—ranging from 'seed' marketing and livestreaming to branded content and 'blue link' e-commerce integrations—yet the transition remains a gamble on whether users want 'depth' from a platform they use for 'inspiration.'
This organizational upgrade is underpinned by a renewed focus on artificial intelligence. With the establishment of internal AI departments, Xiaohongshu is betting that AI can better match complex, niche content with interested audiences, potentially lowering the barrier to entry for creators. As the boundaries between lifestyle sharing, entertainment, and professional video blur, Xiaohongshu’s offensive marks the beginning of a new chapter in the competition for China's digital attention economy.