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while tiktok is advancing into the picture and text track, xiaohongshu is attacking the video track.

today, xiaohongshu held an "acquaintances 300·creator annual meeting" in shanghai. you should know that this is the first time that xiaohongshu has held a large-scale creator event since 2019, and it is also the first time that xiaohongshu has awarded creators.

we can see the signal xiaohongshu wants to send to creators from the criteria of the shortlist.

according to the news from zizibang, among the creators shortlisted for the "300 familiar people", 90% of them have video notes accounting for more than 30%, and many xiaohongshu live-streaming creators are also shortlisted. obviously, encouraging creators to post videos and broadcast live is the core of this conference.

the continuous release of signals and rumors have caused many bloggers to worry, which has also triggered discussions in the media.will xiaohongshu’s focus on videos reduce or even abandon pictures and texts?

in the opinion of zizibang, the analysis that xiaohongshu will weaken pictures and texts and abandon pictures and texts as it focuses on videos is too one-sided. the relationship between xiaohongshu and videos should be considered from a longer dimension.

if we open the front-view mirror perspective, the main users of the future ugc content community will have the habit of creating and consuming videos, and regard videos as the first medium of communication. then xiaohongshu must increase its video investment.

in other words,xiaohongshu’s ambition does not lie in videos or pictures and texts. videos are just shovels. the ultimate goal is to consolidate the foundation of its content community.

douyin is focusing on pictures and texts, while xiaohongshu is focusing on videos. they seem to be doing the same thing: they are both trying to include video and pictures and texts on one platform. however, douyin and xiaohongshu have different paths and different goals.

the root cause of the difference lies in the different choices made for mechanisms such as pgc, pugc, and ugc.in other words, in comparison with douyin, kuaishou, bilibili and other platforms, the biggest differentiation of xiaohongshu is not pictures and texts, but ugc.

on the creator open day, xiaohongshu proposed the concept that every individual who sincerely displays his or her lifestyle and attitude towards life can become an "individual video creator" of xiaohongshu, and is not limited to professional creators.

obviously, xiaohongshu wants to expand ugc content, which is also the basic foundation of xiaohongshu.

in the early days of its establishment, xiaohongshu made three things clear: first, pgc content can only provide standard answers. for specific questions, the sharer does not need to be a big v, but can be an ordinary person; second, xiaohongshu should amplify the local knowledge of ordinary people; third, consuming content is the fundamental aspect of the xiaohongshu community. as a result, xiaohongshu established ugc as the core as the starting point.

the ugc route has its pros and cons.the disadvantage is that it lacks super-top influencers like other content platforms to generate a benchmark effect, and the platform's traffic growth cannot achieve the same rocket speed as tiktok. of course, it does not have to bother solving the problem of the excessive size of the top influencers.

the advantage is that there is a large amount of experiential and differentiated content in the community, such as ordinary people's travel guides; it can also ensure that ordinary people who produce high-quality content can be seen.

encouraging ordinary people to participate in video creation is also in line with the development law of the video industry. the younger generation is the native inhabitants of video content, and video is their language of communication. this also means that when this generation becomes the main user of the internet, they will tend to flow to platforms with a complete video ecosystem and rich video content.

if xiaohongshu does not shift to video in a timely manner and fails to cultivate a more complete video ecosystem, young users will naturally flow to other platforms. ordinary users and the rich content they contribute are the foundation of the video community.

"xiaohongshu is a ugc content community. in the past, the real sharing of hundreds of millions of creators has been seen, shared, discussed, and paid attention to. in any case, the ugc core of the xiaohongshu community will not change. we still insist on giving every creator an equal opportunity to express themselves and strive to become the best platform for ugc creators." at the xiaohongshu creator meeting on august 30, bai ban, head of the xiaohongshu community marketing department, emphasized.

if you understand that xiaohongshu insists on being a ugc community, you can fundamentally understand why xiaohongshu will never give up pictures and texts.

a xiaohongshu blogger analyzed to zizibang that pictures and texts are very good carriers of search traffic. when users search, it only takes 10 seconds to click on a picture or text to get the information they want.

this is why xiaohongshu has become the main search engine for many people.graphic content is the characteristic of xiaohongshu and a position that xiaohongshu cannot give up, but graphic content has some inherent disadvantages.

an mcn agency manager also agrees with this view. judging from the overall market data, video content is more conducive to increasing followers, "because the blogger is fresh in front of users, and users are more willing to pay attention."

"we are now mainly cooperating on video content," said a xiaohongshu brand merchant. in addition, the price of video content is generally much higher than that of graphic content, and the commercial value of video content is higher.

in fact, the reading volume of video content is higher than that of graphic content, and it is also the active choice of users.

according to data released by xiaohongshu, the proportion of video note readings is 22% higher than the proportion of video note publishing, and the demand far exceeds the supply.

video and live broadcast, as these two content forms, have a stronger sense of interactivity, which is more helpful for bloggers to grow their fans and data; at the same time, they can also bring higher user activity and user time to the platform.

this is also an important reason why xiaohongshu now supports videos and live broadcasts.xiaohongshu already has a relatively solid image and text mindset and advantages, and supporting videos is equivalent to lengthening its relative shortcomings.

the core of xiaohongshu's ugc community is to allow everyone to publish daily life content without being bound by form. xiaohongshu aims to become a ugc community, and pictures, texts, videos, and live broadcasts are all necessary development items.

in early august, xiaohongshu issued an internal letter to all employees on its 11th anniversary, in which the team recalled the "video 2.0 campaign" launched in june 2020. xiaohongshu considered this campaign to be a battle of adulthood, saying, "if the video fails this time, the community may become the "tears of the internet."

the "11th anniversary letter" mentioned that before june 2020, xiaohongshu had made at least two single-point attempts to turn to video, but both failed. in order to complete "video 2.0", internal resources were reorganized to achieve a closed loop of product, r&d, and operations, "using the power of the community to rebuild a commando team in the community, and distribution, review, product, and operation had to be done again."

half a year later, a video ecosystem with a "useful" mindset was initially established, and videos unique to xiaohongshu rather than distributed across the entire network began to appear in the double-column waterfall flow.

the experience of video 2.0 may have made xiaohongshu realize that if it wants to become a ugc community of the next era, changes are also needed in multiple areas such as operations and products.

the alphabet list found thatin early july this year, xiaohongshu launched a new version of the internal test, and the "shopping" section at the bottom of the column was changed to the "video" channel. xiaohongshu has opened up another traffic field for videos on its homepage. unlike the double-column display format on xiaohongshu’s homepage, this channel has chosen a single-column display. this display method allows more video content to be seen by users.

not only have the video products changed, a brand owner told alphabet list that in august this year, a live broadcast section was added to the dandelion backend, while previously there was only a note section. obviously, xiaohongshu is trying to make live broadcasting a standard feature for xiaohongshu bloggers.

these changes now have a specific goal in mind - to create the preferred platform for "individual video creators".

"individual video creators" is the first positioning of xiaohongshu, which refers to creators who continuously use videos or live broadcasts to share their lifestyles. these creators use videos or live broadcasts as the first language for creation and sharing, expressing their real life attitudes and showing their personal lifestyles. their creation and operation costs are healthy, and they can continuously gain recognition and rewards, and continue to share and update. the "300 familiar people" selected this time are representatives of individual video creators.

by selecting "300 familiar people", we can make good videos and high-quality authors known to other creators, and help them learn from each other. we can also solve the problems of what to post, how to post, and how to do it well in ugc video content. we can then use products and tools to facilitate posting and get positive feedback.

the direction has been made clear. next, it depends on whether it can attract more ordinary users and small and medium-sized bloggers in the two businesses of video and live broadcast.

in terms of traffic, xiaohongshu is obviously not as good as douyin, which has 1 billion monthly active users. however, xiaohongshu’s ugc core and product design in the early stage have enabled ordinary users’ sharing to be seen, shared, discussed, and noticed. this equal rights for content creation will obviously enhance the creation desire and sharing motivation of ordinary users.

the community attribute will also enable the top creators to lead a group of new content producers. this is exactly what xiaohongshu said, "individual video creators use their own creations to inspire more users to express their lives through videos."

content platforms are engaged in a new round of video content competition, and xiaohongshu has already taken a step forward in the battle for ugc creators.