Anyone looking into the platform for the first time trips over three names for the same thing: Xiaohongshu, Rednote and 小红书. There is no difference in substance, only in pronunciation.
Where the names come from
小红书 is the original name and literally means “little red book”. Transcribed into Latin script it becomes Xiaohongshu – roughly “shyaow-hoong-shoo”. That is the official name and the one used in trade press.
Rednote is the English name the app picked up internationally. It spread widely in January 2025, when a TikTok ban loomed in the US and millions of users moved to the Chinese app within days. Since then “Rednote” has taken hold in Western usage, because people can pronounce it.
We write Rednote on this site for exactly that reason. What is meant is always 小红书.
What the platform is
The closest description: Instagram and Pinterest in one app, with a search function closer to Google than to a social network. Users publish posts – usually several photos plus substantial text – about food, travel, fashion and home. More than 300 million people use the app monthly, mostly younger, mostly female, mostly from China’s large cities.
The decisive difference from Western platforms: Rednote is searched, not only scrolled. Someone planning a trip enters a city and a category there, the way you would use a search engine here.
That can be measured. In September 2026 we read out 2,193 posts across nine European cities. Among those whose titles read as a recommendation list, saves run higher than likes – 181,095 to 153,004. For every other post it’s less than half as many. A post there isn’t consumed; it’s put away and opened again on the trip.
A second surprise: 2,081 image posts against 112 videos. Rednote sits closer to Pinterest than to TikTok.
That is why the platform matters for businesses that want to be found by travellers.
Why this concerns European businesses
Chinese travellers decide where to eat and stay before they leave. They do it on this platform, in Chinese, guided by posts from other travellers. A business that does not appear there is not among the options for these guests.
This is not a question of size. A small venue with a location tag and a handful of posts can be more findable than a large house with neither.
What you do not need
To start you need no Chinese bank account, no branch in China and no ad budget. Your own account is not the first step either – useful, but it does not replace a recommendation from someone who was there.
What you need first is an honest survey: what is already there about your city and your category? Are you perhaps already mentioned? That can be settled in one analysis before anyone spends money.