Standing at the end of 2025, Xiaohongshu's business is crossing a new threshold.

Unexpectedly, another buyer on Xiaohongshu achieved over 100 million yuan in a single live - streaming session.

On December 7th, @Wu Qianyu achieved a single - live - streaming GMV of over 150 million yuan, doubling that of her first live - streaming session and becoming a new benchmark buyer. If we take a broader view, this is just a ripple in Xiaohongshu's business narrative in 2025.

As the year draws to a close, we attempt to sort out the important business moves of Xiaohongshu. Behind the seemingly scattered clues, we can see the ups and downs and changes the company has experienced, as well as what it aspires to be.

Frequent Business Moves: Openness or Closed - loop?

You rarely see Xiaohongshu like this.

Breaking away from its past restraint and subtlety in commercialization, in May this year, Xiaohongshu announced a cooperation with Alibaba on the "Red - Cat Project", which attracted wide attention from the outside world. The cooperation brought two changes. Firstly, the links in Xiaohongshu's advertising notes can directly jump to Tmall, allowing users to place orders smoothly after being influenced. Secondly, the data systems of both sides are connected, enabling merchants to trace the full - link data from influencing to transaction and optimize their overall strategies.

Not long after the "Red - Cat Project", the "Red - Jing Project" with JD.com was launched successively. 36Kr also learned that in the future, Xiaohongshu will cooperate with more platforms on the direct influencing - to - purchase model. No matter what the project is, the core operation behind it is actually "influencing - direct jump - transaction - data feedback".

User @A Crispy Flute

Behind the choice to open external advertising links is the last mile between influencing and placing orders on Xiaohongshu.

There is never a lack of purchasing desire on Xiaohongshu. Among all social platforms in China, it is almost impossible to find a platform that can replace Xiaohongshu. Users here have formed a natural consensus, hoping that what they see and are seen by others are real needs and evaluations. Data shows that in 2024, Xiaohongshu users took screenshots on note pages 120 million times a day, and the purchase requests of "asking for links" in the post comment area exceeded 6 million times a day.

The commercialization moves represented by the Red - Cat Project are precisely to fill this gap. Judging from the data, five months after the launch of the "direct influencing - to - purchase" model, during the Double 11 period, there were more than 100 single products with a transaction volume exceeding 10 million or even 100 million yuan, showing clear results.

In fact, Xiaohongshu has always had influencing cooperation with external e - commerce platforms, such as the "Little Red Star" and "Little Red Alliance", but it still remained at the tool level and was relatively restrained. It was not until the official opening of external links in May that it meant an overall change in the platform's business ecosystem.

With the opening of external advertising links, doubts followed. The outside world even commented that Xiaohongshu "planted others' fields and left its own land barren". The reason is simple. Xiaohongshu also has its own e - commerce business. When the wall is opened, will it snatch the business of the closed - loop? And will it still focus on the closed - loop business?

Xiaohongshu did not respond to these questions. Three months later, it proved its determination with actual actions.

In August, Xiaohongshu's "Marketplace" was officially launched. One of the key moves was that the "Marketplace" was placed in the primary entrance on the home page of the APP, the second Tab from the left below. This is usually a key product position of an APP, which determines what Xiaohongshu wants its users to see and choose at first sight.

The "Marketplace" is naturally a strong signal for Xiaohongshu to focus on the closed - loop e - commerce. Merchants can obtain a more stable business field. For users who choose to consume on Xiaohongshu, a fixed primary entrance can also enable them to screen and match supplies based on their needs more frequently and conveniently, further strengthening the transaction mindset.

During the same period when the "Marketplace" was launched, in August, another thing happened.

Xiaohongshu officially established a large - scale business division. The logic behind this adjustment is quite clear. As more merchants and brands settle on Xiaohongshu, the overlapping scenarios of advertising placement and e - commerce business increase, and there are more scenarios for the resources of the two major businesses to cooperate.

Looking back at the end of 2025, "openness" and "closed - loop" are not choices, and these moves seem to point to one thing - Xiaohongshu's influencing can bring better and more effects.

Grass - planting Needs to Change Because the Market is Changing

If the early commercialization of Xiaohongshu was a "natural extension of the community ecosystem", or even driven by the ecosystem to do commercialization. Now, Xiaohongshu needs to constantly prove its differentiated value for customers and the industry.

In the past few years, Xiaohongshu solved the problem of making the business world understand influencing. But in the current market environment, Xiaohongshu also needs to highlight the effects it brings and respond to the urgent demands of enterprises for effects.

The industry's eagerness for "effects" is self - evident. This year, in the selection of the annual CMO figure at a marketing industry summit, "measurable revenue growth" was written as one of the selection criteria. You know, in the past, they competed more in marketing and creativity, but today, they also need to prove "effects".

Enterprises are no longer satisfied with vague indicators such as "brand exposure" and "voice volume". Instead, they hope that every investment can lead to clear business results, whether it is product transactions, lead generation, user accumulation, or reputation amplification.

This contradiction between "limited budget" and "increased demand for effects" is an opportunity for all platforms in this era.

The direct influencing - to - purchase model is a side to understand the current commercialization changes of Xiaohongshu. Its essence is to connect cross - platform data, allowing enterprises to clearly see the sales results and population portraits brought by conversion from another perspective. At the same time, it can track the complete link of users from influencing to decision - making and placing orders.

For example, how long a user spends, how many times they search, what information they search for, what their focus is, and even where they start. This drives brands to look at the people behind, the information they focus on, and user needs. Then use different influencing path products to match, optimize content, and upgrade products. From these dimensions, influencing has begun to reverse - drive enterprises to optimize their business ideas.

During the 2025 Double 11 period, Xiaohongshu users were the most active.

In the past year or so, Xiaohongshu has adapted to the different needs of enterprises through the direct influencing - to - purchase model and the closed - loop model. Enterprises can complete in - station transactions through the "Marketplace", or they can receive demands through external links or lead tools. On the other hand, by opening data, enterprises can clearly track the full - link data from "content exposure - user interaction - demand conversion", and a number of enterprises have achieved growth in this way.

The change in enterprises' influencing on Xiaohongshu is not only the commercial progress of Xiaohongshu but also the change the market has experienced. Enterprises have changed from making explosive products to building good brands, and then to craving for healthy and long - term business operations.

Xiaohongshu is a Gold Mine, but How to Open It?

As early as 2023, Xiaohongshu clearly mentioned that "influencing is the third marketing paradigm". Behind this is the hope to attract more enterprise budgets. But it is undeniable that more brands only see the marketing effectiveness of Xiaohongshu and lack an understanding of its performance in business results.

From the perspectives of the industry, brands, and Xiaohongshu itself, this is a step that must be taken.

Firstly, in the context of the economic environment with limited growth and tight budget allocation, brand merchants urgently need certainty. Whether it is growth efficiency, customer acquisition quality, or the long - term strategy for user and population management, they hope to lead to more certain business results. They will move to where there are effects.

Secondly, from the perspective of Xiaohongshu's own development, marketing can be said to be Xiaohongshu's comfort zone. But whether it can expand its increment, influence, and radiate to a larger business budget of merchants is also related to Xiaohongshu's own business imagination and development space. Compared with the brand marketing budget with zero - sum game attributes, the budget space related to business growth still needs to be explored.

To fully tap the value of this soil, Xiaohongshu still faces many challenges. For brands that have not deeply rooted in Xiaohongshu and tasted the sweetness, Xiaohongshu still needs to solve the "mystery" problem. This is also the market significance of proposing the effectiveness of influencing, allowing some people to see and confirm the future first.

Judging from the external information of Xiaohongshu's commercialization, in 2025, in addition to the two major paths of direct influencing - to - purchase and closed - loop, lead generation and user growth have also become new paths, and a number of enterprises have achieved growth in them.

To some extent, as long as enterprises do a good job in product development and find the corresponding communication methods, it is natural to achieve business results on Xiaohongshu. But the difficult part lies in how enterprises break through organizational boundaries and even open up strategic layouts.

It is clear that the influencing has entered the era of effectiveness, which includes the backward extension of the link, such as more direct connection to conversion, obtaining transactions, leads, and user growth. At the same time, it also reflects in the forward data mining and demand insight, such as further connecting the link from demand to production, understanding the population, and understanding why users buy or do not buy.

In fact, Xiaohongshu has publicly stated that it wants to build its own native business system. This almost means that Xiaohongshu has no ready - made answers to copy. It needs to build a system that can truly serve all industries based on the community ecosystem and characteristics, which is not limited to advertising or e - commerce.

Simply put, the effectiveness of influencing is not a one - man show for Xiaohongshu. It is something that all enterprises that respect users and needs need to pay attention to and dig. This may be the next - generation business main stage.