Can Xiaohongshu succeed in building a tech community with a "sense of real people"?

Text | Zhong Yixuan

Editor | Qiao Qian

No one can escape the wave of AI, and community apps are no exception.

Compared with Doubao and Qianwen, which are often backed by large companies capable of creating C - end entrances, communities seem to have natural shortcomings. Looking at the past path, it seems that they can only get infinitely close to technology in terms of content and become a geeky presence. However, they ultimately face the fact that the growth of niche users has reached its peak.

What about a comprehensive community? In the past niche operations, large - scale introduction of KOLs and KOCs was a common way to quickly solve industry coverage. However, a large - scale approach may bring about a conflict of temperaments between new and old residents. Especially in the technology niche, which has a relatively high threshold, if new users don't gain a sense of achievement, their life cycle will be rapidly shortened.

Xiaohongshu today may be a good observation sample. It is highly active, and the TikTok refugee incident has to some extent confirmed the community's certain inclusiveness towards different races and even cultures. Since last year, the core proposition of Xiaohongshu's community business has been to build an interest - based community. It has the ambition to expand, and technology has become one of the fastest - growing content niches in the past year. The release of technology content on Xiaohongshu has increased by more than 100% year - on - year, and the scale of creators has increased by more than 200% year - on - year.

More importantly, there hasn't been a truly popular science and technology community in the Chinese - speaking world yet. Some are too hardcore, while others are diluted. However, overseas, X (formerly Twitter) has proven that a UGC platform has the opportunity to grow into one of the most active and real - time core positions for global technology content. X even once formed the Musk effect. Whoever Musk likes will become popular. In March this year, when Musk commented that Kimi did “Impressive work”, the tech circle was instantly in an uproar.

As the most active community platform in China, Xiaohongshu has this ambition. San Bing, the person in charge of Xiaohongshu's technology operations, mentioned that a broad goal of Xiaohongshu is to become the best technology community.

But it also hopes to be unique. San Bing told media such as 36Kr that in the operation strategy of the technology niche, Xiaohongshu doesn't do news and tutorials. Instead, it prefers to be “a connector between people”.

To understand this somewhat abstract term, we may be able to understand it from a Hackathon Peak Competition recently held by Xiaohongshu. At this competition, we met many young technology entrepreneurs on site. They are the people Xiaohongshu hopes to attract first in the process of developing the technology niche. We also talked with San Bing about the strategies and changes in Xiaohongshu's technology niche operations in the past year.

The scene of Xiaohongshu's Hackathon Peak Competition

Build in public

“Before developing a product, we will post our ideas on Xiaohongshu first to verify if there is a demand.”

At the scene of the Hackathon Peak Competition in Shanghai, a participating student said such words. Hackathon is an old tradition in the programming world, but it was the first time for Xiaohongshu to hold one. In this Xiaohongshu Hackathon Peak Competition, participants were required to complete a product from idea to implementation through closed - door collaborative team - building within 48 hours. It could be either hardware or software.

The student's name is Liu Xiaoben. Unfortunately, their project didn't make it to the finals. He told 36Kr that their entry was called Mozao, a product for the era of vibe coding (AI - assisted programming). Since voice input in vibe coding is three times faster than keyboard input, they designed Mozao for introverted engineers. It is a black face mask that can allow free voice input in public places without disturbing others through noise reduction and microphone communication.

Liu Xiaoben and Mozao

Originally, it was intended for outdoor scenarios. However, after he uploaded a product video on Xiaohongshu during the competition, he made an unexpected discovery. Some users said, “I really want to buy one for my roommate. He makes too much noise playing Genshin Impact, which affects my sleep.” Some programmers also commented that this product is suitable for use in the workplace, as many programmers are used to voice input.

This is what Liu Xiaoben meant by verifying the demand. To some extent, they are all the kind of entrepreneurs who fit Xiaohongshu's “Build in public” style. The so - called “Build in public” means that the creation, verification, and iteration of products are co - created and participated in by Xiaohongshu users. In reality, Liu Xiaoben has his own Xiaohongshu IP and will actively put forward all kinds of creative ideas on Xiaohongshu, such as “How much would you be willing to pay to make your thoughts eternal”. Now he has a startup company researching consciousness upload technology. From the idea to the birth, Liu Xiaoben has fully shared the process on Xiaohongshu.

In this competition, the concept of “Build in public” was repeatedly mentioned by Xiaohongshu. This is not a coincidence. Like the holding of the Hackathon Peak Competition itself, it is related to the change in Xiaohongshu's technology category operation strategy.

In the second half of last year, an AMA (Ask Me Anything) spontaneously became popular on Xiaohongshu. This activity, which originated from foreign social platforms, is well - known overseas because it advocates real - person Q&A and has a short and fast - paced form. On Xiaohongshu, Xu Huazhe, an assistant professor at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University, took the initiative to start it. The AMA trend in the Chinese - speaking world soon swept through the tech circle. Celebrities in the AI field such as Li Kaifu and Yin Qi participated, and later even celebrities from various fields such as Mo Yan, Li Yinhe, and David Beckham joined.

For the operation of technology content in the Xiaohongshu community, this was a very important node. Before the AMA became popular, in the first half of 2025, Xiaohongshu held an independent developer competition, which focused more on the projects themselves and had a more geeky flavor, aiming to give independent developers the opportunity to showcase their works. For users, it was not easy to discover and participate in these discussions if they were not industry insiders or technology enthusiasts.

However, AMA is a clever form. You may not understand AI, but you must have heard of Li Kaifu. Whether you really want to ask questions or just watch as an outsider, the fact that there are technology bigwigs on Xiaohongshu has spread. It has made more ordinary people know that Xiaohongshu can be related to technology. Industry insiders can post content here, and followers can find like - minded people here.

As San Bing said, the main strategy for Xiaohongshu's technology niche operation in 2025 was to “build a circle of friends for technology people”. For this reason, they continuously introduced many KOLs who are influential in the academic and business circles.

However, in 2026, the operation strategy of the technology niche has changed. “After completing the introduction stage, we found that many people on Xiaohongshu are building in public. Entrepreneurs post products on Xiaohongshu, and investors look for projects on Xiaohongshu. So in 2026, we positioned ourselves as 'a connector between people' to connect the needs of small circles with the needs of the general public.” San Bing said.

In short, Xiaohongshu wants to make it possible for technology entrepreneurs to find a closed - loop on the community, from finding demand, developing products, getting financing, and even selling products.

This is also the reason why it was an independent developer competition last year and a Hackathon Peak Competition this year. Because the strategy has changed, people have become the anchor point. San Bing mentioned that startup projects change very quickly. After a year, the style has changed completely. It's too late to chase after the projects. “Compared with focusing on projects last year, we think that the more cutting - edge thing this year must be about people themselves. And the Hackathon itself is a competition full of uncontrollable content, where creativity and people's performance can be maximized.”

Based on today's user base, if Xiaohongshu wants to develop technology content, it naturally cannot be a pure and niche discussion platform like Jike. The logic behind this is naturally contradictory. A small circle means precise and efficient interaction, while a large circle will bring more attention but also dilute the depth of content. More importantly, people may not need a second Jike.

For Xiaohongshu, to retain these technology people, it needs to think more about the greatest common divisor, that is, how to adapt technology content to the foundation of the general community, so that technology entrepreneurs can find value here and ordinary people can find these contents useful, and the flywheel can finally run.

Can Xiaohongshu build a good 'field'?

A natural logic is that for a content community, news and tutorials are the fastest shortcuts to create something useful for users. But Xiaohongshu rejected them from the beginning.

San Bing said that in the content strategy of the technology niche, the team made a clear choice early on not to do news and tutorials. The reason is that news has a strong news - oriented nature, and tutorials often end up aiming at selling courses because of the large supply, which also creates Fomo anxiety.

We can see that Xiaohongshu has now chosen such a niche, combining the entrepreneurial process of technology entrepreneurs with ordinary people. People's needs are seen in the early stage, their opinions are adopted in the middle stage, and their purchasing power determines whether the business can be implemented. People participate in the whole process, and entrepreneurs thus gain attention and commercial value.

36Kr asked Liu Xiaoben where the value of Xiaohongshu lies for him as a technology entrepreneur.

“If I have to say the advantage of Xiaohongshu in doing technology content, I think it has a strong sense of real people,” he said. This is an old - fashioned view, but in addition, Liu Xiaoben put forward a very interesting statement. “The essence of business is to interact with real people and finally serve people. At present, all real - person interaction links can be done on Xiaohongshu.”

The entrepreneurial experience of Sun Donglai, a participant in this Hackathon, is also an example. At first, Sun Donglai just posted a survey post on Xiaohongshu, roughly saying “Do you record your dreams?”. Without any promotion, it unexpectedly got hundreds of thousands of views. Some people commented that they record 800 - word dream diaries every day, and some even started a writer's account on Fanqie Novel to serialize their dreams because they couldn't find a suitable tool.

Sun Donglai soon noticed that this was a huge and neglected demand. On January 21, 2025, his Dreamoo was launched on the Apple Store. In one month, it got 3000 users without any promotion, and now it has stabilized at more than 4000 users.

For early - stage entrepreneurs, this traffic and user feedback can make the project visible and bring lower trial - and - error costs, which are very precious. Therefore, on the night of the finals, on the jury panel, investor Cao Xi also asked a very interesting question, “So do young people nowadays not need VC money anymore?” There was a gentle laugh at the scene.

A card - sized guitar smart hardware that can fit in your pocket won the grand prize of the competition

However, from the perspective of the logic of people, goods, and the field, there may be two aspects that need to be improved for Xiaohongshu to build a good “field”.

First, technology is a high - threshold category after all. Most users of Xiaohongshu cannot engage in serious technology discussions. Some overly professional or B - end - oriented discussions are difficult to develop on Xiaohongshu.

Therefore, if entrepreneurs want to efficiently find useful information feedback for their entrepreneurship in the community, they need to have strong expression abilities, as well as the ability to control user emotions and content promotion logic. They even need to be able to create a personal IP. The reason why the aforementioned entrepreneurs were able to post and get a large amount of user feedback and finally successfully implement their projects is essentially because they hit the right spot in the community's promotion mechanism and the needs of the general public.

Second, due to the user characteristics of Xiaohongshu, currently some general - technology or entertainment - oriented projects often receive high attention on Xiaohongshu. Take this Hackathon Peak Competition as an example. A video of a 2D headgear + robotic arm walking became one of the most popular hotspots of this competition with its eye - catching effect. In addition, this competition also focused on the new generation of AI creators with high topic - making potential. More than 60% of the short - listed contestants are post - 2000s, and the youngest is only 12 years old. The theme of the competition is “Create a big toy for the world in 48 hours”, which has a lot of topic - making elements.

However, an investor told 36Kr that although the projects on Xiaohongshu have certain reference value, it is not easy to find suitable targets at present, and the screening cost is relatively high. “Many ideas are interesting, but they are highly entertaining and difficult to commercialize in reality.”

For a young community, Xiaohongshu's technology category has developed very fast. It is also very clear about its own advantages. Today, the wave of vibe coding has magnified these advantages. When technology becomes more accessible, more people have the opportunity to touch programming, and there is a possibility of user generalization and public discussion.

But as San Bing mentioned, a broad goal of Xiaohongshu is to become the best technology community, but it will take a long time to achieve this vision. Creating a big toy for the world is just the beginning.

At the end of the competition, Liu Xiaoben said that although Mozao didn't make it to the finals, during the exhibition, a visitor expressed willingness to pay 200 yuan to buy their product.

“We didn't sell it. We only have two models, and we have to take them back for iteration.” Liu Xiaoben said that those comments and feedback have given him more important value.