Why does Xiaohongshu want to buy the rights to the FIFA World Cup?

According to an exclusive report by "LatePost", Xiaohongshu has been confirmed as the rights-holding broadcaster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It is also the only rights-holding party, apart from China Media Group and Migu, that holds the copyrights for live broadcasts, rebroadcasts, and short videos.

At first glance, this news seems a bit out of character for Xiaohongshu.

The keywords associated with Xiaohongshu have always been related to lifestyle, such as women, product recommendations, fashion, and beauty. The World Cup, on the other hand, is a highly competitive sport that clearly caters more to men.

Some people say that the World Cup is a gender-neutral sport that appeals to both men and women, but this is debatable. The proportion of women who are truly interested in watching football is definitely not high. Most of them are driven by social and entertainment needs.

Xiaohongshu's acquisition of the World Cup rights may seem like a sports copyright purchase on the surface, but in reality, it's more like a soul-searching question for the platform: Can a community that still leans towards a female lifestyle grow into a larger, all - encompassing content platform?

The World Cup as a Growth Lever

The most important issue for Xiaohongshu in the past few years has actually been growth.

By the end of 2022, Xiaohongshu had reached 300 million monthly active users and over 100 million daily active users. According to the "LatePost" report, Xiaohongshu's daily active users have now exceeded 170 million, and its monthly active users have exceeded 400 million. Internally, the platform hopes to reach 200 million daily active users with the help of the World Cup.

In today's Chinese internet environment, an app with 170 million daily active users is already a giant.

Previously, the investment community reported that a US dollar fund sold some of its old Xiaohongshu shares at a valuation of $50 billion at the end of last year. There have also been continuous rumors in the market about Xiaohongshu's plan to list in Hong Kong. The claim that Xiaohongshu's profit exceeded $1 billion in 2024 and is expected to continue to grow significantly in 2025 has also frequently appeared in media and market discussions.

In other words, Xiaohongshu is not a company that can satisfy everyone just by maintaining its community tone. If it wants to go public, it needs a good story. On the other hand, when faced with vast potential growth opportunities, failing to strive for growth is tantamount to a crime in the business world.

Acquiring the World Cup rights is the intersection of Xiaohongshu's two growth strategies.

One is video - based development, especially mid - to long - form videos. The goal of this strategy is to increase the activity and stickiness of existing users, encouraging them to spend more time on the platform.

At the end of last year, Xiaohongshu established the Red&Live department, focusing on short videos and interactive live broadcasts. In March 2026, a live - broadcast entry was added to the web version of Xiaohongshu. The platform is also promoting mid - to long - form videos, launching the RED New Generation Creation Competition and the RED Selection Program, and using traffic and creation funds to support higher - quality video content.

The World Cup is a typical example of horizontal - screen, long - duration, and highly real - time content, which will be a powerful boost for Xiaohongshu's video - based development.

The other strategy is to break into new user groups, encouraging those who originally didn't use or rarely used Xiaohongshu to download and use the app.

Currently, Xiaohongshu has a very comprehensive coverage of the female user group. Therefore, breaking into the male user group is the "low - hanging fruit".

Before the World Cup rights were finalized, Xiaohongshu had already acquired the rights to the Bundesliga, targeting male sports users. Regarding the World Cup rights, some industry media reported that after a comprehensive assessment of the input - output ratio, Douyin decided to withdraw from the competition.

So, one speculation is that Xiaohongshu has achieved a good ROI in the Bundesliga project, which is why it decided to invest in the World Cup.

From a product form perspective, Xiaohongshu's acquisition of the World Cup rights has an advantage. Its picture - text push mode is very suitable for World Cup discussions.

This is the essence of the community.

Let's compare it with Douyin. Douyin's default is a single - column short - video information stream, and the information presentation density is far lower than Xiaohongshu's double - column picture - text format. For users who want to engage in topic - based group activities, Xiaohongshu is definitely more convenient.

The high level of World Cup topics means it's easy to attract users to consume content. However, to make the most of the copyright fees, the key lies in whether the discussions related to the matches can fully stimulate the community's vitality.

When users participate in discussions or stay in the app to watch others discuss, user stickiness is clearly established and consolidated.

The First Major Test after the Organizational Adjustment

On April 30, Xiaohongshu announced a new round of organizational structure adjustment.

Ke Nan was promoted to President, comprehensively integrating the three major businesses of the community, e - commerce, and commercialization, as well as the company's technology system. At the same time, Xiaohongshu established the AI first - level department Dots and the Enterprise Intelligence Department, increasing its investment in AI. Public reports also mentioned that Zhi Heng is in charge of advertising commercialization and e - commerce transactions, Pa Lu is responsible for the community user experience, scale, and ecological health, and Xia Hou is in charge of the core business algorithm.

Xiaohongshu has brought together the systems that used to be prone to internal strife into a more unified management center. The community needs to maintain its tone, e - commerce needs conversion, advertising needs efficiency, algorithms need growth, and technology needs product implementation.

In the past, these goals could maintain a delicate balance because the platform was still in a stage of natural growth. However, after the growth slows down, the valuation increases, and the expectation of going public becomes stronger, Xiaohongshu can no longer rely solely on the spontaneous evolution of the community.

It needs stronger organizational scheduling capabilities. The World Cup happens to be a test of such organizational capabilities.

Hosting a World Cup is not just about connecting the live - broadcast signal to the app. Xiaohongshu has never hosted a live broadcast with a super - large number of online users before, so it needs to build a solid technological infrastructure. During the last World Cup final, the number of viewers in Douyin's live - broadcast room reached 230 million, with a peak of 37.06 million concurrent viewers.

Event operation, hot - topic distribution, and creator activation are not unfamiliar to Xiaohongshu, but competitive sports like football are a niche category with less experience for the platform.

There is a question worth discussing: Will the popularity brought by the World Cup impact Xiaohongshu's existing community atmosphere?

This question is not unfounded.

Any community - based product will face similar questions when it becomes more popular. A typical example is Bilibili. As Bilibili evolved from an anime - centric community to a mass - market video platform, it gained a larger user base and a more diverse content supply. However, at the same time, it has also faced continuous doubts from its old users.

From the New Year's Eve Gala to "The Wave", from the expansion of the knowledge and lifestyle sections to more general entertainment content, Bilibili has continuously proven that it is no longer just a small anime - centric website. But precisely because of this, some old users feel that the original community has been diluted.

What they miss is not a specific function but a sense of in - group cohesion and identity.

Can Xiaohongshu's acquisition of the World Cup rights be understood in the same framework?

There seems to be some similarity, as a group of new users who don't originally belong to the community will enter.

Xiaohongshu has been working on expanding its user base. Last year, it changed its brand slogan from "Your Life Guide" to "Your Lifestyle Interest Community". However, refined living and consumption decision - making still remain the prominent features of the community.

What the World Cup brings seems to be the opposite.

It is content with a higher male concentration, competitive sports, about winning and losing, and emotional catharsis. To cater to new users, the platform may also sacrifice some of its original content in the recommendation algorithm.

However, I personally think this is not a problem for Xiaohongshu.

For example, when Bilibili became more popular, it was an expansion from a sub - culture community to a mass - culture platform. The most important thing in a sub - culture is the boundary. Who is an insider, who is an outsider, who understands the memes, and who doesn't. So, Bilibili's expansion definitely hurt its old users.

Because new users are not just increasing the number of people but also diluting the original identity threshold. Although the dissatisfaction of these otaku fans is quite hard to understand in my opinion.

Xiaohongshu is different. Although it has its own community characteristics, it can't be considered a strong sub - culture community. The underlying logic of showing life and sharing experiences is naturally more open than Bilibili.

Moreover, the World Cup is no longer just a sports event. For many people, the World Cup itself is a form of lifestyle consumption.

It can be a bar for late - night football watching, a reason for friends to gather, a chance to show off football - related fashion, or an opportunity for urban camping to watch the games. It's perfectly appropriate to post a photo of a newly - bought projector and sound system at home, along with beer and barbecue, on Xiaohongshu.

A typical middle - class woman with a refined lifestyle may not really understand the 4 - 3 - 3 formation or high - pressing tactics, may not be able to clarify a player's club career, and may not even know what offside is. But she can definitely accept the World Cup. Because what she accepts is not football itself but the social scenarios and lifestyle represented by the World Cup.

On the internet, there is often mockery of so - called "football belles", meaning that some people don't really care about football but just use it to show themselves. This term, of course, carries the prejudice of male football fans against female participants. But from the platform's perspective, it just shows that the World Cup can be integrated into the lifestyle.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Xiang Xian Zhi", written by San Qing and published by 36Kr with permission.