China’s trust-based search engine – why finance belongs on XiaoHongShu
Key takeaways
XiaoHongShu, known internationally as RedNote, has more than 400 million monthly active users, about 70% of them women living in China’s Tier 1 and New Tier 1 cities.
It works more like a search engine than a social network: there are more than 800 million searches a day, and 77% of daily active users turn to search to solve specific problems.
Hurun’s 2026 Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey found it is the primary information platform for high-net-worth individuals, with 61% using it regularly, 13 percentage points more than Douyin.
The platform rewards depth of expertise over scale, which favours financial firms with genuine specialist knowledge.
Firms can run an institutional account alongside individual advisor accounts, and should build content around what users actually search for.
Often billed as the “Chinese Instagram”, XiaoHongShu has flown under the radar of many international marketers, especially those working in finance. But the platform is starting to get the attention it deserves, as there is growing recognition it is a powerful channel that can integrate sectors such as banking, asset management and insurance into its broader lifestyle focus.
It is not hard to see why. XiaoHongShu (also known as “RedNote” internationally) is an essential platform for a very attractive demographic – namely, China’s affluent middle class. It has more than 400 million monthly active users[1], of which about 70% are female, and mostly located in the country’s richest urban centres, the Tier 1 and so-called New Tier 1 cities (Chengdu, Hangzhou, Tianjin, etc).
Passive feed and active search
The comparison with Instagram is apt in that XiaoHongShu is driven by visual content. Photos and video take the lead, with text relegated to explanatory captions. Furthermore, when you open the platform there is a feed that delivers content based on the user’s interests.
But that’s where the comparison ends. Unlike Instagram, the 13-year-old Chinese platform has always had trust-based recommendations at its core, making it in many ways more like a search engine than a traditional social network.
Users go to XiaoHongShu wanting to learn more about specific products or services, and they find that information through the search function, which is arguably the most important part of the platform. There are more than 800 million searches a day on XiaoHongShu, and 77% of daily active users turn to search to solve specific problems[2].
In short, XiaoHongShu has a dual structure, with passive, algorithmic recommendations working in parallel with active lookups via the search function.
How does this relate to finance?
In recent years, XiaoHongShu has broadened from its original focus on topics related to shopping – like fashion, travel, and dining – into a comprehensive lifestyle platform that covers a wide range of personal interests. This shift can be seen in the 2025 change in the company slogan, from the longstanding “Your life guide” (你的生活指南) to “Your Life Interest Community” (你的生活兴趣社区).
Finance is part of that expansion, as seen by the increased searches for terms like “finance” (金融) and “wealth management” (理财). There is a related content track that is currently popular: “light luxury and wealth management” (轻奢理财) that shows how financial matters still appear on XiaoHongShu tied to ideas of an aspirational high-end lifestyle.
Hurun’s 2026 Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey found that XiaoHongShu is the primary platform for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) to obtain information, with 61% of HNWIs using it regularly, 13 percentage points higher than Douyin (as TikTok is called in China).[3] Younger wealthy individuals rely most heavily on the two platforms – more than 70% of under-25s use XiaoHongShu and Douyin as their main sources of information – while WeChat Channels, the messaging app’s video feature, is more popular among their middle-aged peers.
The survey also identified the financial personalities HNWIs follow most closely. What stands out is that they are all long-established economic commentators known for analysis rather than entertainment. It shows that trusted sources that have established expertise in their specialist area can have real influence among a valuable audience.
This creates a very real opportunity for financial firms that can establish themselves as credible, narrowly-focused voices rather than compete for attention through broadcast-style campaigns. XiaoHongShu rewards depth of expertise over scale – an advantage for institutions where credibility rests on specialist knowledge rather than entertainment value.
Different platform, familiar instincts
The visual, aspirational nature of XiaoHongShu means Instagram is a useful starting point for financial marketers looking to get on the platform.
But LinkedIn experience is perhaps more relevant for firms with an institutional as well as retail audience. LinkedIn's culture of individual thought leadership, a named professional building a modest yet engaged following on an area of expertise rather than a corporate account looking for broad reach, is close to what already works on XiaoHongShu.
This is reflected in the growing use of "Key Opinion Sales" by Chinese financial institutions, which is where relationship managers and advisors are encouraged to build followings around their own expertise rather than leaving everything to an institutional account. Firms that already have experts building a following on LinkedIn have a head start applying that same voice here.
That comparison raises a question many firms are still working through on LinkedIn itself: how much to invest in one institutional account versus individual accounts for senior executives. An institutional account is easier to manage for compliance and keeps messaging consistent, but it struggles to build the kind of personal trust that drives engagement on XiaoHongShu. Individual accounts can build trust faster, but a following built around one person can leave with them, and compliance is harder to oversee across many employee-run accounts than one central channel.
Financial firms could run both: an institutional account for official announcements and product information, and individual accounts carrying the more personal, expertise-led content the platform rewards.
XiaoHongShu’s search-intent content design is something quite unique to the platform, as neither Instagram nor LinkedIn is built around search behaviour to the same degree. Content built to answer a specific, high-intent query – such as how to build a diversified portfolio, how to access Hong Kong via the Connect programmes, what is private credit – will do better than content built to stand out on an infinite scroll.
That calls for something closer to an SEO mindset that complements existing social media skills, mapping content to what an affluent or institutional user types into the search bar rather than to a campaign theme.
It is still early days for international financial firms getting on XiaoHongShu. But that does not mean that marketers can ignore the platform, as it is likely to become a key channel for financial institutions in the coming years.
About Vermilion Asia: Vermilion Asia is a financial services marketing and communications firm based in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Since 2015, it has helped international and Chinese banks, asset managers and fintechs reach investors through PR, thought-leadership content, events and social media.
[2] ibid
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