On May 7th, Xiaohongshu and Taobao Tmall suddenly announced the launch of the "Red Cat Plan."For the first time, the planting notes and product purchase links are connected.This means that in the future, when we see a product recommendation note on Xiaohongshu, we can directly click the link to jump to Taobao to place an order, without having to manually search for the product.
Illustration: Tmall President Jia Luo
This is fromThe full link integration of consumption conversion from Xiaohongshu to Taobao and Tmall has been realized for the first time.However, looking back at the history of the internet, the content platform Douyin also launched the "Direct to Taobao" feature in 2018, allowing users to click the shopping cart button on Douyin to directly跳转淘宝 for purchases, until October 2020 when it cut off external links and began building its own closed e-commerce loop, leading to explosive growth in Douyin's e-commerce.
Xiaohongshu's e-commerce journey is in stark contrast to Douyin's approach. Since its explosive popularity, it has adhered to the principle of 'internal closed loop.' However, it recently collaborated on the 'Red Cat Plan.' What appears to be a strong partnership aimed at making things convenient for users is actually a more pragmatic growth strategy following the peak of internet dividends. It also represents Xiaohongshu's 'all-out effort' under commercial pressure.Sell the traffic to Taotian and exchange it for real money.。
What is the Red Cat Project?
Based on the information currently disclosed by the officials, the core functions of the Red Cat plan are threefold:
1. Add 'advertisement chain' at the bottom of the notes:Users are directly redirected to the Taobao product page after clicking, without the need for manual searching.
2. Full data link integration:Merchants can simultaneously view Xiaohongshu's grass planting data and Taobao's transaction data to accurately calculate advertising effectiveness;
3. Increased entry barriers: Brands need to have daily promotions on Xiaohongshu in order to gain traffic recommendations.
For ordinary users, the most intuitive feeling is that "planting grass and pulling grass" has become more convenient. For example, when a beauty blogger recommends a foundation, a Taobao link is attached at the bottom of the post, allowing users to directly jump to purchase once they feel interested.
It is also very beneficial for brand merchants. In the past, brand merchants found it difficult to measure the transaction chain from product recommendations to conversions, worrying that advertising on Xiaohongshu would not drive sales. For example, when merchants post a note, they can see how many people viewed, liked, and shared it on Xiaohongshu, and they can analyze who is interacting, but it has been challenging to ascertain how many specific transactions were generated. Now,Merchants can directly track the transaction data from Taobao, and even calculate "how much sales each note brings in."。
However, currently, merchants still have category restrictions when using this feature, according to official information from Xiaohongshu.Currently, the sectors for collaboration under the Hongmao plan are limited to certain categories within the three major industries of fast-moving consumer goods, sports and outdoor, and health and wellness. Additionally, there are certain qualifications required for the stores, such as a comprehensive experience score of at least 4.5 for Taobao stores.。
Image source: Jianshi
In addition, there are currently two main advertising models for merchants on Xiaohongshu:
- Direct投 from merchants (Traffic通PRO/CID):The merchant directly allocates the budget to Xiaohongshu for promotion.
- Ali Proxy (UD Effect):The merchant's budget is optimized through Alibaba, with the participation of Alibaba's algorithms.
Considering the limitations such as category openness, currently, switching directly from Xiaohongshu to Taobao Tmall still presents certain barriers for most merchants. Some netizens have indicated that this collaboration is beneficial for some major brands on Taobao Tmall, and one needs to receive an invitation.
"What does the 'Red Cat Plan' mean?"
On the surface, the Hongmao plan seems to be a win-win collaboration: Taobao Tmall gains high-quality traffic, while Xiaohongshu unlocks monetization channels, achieving a full link connection of 'users-content-products-services'. Looking deeper, this is actually a significant shift in Xiaohongshu's commercialization path.
First of all, the most obvious isGave up the insistence on the 'pure community'.In the past, Xiaohongshu was most averse to blatant marketing, but now it directly allows adding purchase links in the content.
In addition to collaborating with Taotian to open external links, Xiaohongshu is also accelerating the construction of its own e-commerce ecosystem and continuously upgrading its internal transaction tools. For example, this year Xiaohongshu launched...The 'Comment Section Link' feature allows users to directly embed product links in the comment section of notes, enabling in-site purchases with a single click.Moreover, this feature is open to all users, ordinary users can link their purchased product links, while merchants can associate their own store products.
Secondly,Traffic is now transparently priced, and the newly launched resource distribution mechanism directly ties the commercial value of content to the amount spent on advertising — those who spend more money can gain more exposure.
Set a threshold for merchants' 'daily average expenditure'.This will encourage Xiaohongshu to be more welcoming to brands that can continuously invest in advertising in the future, potentially discouraging small and medium-sized brands, and ultimately the platform will tend to serve large clients rather than simply creators of high-quality content.
This transformation can be summed up in one sentence: Xiaohongshu no longer wants to be just a platform that 'influences what you want to buy'; it now wants to directly 'make you spend money on purchasing goods.'
Conclusion
In the short term, after the Hong Mao plan, users of Xiaohongshu have enjoyed convenience, brands have improved their conversion rates, and the platform has earned commissions. In the long term,When 'authentic sharing' turns into 'sales talk,' will Xiaohongshu still be a place for sharing life?
For example, why is Taobao's own "Explore" feature always unable to meet Alibaba's expectations? Because the user's mindset is always "here to buy things, not here to browse content." Similarly, users' perception of Xiaohongshu is "here to look at content, not here to buy things."
Referring to Douyin, which is also a content platform, once the content is strongly tied to e-commerce, the algorithm will prioritize recommending "notes that can drive sales," and genuine sharing gradually becomes marginalized.The soul of Xiaohongshu is 'authentic UGC (User Generated Content).'When the screen is filled with app redirect links, and bloggers write 'advertisement' notes to earn commissions, user trust collapsing will directly shake the foundation of the platform.
A more realistic issue is that after the Red Cat program requires brands to have a 'daily average investment', well-funded big brands will monopolize the traffic.It is difficult for individual bloggers to gain exposure through high-quality content; the survival space for small and medium bloggers will be directly squeezed, and high-quality content will also be lost forever.。
In today's internet, the traffic dividend has peaked, and the boundaries of each platform and user mindset have gradually become clear. However, as platforms become utilitarian and uninteresting, users will vote with their feet.
The "Red Cat Plan" jointly launched by Xiaohongshu and Taotian may help alleviate the urgent needs of Xiaohongshu. However, the most important issue for Xiaohongshu to think about is how to maintain the community's essence of "authenticity, quality, and de-commercialization," along with retaining high-quality creators.
Reference source:
1. Jian Shi: Is Xiaohongshu going to give up its e-commerce?
2. Fashion Business Daily 'Xiaohongshu Has Given Its Life to Taobao'
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