Xiaohongshu, known as Little Red Book or XHS, is China’s leading lifestyle discovery platform, with hundreds of millions of monthly active users. In Canada, it has quietly become the primary discovery channel for Chinese-speaking consumers, and one of the most under-used opportunities in Canadian marketing.

Who is on XHS in Canada

International students choosing schools and apartments. Young professionals researching restaurants, beauty, fitness and travel. Families comparing schools, healthcare providers and real estate. The audience skews young, educated and high-intent: people search XHS the way others search Google, with local, transactional queries in Chinese.

What performs

XHS rewards authenticity. The winning format is the “note”: a first-person post with real photos, specific details, prices and honest assessment. Location tags drive local discovery. List formats (“Five best brunch spots in North York”) accumulate saves and keep ranking for months. A blend of KOLs (established influencers) and KOCs (everyday consumers with small, trusted followings) outperforms celebrity-style endorsement.

What fails

Posting polished ads instead of notes. Ignoring the comment section, where buying questions actually appear. Treating XHS as a one-off campaign instead of a sustained presence. And operating without an official account, which limits features and credibility.

How to start properly

Set up an official brand account, develop a content calendar built around real customer questions, seed with a mix of KOLs and KOCs, manage comments in Chinese daily, and track inquiries by source. Done consistently, XHS becomes a compounding asset: every note keeps working long after it is published.

The brands that build presence now are buying market position at a discount.