[4] In January 2025, the app gained an influx of new users from the United States and other parts of the world due to the anticipated shutdown of TikTok's U.S. operations in accordance with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

[7] The app's current name, Xiahongshu, literally translates to "Little Red Book", the popular nickname in English for Mao Zedong's propaganda publication widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution.

[2][18] Xiaohongshu was founded by Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao in 2013 as an online tour guide for Chinese shoppers, providing a platform for users to review products and share their shopping experiences with the community.

[29] According to the Financial Times, Xiaohongshu completed a round of stake sales of existing shares to new and former investors around July 2024 that valued the company at around $17 billion.

However, it faces challenges as many users purchase recommended items on other platforms such as Taobao and Tmall, limiting Xiaohongshu's direct e-commerce potential.

[41] Xiaohongshu recorded almost 600 million daily search queries in Q4 2024, reportedly half that of Baidu and doubled over the past year.

[46] In 2022, China Digital Times published leaked documents showing how Xiaohongshu's content moderation teams censor or limits posts about topics sensitive to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including mentions of derogatory nicknames for Xi Jinping, and discussion of events such as labor strikes, geographic discrimination, student suicides and criticism of the CCP.

[35][48] Following the growth in users from the United States, Xiaohongshu was said to be exploring adjusting its content review processes as American influencers began sharing posts.

[54] In October 2021, Xiaohongshu received criticism for condoning heavily filtered, stylized photographs and perfectly captured imagery that was becoming increasingly common on the platform's feeds.

On 17 October 2021, the platform issued a statement on WeChat to acknowledge that there was a problem of travel influencers posting "overly beautified" photos of scenic spots.

According to the statement, Xiaohongshu issued an apology and indicated that because "bloggers did not clearly label their works as creative photography, people interpreted them as part of travel guides.

According to a Bloomberg News report in July, this included requiring all companies holding the data of more than 1 million users to submit a cyber security review, which was one of the reasons for the suspension of Xiaohongshu's listing in the United States.

[58][59] On 25 January 2022, reports emerged that Xiaohongshu has received a fine totaling ¥300,000 from local authorities in Shanghai for failing to remove content that was deemed harmful to minors.

[60] In December 2022, the government of Taiwan banned public sector employees from using Xiaohongshu on official devices due to national security concerns.