Social Media Site Xiaohongshu to Ax Some Rival Product Links

Although social media platform Xiaohongshu attracts large amounts of investment from advertisers, it has so far failed to achieve high conversion rates on its own shopping platform.

Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu will stop hosting some links to products sold on other online shopping platforms from Monday, Caixin has learned, as the company struggles to convince users to make purchases in own online marketplace.

The Alibaba-backed app will cease to include written links to goods on its own e-commerce platform as well as Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall, according to a service provider affiliated with Xiaohongshu. Links provided during commercial live-streams will not be affected.

Xiaohongshu and Alibaba insiders confirmed the move to Caixin. A Xiaohongshu source said it aims to improve the user experience and will buttress a broader campaign against soft advertising to “protect community users’ rights to know and make their own decisions.” Read more Caixin Global