With the rising risk of TikTok ban in America, users are rushing to other Chinese-made apps. You might have heard the name Xiaohongshu (or Litter RED Book or RedNote) before. If you search “TikTok refugee” in this app, you might find a lot of posts from American users who are afraid of the TikTok ban and start sharing their stories there. This post will introduce you to Xiaohongshu, and walk you through how to scrape Xiaohongshu data in easy steps to get the latest trends.
What is Xiaohongshu (Little RED Book)
Xiaohongshu is one of the most popular platforms for youths in China and has the potential to be well-recognized on social media worldwide due to the TikTok ban. Launched in 2013, Xiaohongshu allows users to share product reviews, shopping experiences, and lifestyle content through photos and short videos. In addition to sharing your experiences with products, travel, food, fashion, beauty, etc., you can purchase products directly through post links. Also, as a social media platform, you can follow others, like and comment on posts, and engage with content with others.
As of 2023, Xiaohongshu has over 200 million registered users and has seen significant growth among younger demographics. The number of active users continues to evolve as the app expands its features and user base. Thus, Xiaohongshu is one of the best choices for developing insights into lifestyle content and e-commerce in China.
What Data You Can Extract from Xiaohongshu
On Xiaohongshu, you can grab information from multiple aspects. From user profiles to posts and product pages, there are countless data for you to learn about Xiaohongshu content and user base.
- User profiles: username, URL of profile picture, follower count, following count, and bio.
- Posts: text content, image and video link, post data and time, likes count, comments count, hashtag, location tag, etc.
- Product information: product title, price, links, reviews, and ratings.
- Trends and topics: popular hashtags, trending products, and brand campaigns.
- Comments: user comments, comment timestamps, and replies to comments.
With such information, you can learn about trending topics in Xiaohongshu and indicate partnerships among influencers and brands which can be valuable for marketing analysis.
Why Xiaohongshu Scraping is Valuable
Xiaohongshu scraping can provide you with a wealth of data to drive strategic decisions across marketing, consumer engagement, and product development. If you can leverage this data, you and your business can gain a competitive edge in understanding and catering to your target audience.
Conduct market research
With Xiaohongshu scrapers, you can pull data from the platform to understand what products are trending, and customer preferences and feedback can inform product development and marketing strategies. Also, it helps monitor and access up-to-date hashtags and popular posts that allow you to identify emerging trends and then react quickly to market shifts and consumer interests.
Launch influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a new trend in social media. There are a lot of influencers who own a large group of loyal audiences on Xiaohongshu. Scraping Xiaohongshu can help identify influencers who resonate with your target audience, enhance marketing campaigns, and evaluate influencers based on their engagement rates and audience demographics to select the right partners for collaboration.
Optimize e-commerce service
In terms of e-commerce, Xiaohongshu scrapers are the tools to track product prices and promotion offers. So, you can modify your business strategies with data to make your business stay competitive. Additionally, web scraping on Xiaohongshu helps you understand purchasing patterns and preferences, allowing you to optimize your inventory and marketing strategies. More importantly, due to its huge user base in China, it’s the best way to gain insights into consumer behavior and preferences in the Chinese market and cultural nuances through user-generated content.
Modify content strategy
Countless content is posted on Xiaohongshu every day. Using Xiaohongshu scrapers, you can gather posts in bulk to analyze which types of content inspire users to leave likes and comments, as well as understand the language and themes that resonate with them. Then, you can improve messaging and engagement among your content.
4 Steps to Set Up a Xiaohongshu Scraper with Octoparse
To transform Xiaohongshu data into structured forms, you’ll need web scraping solutions to help. Octoparse is a web scraping that allows anyone to set up scrapers without coding. If you’re new to Octoparse, you can download Octoparse for free and install it on your device. Then, you can follow the guide below to set up a Xiaohongshu scraping with only FOUR steps!
Turn website data into structured Excel, CSV, Google Sheets, and your database directly.
Scrape data easily with auto-detecting functions, no coding skills are required.
Preset scraping templates for hot websites to get data in clicks.
Never get blocked with IP proxies and advanced API.
Cloud service to schedule data scraping at any time you want.
When you open the software, you can sign up for a new account or use a Google or Microsoft account to log in. Guess what? Even the free plan can unlock the most powerful features of Octoparse for most web scraping needs!
Step 1: Create a new task for scraping Xiaohongshu data
Take cat tax as an example, search “cat tax” on Xiaohongshu. Then, copy and paste the URL of the result page into the search bar on Octoparse. Next, click Start to create a new scraping task.
Step 2: Auto-detect data on Xiaohongshu
Wait until the page finishes loading in Octoparse’s built-in browser (it might take seconds), then click “Auto-detect webpage data” in the Tip panel. After that, Octoparse will scan the whole page to identify and highlight extractable data for you automatically.
For example, on the page of cat tax, Octoparse has “guessed” that you might need data like post title, image URL, post content, likes count, etc. Then, you can check if Octoparse has selected what data you need on the page directly and intuitively. For unwanted data fields, you can remove them in the Data Preview panel at the bottom.
Step 3: Create and modify the workflow
Once you’ve selected all wanted data fields, click “Create workflow” in the top-right corner. Next, you can find an automated-generated workflow on your right-hand side. It’s a diagram that shows every action of the scraper. You can understand how the scraper works by reading it from up to the end. Before launching the scraper, you can also click on each action to check if the scraper works as intended.
Step 4: Launch the Xiaohongshu scraper and export data
Click “Run” to start the scraper after you have thoroughly reviewed all the details. By now, Octoparse provides two modes to run the task. You can run the task on your local device, which is perfect for small projects and troubleshooting. By contrast, for bigger projects, Octoparse cloud servers are highly recommended. The cloud servers are more steady and can feed you with up-to-date information 24/7 so that you can get the latest data you need without any interruptions.
After the scraper finishes running, you can export data as an Excel, CSV, JSON file, etc., or to a database like Google Sheets for further use.
The Easiest Way to Scrape Xiaohongshu – Preset Templates
Octoparse has the best alternatives for users who aim to find the most efficient way to use Xiaohongshu! Meet Octoparse Template, which is designed to get data instantly with zero setup. When using templates to scrape Xiaohongshu, you only need to enter a few parameters, such as URLs. With just one click, you can obtain data, including the post title, image URL, author, likes count, and more. Here are some presets that are worth trying!
https://www.octoparse.com/template/xiaohongshu-post-listings-scraper
https://www.octoparse.com/template/xiaohongshu-search-results-scraper
https://www.octoparse.com/template/rednote-post-details-scraper
Wrap Up
Although Xiaohongshu has become one of the most successful social media platforms in China, it still shows strong potential in the global market. Xiaohongshu scraping not only allows you to dig into the user base in China but also allows you to observe users from more countries. Try Octoparse and build your Xiaohongshu scrapers now to get a head start in the market!
