After the overseas download volume stabilizes to a new normal, is Xiaohongshu establishing an office in Hong Kong to continue its globalization?

Author: April Z

Image source | pexels

Recently, according to Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily, Xiaohongshu is negotiating to lease a high-floor office unit in Times Square, Causeway Bay, with an area of approximately 7,000 square feet and a rental rate of HKD 40 per square foot, resulting in a monthly rent of around HKD 280,000, to serve as its Hong Kong office.

It is reported that Xiaohongshu had been searching for suitable office spaces in Hong Kong for some time before finally confirming this location, with the leasing being handled by the foreign agency "Jones Lang LaSalle." Times Square in Causeway Bay is owned by Wharf Real Estate Investment Company and is only available for rent, not for sale, with unit sizes ranging from approximately 400 square feet to 19,000 square feet. This location has become a hub for major internet companies coming to Hong Kong; ByteDance previously occupied this building and moved out only after 2023. Currently, Alibaba (which leases over 100,000 square feet) and Xiaohongshu are in the same building.

In fact, even before confirming the office location in Hong Kong, Xiaohongshu had already begun recruiting there, with positions including customer development, marketing management, and channel management. Additionally, according to Jiemian News, on February 10, Xiaohongshu began recruiting overseas MCN (Multi-Channel Network) agencies to bring in overseas influencers with video creation capabilities in bulk. The MCN agencies will have a three-month trial period and must commit to introducing no less than 50 influencers each month.

As is well known, due to the large influx of "TikTok refugees," starting from January 12 of this year, Xiaohongshu's ranking on the iOS free charts surged in most countries and regions worldwide. During this period, to actively adapt to international users, it also launched a translation feature for global user communication. On January 19, it achieved remarkable results, reaching the top of the iOS free overall chart in 94 countries and regions, coinciding with the day TikTok ceased operations. On January 20, Xiaohongshu officially rebranded to "rednote" in international markets.

In terms of overseas download volume, prior to January 12, daily downloads in overseas markets ranged from 30,000 to 50,000. After January 12, daily downloads began to rise sharply, reaching 1.35 million by January 19. However, with TikTok resuming operations in the U.S. on January 20 (and still not available for download), Xiaohongshu's daily download curve gradually returned to a new normal, currently estimated at around 80,000 daily downloads. Although this is significantly lower than the peak influx, it still compares favorably to the "TikTok refugees." Before the influx, there was still a slight increase, and currently, the iOS app's free ranking is concentrated in the markets of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore (ranked 45th).

In addition, according to Diandian data, from January 12 to January 31, the cumulative downloads of Xiaohongshu overseas reached approximately 12.44 million, with the United States, Mexico, and Indonesia accounting for 21.32%, 6%, and 5.5% respectively, ranking in the TOP3.

Moreover, it is worth noting that according to data from digital market intelligence company Similarweb on January 25, after the TikTok ban was suspended, the usage of Xiaohongshu in the United States rapidly declined, losing more than half of its daily active users, and this data is likely to have dropped even more severely. However, this trend is quite normal, as it is an inevitable development caused by the "emergency event" that led to a surge in app traffic.

Interestingly, although the "aftershocks" of the TikTok incident have dissipated, Xiaohongshu seems to never lack new hot topics.

During the New Year period, DeepSeek became popular worldwide, and its smarter, sharper, humorous, and down-to-earth expressions compared to other models quickly gained traction on Xiaohongshu, with related content growing rapidly. The latter only has official accounts on WeChat public accounts, Xiaohongshu, and the X platform. In addition to the continuous enrichment of AI content, utilizing AI like DeepSeek to operate Xiaohongshu is also becoming a focus of attention for creators, and the ongoing development of AI is clearly beneficial for platforms like Xiaohongshu.

In summary, although overseas users have currently returned to a new stable state, the strong overseas exposure in the past two weeks has still opened up a certain level of overseas recognition for Xiaohongshu, which may provide some assistance for its future path to full globalization. Domestically, Xiaohongshu is not lacking in hot topics, and the development of AI is also significantly beneficial for it. Regarding the establishment of an office in Hong Kong, it is not only a step forward in its globalization but has also been linked by the outside world to rumors of Xiaohongshu's IPO in Hong Kong, causing related concept stocks to surge in the afternoon of February 10 Regarding the follow-up actions of Xiaohongshu establishing an office in Hong Kong, I will continue to pay attention.