Internet giants continue to follow in Xiaohongshu's footsteps, with 360's "Qingxuan", Douyin's "Kesong", Tencent WeChat's "Xiaolvshu", Weibo's "Oasis", and Alibaba's "Taibang" being just a few examples. Beyond this long list, there are many other Xiaohongshu-like seeding community products that have quietly launched. As of now, many Xiaohongshu-like apps under internet giants have disappeared, indicating that these giants' initial forays into the market have failed to compete with Xiaohongshu.

However, these giants remain undeterred and still aspire to become the "next Xiaohongshu".

According to Guo Jing's observation of the internet industry, on November 20, 2024, Netease launched an app named "Netease Bee" on the App Store. Described as a "content community for young people to share and exchange daily life experiences," it is currently also available on Android and only supports login via phone number. Users can select their current employment status as "not yet graduated" or "already a working professional." If choosing the latter, users can directly upload their work ID to verify their identity.

In terms of appearance and UI style, "Netease Bee" bears a strong resemblance to Xiaohongshu, indicating that Netease also aims to create its own content community product by learning from Xiaohongshu.

In July 2024, some media outlets reported that Xiaohongshu's valuation had reached $17 billion at the time.

On one hand, there is the temptation of Xiaohongshu's "success"; on the other, there are opportunities in the industry.

Fields such as news and information, search engines, and live short video streaming have long been dominated by internet giants, leaving little opportunity for other companies. Xiaohongshu's content community model is currently the only area in many domestic internet applications that has not been seized by giants. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Netease wants to test the waters in content communities. Moreover, Netease has previously excelled or had experience catching up as a latecomer, such as in the digital music field, where QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music, and Xiami Music were all highly popular. Nevertheless, Netease Cloud Music managed to find new opportunities in the digital music sector.

In December 2023, Netease also launched a free novel reading product named "Hongdou Novels" to compete with products like Qimao Novels, Fanqie Novels, QQ Reader, and Shuqi Novels.

In summary, a mature market does not necessarily mean no opportunities for other products.

According to Guo Jing's observation of the internet industry, although "Netease Bee" is modeled after Xiaohongshu, it is evident that Netease also aims to differentiate its product. The differences lie in:

1. Supporting workplace ID verification. Users' real workplace situations, such as Netease or workplace operations, can be seen in their user IDs. Through workplace ID verification, the credibility of user information is greatly enhanced.

2. Supporting rewards for image-text/video content. "Netease Bee" has set up a wallet recharge system, allowing users to recharge and reward their favorite image-text content. The maximum amount for a single gift is 18 yuan, with a maximum single recharge limit of 888 yuan.

3. Supporting group chat functions. The value of a community product is greatly reduced if it lacks social attributes. As a "latecomer," "Netease Bee" has clearly learned from past mistakes and has therefore set up a group chat creation function in a prominent location. Based on testing, group chats support online Q&A, sharing of workplace tips, and interview experiences.

4. The plaza area displays company and mobile phone brand ratings, along with MBTI personality scores. Users can rate relevant companies/mobile phone brands, and click on the details page to view other users' corresponding reviews. Users can also freely add rating topics in the plaza.

Judging from the above differentiated functions, "Netease Bee" currently focuses on college students and the workplace community. Its wallet reward system also foreshadows future profit points. However, it currently does not include e-commerce-related content and is a pure content community product without advertisements, making it relatively pure.

While there is no shortage of criticism of Xiaohongshu from the outside, Xiaohongshu's position in the content community field remains solid. Tech giants like Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance have all failed to shake Xiaohongshu's status. This is closely related to the depth of content on Xiaohongshu. Founded in 2013, Xiaohongshu started earlier than other content communities, providing it with an opportunity to accumulate substantial content. Although market followers can imitate Xiaohongshu in terms of product design, it is difficult for them to achieve the same depth of content. This is due to the high cost and insufficient capabilities and staffing.

Despite the continuous efforts of products following in Xiaohongshu's footsteps, it is common for internet giants to adopt a fast-in, fast-out approach. Some internet giants have discontinued their products within 100 days of launch. In such cases, how can they compete with Xiaohongshu? Few internet giants have invested substantial human, material, and financial resources in betting on Xiaohongshu-like products. Given the strength disparity, the giants' products can only quietly exit the market.

In the current internet industry, it is not difficult to launch a Xiaohongshu-like app. The real challenge lies in subsequent operations, promotion, user activity, and retention rates. These aspects cannot be achieved solely through a product that merely "looks similar."

Xiaohongshu faces challenges in profitability. In e-commerce, it competes with comprehensive e-commerce platforms like Pinduoduo, JD.com, and Taobao. Meanwhile, platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou are continuously strengthening their e-commerce presence. However, the growth rate and market space of the entire e-commerce market are limited, leaving little room for Xiaohongshu. Additionally, this tests Xiaohongshu's growth speed and system-building capabilities in e-commerce.

Another profit point for Xiaohongshu is advertising. There is an inherent conflict between community products and advertising. Striking a balance between earning money and maintaining user experience is difficult. Some forum-like products have suffered from poor user experience due to excessive advertising, eventually leading to user abandonment.

For "Netease Bee," it is easy to learn from Xiaohongshu in terms of product design, but subsequent operations, promotion, user activity, and retention rates all require significant financial investment. For any internet product, download volume is a crucial metric. To increase downloads, companies can either invest in traffic on various platforms or advertise on app stores like the App Store, Huawei AppGallery, and Yingyongbao. Relying solely on natural traffic or related Netease products for traffic diversion will likely yield poor results.

User activity is a critical aspect of community products. For example, if a new user posts content but receives few likes, favorites, or comments, they may not receive positive feedback and may uninstall the product over time. Without a large user base, user activity in community products cannot increase.

According to Guo Jing's observation of the internet industry, there are two common strategies to increase user activity in content community products:

1. Provide positive feedback to new users, such as likes, favorites, and comments, to make them feel valued.

2. Offer traffic vouchers as incentives. After publishing new content, users will receive traffic vouchers, a strategy now adopted even by news client products.

While offering rewards for image-text/video content in the community can serve as a new profit point, it may be overly idealistic. How many people would actually reward other bloggers' image-text/short video content on Xiaohongshu?

To some extent, internet giants' continuous efforts to learn from Xiaohongshu reflect the limited innovation space in the internet field. In previous years, giants were frantically attempting to create social products. Tencent, for example, had launched over ten social apps consecutively, all unsuccessfully. Now, it is not easy to develop any internet product.

Learning from Xiaohongshu has a certain "besieged fortress" vibe to it, with those outside wanting to get in and those inside wanting to get out.

Article/Guo Jing, WeChat official account: Guo Jing's Internet Circle