Today is the 13th day since I became a Xiaohongshu blogger. So far, I have a total of three fans, one of whom is a fake account.
During this process, I have had many interesting observations and insights, so I wanted to open an account to record them.
Why Become a Blogger#
I can't seem to remember any special reasons, maybe it's because I saw other people's Vlogs on Xiaohongshu and felt their passion for life. So, I also wanted to seriously record my life ("mark my life," as Xiaohongshu's slogan brainwashes successfully), and ideally, I wanted to convey my passion to others. I am impulsive by nature (after all, I am a Sagittarius), so I just went for it.
Side note: I originally wanted to become a Bilibili up host, so I registered a new account. However, it prompted me that my account was at risk and needed real-name authentication, which can only be done on a mobile phone. But my mobile app showed an "SDK error," suspecting that it was because I downloaded the app from the US region and it must be from the Chinese region... Anyway, I gave up on Bilibili, maybe I'll try it again if I feel like it later.
Psychological Activities as a Blogger#
As mentioned above, I didn't have many expectations other than recording my life, but after I started doing it, I realized it wasn't as simple as I thought. I kept wanting to see how many people viewed my notes and if anyone liked them. Even worse, I always saw either struggling bloggers expressing their anxiety or "successful" people "showing off" how long they have been a blogger and how much they earn each month ("I've got this self-media thing figured out").
And if I click on a struggling blogger's homepage, I find that they have more fans than me (I only have three fans, which is almost a given), and it makes me even more frustrated.
At this point, I have to honestly face my desires: I also want traffic (in Xiaohongshu's words, I also want that overwhelming wealth), and I also want to receive advertisements.
An interesting discovery here is that in the process of constantly checking the data, I am actually very clear that I desire others to like my posts more than I desire to receive advertisements (material incentives). This also confirms a sentence recently summarized by a friend: everyone has a need to be "seen," and this need is more important than incentives.
This situation is quite strange. On the one hand, I don't expect to make a living through self-media, so I shouldn't have this kind of pressure. On the other hand, three to five years ago, I also made several episodes of Bilibili videos, accumulating a total of only 99 fans, but I never had the urge to gain more fans or the anxiety of wanting to be liked. It is true that human nature naturally desires to be seen and acknowledged, but based on my understanding of myself and my experience as a casual Bilibili up host, I am not a very "typical" person in this category.
I have to reflect on what happened. It is interesting—I know that my mentality is unhealthy, but I keep mindlessly checking the data, and occasionally I can step back and think from the perspective of a third observer. I am starting to understand myself, understand the world, and understand the relationship between myself and the world.
From my own analysis, in recent years, there have been fewer moments of internal spiritual satisfaction, so I have sought more externally, and objectively, the need for money has also increased. But I still believe that the main and most direct reason is that I always see people on Xiaohongshu saying how much money they make as a self-media creator in a month, so I have been influenced by FOMO (fear of missing out) and anxiety. I will talk more about this in the next section.
Another interesting self-observation is that I am a "perfectionist." The most common methodology I have heard is: find a track, then imitate the top bloggers, and then talk about innovation. I have indeed observed many bloggers, but the conclusion is that I really can't imitate them. Some of it is due to my abilities—I can't achieve the same level of recording and editing effects; some of it is due to face—I can't say some emotionally charged and provocative words. In the end, I can only accept my "perfectionism" and return to the original intention of recording life. But the result of doing it casually is that I only have three fans, and one of them is fake—so I am tormented by my own elusive desires. After going around and understanding this truth, I feel a bit powerless. From a certain perspective, this has nothing to do with the outside world. It is entirely my own issue, and it is a lifelong issue: respecting my desires, respecting my abilities, and respecting my ego.
Going back to my own data anxiety, when I feel frustrated and wonder why no one likes my posts, I always come across many notes about "starting a new account" on the homepage. They teach you techniques, criticize Web2, seek comfort, and so on. I must say that this also intensifies my anxiety. However, what's interesting is that when I read these notes, some familiar yet unfamiliar terms frequently appear: self-media/traffic/personal IP/weight/information dissemination/decentralized information dissemination... Wait, information dissemination, and decentralized information dissemination? I'm familiar with this, I'm doing decentralized information dissemination. Although RSS3's current definition after rebranding is "The Open Information Layer," for a long time, its definition was a protocol for decentralized information dissemination. I suddenly became excited.
At first glance, my feeling is that the decentralized dissemination mentioned by others is very different from my understanding of the term. But upon careful consideration, I feel that there are actually many similarities behind it. I suddenly realized that although I can use my keen sense to discover various problems with Web2, I have never truly understood what drives the data-driven platform. I became completely excited, even though I only have three fans now, I want to continue doing self-media, continue recording my observations and thoughts, and of course, more importantly, find better solutions.
Some Observations and Thoughts on Xiaohongshu#
About Self-Media#
This is what I want to talk about the most, and it is also related to the notes mentioned earlier about "making money as a self-media creator on Xiaohongshu." Why do I see so many notes like this? Is it the result of the algorithm's selection, or is it the vibe of Xiaohongshu itself? Or maybe these two are the same thing.
First of all, yes, Xiaohongshu's algorithm does emphasize this point. Xiaohongshu may be under its own pressure and wants to explore some form of commercialization. However, this series (#XiaohongshuBloggerObservationDiary) does not intend to start from Xiaohongshu, but rather focuses on the people gathered on Xiaohongshu. And indeed, there are too many people who want to make a living through self-media.
Three years ago, I never saw anyone sharing videos about how they monetized their Bilibili account in the recommended section on the homepage ("three years ago" because I haven't been browsing Bilibili for almost three years, so I'm not sure what the current recommended section looks like, maybe I'll observe it again if I'm interested later). But I don't tend to think that this is the difference between Bilibili and Xiaohongshu. Perhaps Bilibili's vibe was initially more "powered by love," but Web2 did not provide a fertile ground for this kind of vibe to flourish. I am more inclined to think that this is the difference between three years ago and now. I have seen many comments saying that "the dividend of self-media has faded away," which has strengthened my view.
Compared to three years ago, today there are too many people who want to make money through self-media. This is not only what I see on Xiaohongshu, but also what I hear in real life. Here are the exact words from my younger sister (born in 2005): "Nowadays, when my friends go out, they always start a live stream on Douyin for no reason. I don't know what's wrong with them... Why don't they chat on WeChat? They just want to make money through live streaming... Last year, xxx had only about twenty viewers in the live stream, but this year, I saw that they already have 911 viewers."
Why? Everyone knows that overnight wealth is unrealistic, and fantasizing about overnight wealth is just a gambling mentality. But it seems that the whole society is indulging in this trend. The underlying reason behind this may be related to the economic situation and the gambling mentality: when the overall economic situation worsens and opportunities become scarce, the gambling mentality of the entire population increases. In the end, what is the difference between doing self-media/preparing for civil service exams and buying meme tokens? Aren't they all forms of gambling? But if we put ourselves in their shoes, if the students in this class really can't see any hope, face the data of graduating and becoming unemployed, and the economic situation is poor and they can't see other opportunities, while on the other hand, there are people constantly telling them that ordinary people can also become overnight millionaires through live streaming/self-media, can they not be tempted?
(To illustrate how bad the economy is, here's a screenshot of the auto-complete suggestions when I searched for "economy" on Xiaohongshu...⬆️)
I don't know what to feel about this, and I don't know how to imagine a better creative environment. I just feel helpless.
About Traffic#
In Web2, it seems that traffic is the most commonly mentioned term by self-media bloggers. Everyone is crying and fighting for traffic. It seems reasonable because the total time users spend browsing Xiaohongshu multiplied by their browsing speed equals the total traffic, which is then divided among all the creators' content. Assuming that the user's browsing volume remains stable, this is a zero-sum game. The mechanism here is that each note has to compete for users' attention with all other content. If your note doesn't have enough interaction with users, it will be pushed to the back of the traffic pool immediately. I think this is a battlefield.
The result is that Xiaohongshu's unique explosive titles + exquisite covers + topics that please the platform (the platform here refers not only to Xiaohongshu itself and its algorithm but also to Xiaohongshu's users, although the algorithm is the most important factor, the algorithm is the master of the universe here) because... everyone's goal is not to create, but to get traffic. Hey, this is SocialFi. Post to earn, this has already been played to the fullest in Web2, and even every step of value monetization has an SOP: choose a track, create content, constantly review and optimize data, gain traffic, monetize through advertisements, continue creating content...
(For example, ⬆️ is a typical note that teaches you how to choose explosive titles as a self-media creator)
This approach certainly has its problems. Social interaction is a natural human need that cannot be replaced by anything else, and now real bloggers have been alienated into machines fed by algorithms, resulting in the need for social interaction becoming more difficult to satisfy.
This is where Xiaohongshu/Web2's solution comes in: now users are very picky, and traffic bloggers are no longer popular. You have to build a personal IP, be a real person to be liked by users.
This is actually a return to simplicity, but it conflicts with the existing algorithm system.
The contradiction here is still a problem of centralization: there is only one way of information distribution, and users and bloggers have no other choices. Why is it "me" who is limited in traffic? Why can't "I" do anything about it? Clearly, the data is contributed by all users together, so why can the platform decide what data can be seen and what cannot?
For bloggers, this is not a fair competition, and for users, it is deception and exploitation.
I think we can have a more open imagination about information distribution: since the data is contributed by us to the public, it should also be accessible to the public, and thus, various information distribution "providers" based on different algorithms can emerge. Users can choose information sources according to their needs, and of course, one of the essential sources should be a distribution method that satisfies basic human social needs.
About Decentralized Information Distribution#
Previously, when I saw someone mention "decentralized distribution," to be honest, my first reaction was a bit sarcastic, "Is Xiaohongshu worthy of talking about decentralization?" But with the attitude of pleasing the masses, I think I should be more humble and carefully consider this evaluation.
"The most suitable for starting an account as an amateur," "ordinary people are more likely to be seen," and so on, these sound like good qualities. Although I'm not sure if this is the case, since many people say so, I think it might be true.
Based on my observations, there may be several reasons for this:
- The algorithm's distribution accuracy is high. On Xiaohongshu, even if it's niche content, it can be accurately distributed to the corresponding groups based on tag content analysis, so they can see each other, interact with each other, and have enough heat. "Niche" is seen, which is what they call "starting an account as an amateur." But the prerequisite is that this "niche" still needs to have a certain user base.
- The algorithm does not heavily favor KOLs in terms of traffic.
- For "amateur" accounts, there is early traffic support.
Overall, these are good qualities, but what is not mentioned here is that many people with "amateur" accounts still struggle with low traffic because their content is not vertical enough, and they complain that their account is useless.
Looking at it this way, it seems that this "amateur support" is more like further domesticating the idea of "being a blogger means being vertical."
I think, in an ideal state, we should just be ourselves, and whether the content we provide is vertical or not should be the responsibility of the information distributor. But the current problem is that the granularity of content distribution is based on the entire account. So, this is actually a technical problem. One solution could be that before each piece of content is distributed, an AI assistant categorizes our content into one of several sub-accounts, and each sub-account has its own positioning. Of course, this also brings up the problem of the reduced publishing frequency of each "sub-account."
But after saying so much, the underlying issue is still a power issue. The existing algorithm is a black box, why? How can it be modified? And why? You haven't participated in content contribution, why can you decide on this algorithm, and I can't?
About Publishing Time#
In the notes about Xiaohongshu's traffic secrets, I often come across a viewpoint that says publishing time is very important. Some even say that the difference in readership can be hundreds or tens of thousands depending on the publishing time (I can't argue whether this is true or not). I am very confused about this, what is the significance of doing this? Why is there such a big difference? Is it because the weight of the latest time in the recommended flow on Xiaohongshu's homepage is very high?
This is unreasonable. Relevance is definitely more important than time priority.
Or is it because users want to see bloggers' updates as soon as possible/receive likes from bloggers as soon as possible, so the platform, in order to cater to this user mentality, tilts more traffic to the type of latest notes that users who log in at specific times like?
If that's the case, it seems to make some sense. The purpose of doing this is to ensure that users spend more time in the app.
"No growth, no survival," this is a lesson that every company aspiring to become a Web2 giant must learn.
This is still the problem of centralized platform information distribution that I mentioned earlier: we have no choice. Users have no choice, and companies have no choice.
Afterword#
Originally, I wanted to write something short, make it a series of diary entries, but I ended up writing a lot... Let's consider it as catching up on the diary entries from the past ten days. I plan to continue updating this series, and each post will be tagged with #XiaohongshuBloggerObservationDiary.
To reiterate the theme of this series: sharing my thoughts and insights during the process of being a Xiaohongshu blogger, understanding myself, the society I am in, information distribution and social interaction, as well as the future of the Internet and the world.