Social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu apologizes for exaggerated pics on platform -...

Social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu apologizes for exaggerated pics on platform

Social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu apologizes for exaggerated pics on platform

8 hours ago

From a cafe in CBD area and museum interior in minimalism style, to a turquoise cabin and pink beach, photos of from Xiaohongshu, are spreading on social media. Yet, they are causing an online outrage.

For that, the startup company has apologized on official WeChat account for the emergence of “deceitful reviews”, mostly made by beatifying filters.

The company said in the statement that it would launch a ranking system for scenery spots, as well as a negative review list called “traps map”, in order to provide more information for users in terms of decision making.

“We hold the values of ‘sharing sincerely and interacting friendly’ in our community,” the company explained. 

“Some users exaggerated their reviews when sharing pictures. Many of the photos look beautiful, but the reviewer didn’t emphasize that they were photography works, and some users felt they were fooled.”

Founded in Shanghai in 2013 by Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao, Xiaohognshu was at its initial stage a UGC (User Generated Content) social sharing platform. Avant-garde female buyers, who love luxury beauty, and fashion, shared their shopping experiences on it. Soon the app expanded its community and appealed to more reviewers, but still, most of them were female. There were 88% predominantly female users in 2017 and the rest were the male users.  

The expansion was fast. As of October 2019, Xiaohongshu had more than 100 million monthly active users, with 70 percent of them born in the 1990s or later. It attracted the most popular investors including Alibaba, Tencent, Genesis Capital, ZhenFund, GGV capital, etc. According to Crunchbase, Xiaohongshu has raised a total of $417.7M in funding over 7 rounds. Their latest funding was raised in Jun 2018 from a Series D round.

The company had more than 1,000 employees as of last year, according to its website.

As the anxiety caused on teenage girls' body image by Instagram was greatly discussed, the emergency of exaggerated pics on Xiaohongshu might face more controversies in the future.

The company is weighing a Hong Kong initial public offering, after putting its U.S. listing plans on hold, according to a recent report by Bloomberg.

But a representative for Xiaohongshu said the company maintains regular communication with stakeholders, and that they do not have any specific IPO plans at the moment.

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