Lifestyle, social media, and shopping app Xiaohongshu is often compared to Instagram due to its visual focus on brands and images.
However, in recent years Xiaohongshu has become a place for consumers and companies to learn about education industry trends.
And, with 300 million monthly active users (mainly between 20 and 35 years old), more education marketers are using Xiaohonghsu to advertise their institutions and recruit Chinese international students.
In this post, we’ll show how international schools, universities, or people in education recruitment can use Xiaohongshu to market their products and reach Chinese users interested in studying abroad.
China’s Education Industry
According to the China Education Market Report, China’s education market is estimated to reach $572.51 billion in 2024.
However, after-school education has had its fair share of turbulent moments of late as new laws threatened to drastically change the industry landscape.
In particular, foreign education institutions and teachers have been concerned about the 2021 clampdown on afterschool education, making it illegal to offer Chinese, English, and mathematics classes for profit.
(Foreign companies focusing on university preparation education should know that this ruling had a minimal effect on grades 10 through 12.)
Contrary to many beliefs, especially outside China, the after-school education industry has not been banned, and an underground market has survived.
To clear up any confusion regarding the changes, the Ministry of Education issued a redrafted law in February of this year.
Despite these obstacles, the education industry has seen growth in many areas:
- Between 2021 and 2022, the number of international schools in China increased by 19.
- The number of students in these schools rose by 23% between 2019 and 2022.
- In 2022, 23% more students expressed interest in studying abroad.
With this information in mind, there is much reason for education companies to continue seeing China as an important market.
Xiaohongshu is Designed Differently
Xiaohongshu—like TikTok or Instagram—is a social media app where users share pictures and videos.
When thinking about marketing strategies on Xiaohongshu, schools may follow a similar content creation strategy to what they use in English-speaking countries.
However, companies should also consider how Xiaohongshu’s unique design differs from the apps they are familiar with.
Xiaohongshu’s posts appear as rows of multiple posts, each with an image or video (on the phone, this means there are two items per row).
This is different from TikTok where a phone screen displays one video, or Instagram where only one or two videos max show up.
Compared to most other major Chinese social apps, Xiaohongshu’s vibe is more geared towards personal development and learning.
Educational content does well, and content that is “edutaining” does even better.
How to Make Xiaohongshu Education Videos
To understand how to market education industry content on Xiaohongshu, it would be useful to examine the company’s monthly report that details some of its app’s popular education trends.
It also provides examples of educational topics covered in popular videos and how to design video thumbnails.
Of course, the original is in Chinese, but the team and I have translated it here for you.
The video above received 27,000 likes, and Xiaohongshu’s report notes how it grabbed people’s attention through its subjects of choice:
- Using “Beijing primary school students” in big letters: Beijing, the capital of China, will get more attention. Chinese viewers may also be more interested because they know Beijingers go abroad more than people in other cities.
- Asking a question: This video grabs a viewer’s attention by including a question: “What do your parents do for work?” in the thumbnail.
The next video shared by Xiaohongshu received 45,000 likes.
The company chose this video because it illustrated a few other points schools may wish to focus on when marketing on the app:
- Famous School: This video is about a school attached to one of China’s most prestigious universities, Tsinghua University.
- Simplicity: Like the first video, this one asks a question, but the subject matter, how long it takes the student to finish their homework, is a lot easier for children to answer. Students in China may be interested to know the answer as children all over the world don’t like too much homework!
- Interaction: The question attracted others to answer the question in the comments section so that parents and children can compare notes on how long homework takes at different schools.
The report also includes other examples of recent successful videos that covered the following topics:
- Why a particular device is good for education.
- An ad for English classes inviting students to take a free trial lesson.
- A snippet from a graduate student’s thesis presentation.
- A short discussion for parents worried about their children adapting to a new school.
- A video with tips for important tests.
The most popular subject covered in Xiaohongshu’s report was children’s books.
These posts were influencers advertising good books to purchase or users recommending books by sharing pages from inside them.
Foreign education companies may want to consider working with influencers or creating Xiaohonghsu campaigns to get a target audience to engage with their educational content.
Popular Education Search Topics on Xiaohongshu
Like any social media app or website, search topics are the core of any marketing campaign.
Below is a list of the most searched education-related topics on Xiaohongshu (in descending order).
Top Searched Subjects (Children’s Education)
Xiaohongshu also notes that although many posts are about stories, pictures books, study desks, and reading, there is still a lot of room for new influencers to share on these topics.
However, in terms of education tech, there still aren’t many companies utilizing the space.
Below is another translation related to adult education searches.
Top Searched Subjects (Adult Education)
“Based on the above search results, it seems that adult users of Xiaohongshu are interested in continuing their education beyond their undergraduate level.
Moreover, some of the top topics are related to international education and English.
Posts related to PowerPoint (PPTs) are usually people sharing ideas on how to design presentations for different industries, and some users are also educating others on how to utilize ChatGPT to make better presentations.
Excel is also a search topic for similar reasons.
You might be wondering how yoga made it into the list.
Yoga might not automatically connect with education, but its inclusion might be due to how people use Xiaohonghsu to learn yoga at home.
Given the above info, foreign education companies can understand Xiaohongshu like they do YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok: Many people use it for education purposes.
If your company has a product or service that can bring convenience to a person’s life, it may be a good idea to start crafting ideas for Xiaohongshu.
You will probably need to hire a Chinese speaker to translate or give guidance on how to tailor your content for a Chinese audience.
The report refers to posts related to overseas and postgraduate study as 红海 (literally “red ocean,” AKA: bloodbath) to emphasize how competitive this space has become.
Top Education Product Brand Searches on Xiaohongshu
Xiaohongshu also provides a chart showing the most popular education items searched for on the app.
The number one item here is a study device from TAL Education Group.
This company’s, one of China’s top education companies for many years, stock price recently took a massive hit after China’s after-school education policies came into place.
The company is branded as “Think Academy” in the US and has four training centers.
In second place is the company imoo, a smartwatch maker for children.
Although the company’s owner, BBK Electronics, became deregistered in China last year, Xiaohongshu’s chart reveals this manufacturer is still doing well, highlighting how Chinese parents, like parents everywhere, care about their children’s safety.
The third item on the list is a reading pen developed by 宝宝巴士 or Baby Bus.
Children can place this pen over words in select books to hear the words read back to them.
The remaining products on the list can be categorized as educational devices for children.
An important thing to note is that all of the products belong to Chinese companies. Given this, what could this mean for foreign companies?
In short, there are potential openings for companies focusing on English education.
Contact Us
Do you want to know more about how to use Xiaonhongshu for education marketing, but don’t know where to start?
Don’t worry.
Arrange a free consultation with us here to discuss the options available to you and your business.
If you want to learn more about who is using the app in China, see our 2024 Ultimate Guide to Xiaohongshu’s user demographics.
For more information on Xiaohongshu and Chinese marketing in general, there’s our China Digital Marketing 101 page.