Competition is fierce for professional photographers at Beijing’s tourist hotspots, including a scenic lake where women in flowy traditional robes pose for snaps to share on Xiaohongshu, China’s massively popular lifestyle app.
The platform, which is reportedly preparing to file to go public as soon as this year, has shaken up the tourism industry in China, where domestic travel is booming to record levels.
Known as RedNote in English, Xiaohongshu’s interface is similar to the US social network Pinterest, but it is sometimes nicknamed “China’s Instagram” as users can post photos, videos and even livestream.
Travellers use the app to discover new destinations and plan their itineraries around photogenic locations, like the lake in the capital’s historic Shichahai area – one of many “daka” or “check-in” spots where Xiaohongshu is driving even more footfall.
Photographer Li Geng, 18, stood with a camera slung across her neck, touting her services to wandering tourists whom she charges 10 yuan (RM6) per photo.
Metres away, other photographers yelled instructions to ornately-dressed young women who held their fingers in victory signs and arched their backs for the camera.
Li said many of her competitors have a significant social media presence, including one who has 45,000 followers on Xiaohongshu and charges lower prices for photos. That has caused “more customers to flock to him while putting a massive amount of pressure on the rest of us”, she said.
In contrast, Li, who has no big online following, can “only rely on calling out to people on the street to get customers”.
Domestic travel in China hit record highs last year, Xinhua news agency reported in March, with trips by residents exceeding 6.5 billion, up more than 16% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, Xiaohongshu’s user base has grown to 350 million monthly active users, data analysis platform Qiangua said in May, from 300 million a year earlier.
The app has boosted lesser- known businesses and sent tourists in droves to unconventional locations such as Zibo, a quiet industrial city in Shandong, after its cheap, marinated barbecue skewers went viral.
Xiaohongshu is now the first place “a lot of younger travellers” seek inspiration, said Ming Yii Lai, senior strategy consultant at Daxue Consulting.
Young women in more affluent cities remain the app’s core user base, according to Qiangua. — AFP
