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This article details Xiaohongshu's counter-trend bet on the mid-to-long form video sector, amid the industry-wide shift to short-form, fast-paced content. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. The industry has fundamentally shifted: total mobile internet traffic has plateaued, short-form video supply outstrips demand, and users' appetite for shallow entertainment has saturated. An increasing number of users are moving from instant gratification to in-depth, slower content experiences. The total volume of curated mid-to-long form content on Xiaohongshu has grown more than 200% year-over-year, creating a structural supply gap in the sector.

2. Content creators can access multiple tiers of support from Xiaohongshu: the platform has established two creator funds. Established breakout creators can receive up to RMB 1 million in funding per cycle, while rising promising creators are eligible for annual compensation of up to RMB 1 million plus one-on-one operational mentorship. Additional incentives include up to RMB 80,000 worth of monthly traffic vouchers, 50 billion cumulative traffic allocations, free 4K streaming access, and a new ad revenue sharing program launching in the second half of the year. Creators currently have six different monetization pathways to choose from.

Xiaohongshu's expansion into mid-to-long form video creates new brand marketing opportunities. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Shifting consumer trends and user demographics: Xiaohongshu now has over 400 million monthly active users, with a far higher share of well-educated, aesthetic-focused, high-purchasing-power users than other platforms. Users on Xiaohongshu actively search for content with clear purchase intent, and demand for high-value in-depth content is growing. Consumption time of mid-to-long form video on the platform has already increased 43%, and in-depth product seeding via this format perfectly matches users' active information-seeking behavior, making it easier to build audience trust.

2. Untapped marketing opportunities: Most major platforms are currently rushing to布局 short dramas, leaving a large supply gap for high-quality, in-depth mid-to-long form content. Early布局 in this sector makes it far easier to capture user mindshare.

3. Mature marketing infrastructure: Xiaohongshu's influencer marketing platform PuGongYing recorded 27 million brand collaboration invitations in 2023, up 34% year-over-year. It has already built six seeding and monetization pathways tailored for creators of all sizes, making it ideal for brands to run in-depth marketing campaigns such as detailed product testing and brand storytelling.

Xiaohongshu's push into mid-to-long form video brings new growth opportunities for e-commerce and content sellers, alongside notable risks to consider. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Favorable market opportunities: Short-form content is oversaturated across the industry with extremely fierce competition, while high-quality in-depth mid-to-long form content has been largely abandoned by many platforms due to its higher production costs and longer payback cycles, creating a clear supply gap. Combined with Xiaohongshu's 400 million monthly active users and 800 million daily searches, user demand is strong, competition in the sector is low, and entry barriers are favorable for new players.

2. Clear platform support policies: Xiaohongshu has elevated mid-to-long form video to an independent section with a dedicated team. It offers a 10 million RMB creator fund, 50 billion in traffic allocations, free 4K technical support, six built-in monetization pathways, and an ad revenue sharing program launching in the second half of the year. Both new and existing sellers can find a suitable model to match their resources.

3. Risk warning: The full commercial closed loop for mid-to-long form video is not yet fully established. Production costs and operational barriers are both higher than short-form video, with a longer payback period. Sellers should plan their布局 based on their own capabilities and avoid overinvesting blindly.

Xiaohongshu's expansion into mid-to-long form video brings new business opportunities for consumer goods manufacturers, as well as insights for digital transformation. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. New business opportunities: Users are increasingly unsatisfied with fragmented product information, and want to learn about the design, craftsmanship, and brand story behind products. Mid-to-long form video is uniquely suited to deliver complete, in-depth content. Factories can use this format to showcase their production processes, craft advantages, and design concepts to build deeper emotional connections with consumers. Given the large existing supply gap for this type of content, early entry makes it easier for factories to build their own brands and capture user mindshare.

2. Shifting product demand: Rising user demand for in-depth content reflects that consumers increasingly value differentiated product value, forcing factories to prioritize clear value communication and product differentiation in production and design.

3. Insights for digital transformation: For factories building their own brands and running online marketing, Xiaohongshu's capital and traffic support for mid-to-long form video enables low-cost testing of the new content track, allows factories to build direct communication channels with consumers, and advances their digital brand marketing布局.

Xiaohongshu's bet on mid-to-long form video signals a new trend in the content industry, and brings new business opportunities for service providers. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. New industry development trends: Total mobile internet traffic has plateaued, short-form video production capacity is oversaturated, and user demand is bifurcating. A growing share of users are shifting to in-depth mid-to-long form content, and Douyin, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu are all expanding in this sector. Mid-to-long form video has become a new growth driver for the content industry.

2. Clear client pain points: Mid-to-long form video has higher production costs, higher operational barriers, and longer payback cycles. Most brands and new creators lack professional capabilities for mid-to-long form content planning, production, and operation, creating a sharp unmet need.

3. New business opportunities: Service providers can develop end-to-end services tailored for the mid-to-long form sector, covering content planning, production, account operation, and commercial matching. By aligning with support policies from platforms including Xiaohongshu, providers can serve creators and brands looking to enter the space, capture industry growth, and expand their own business scope.

Xiaohongshu's strategic expansion into mid-to-long form video offers key insights for other content platforms. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. User and market demand have fundamentally shifted: Users are no longer satisfied with shallow, fragmented short-form content, and demand for high-value, in-depth mid-to-long form content is steadily rising, with a clear structural supply gap on the supply side. Content platforms can seize this opportunity to adjust their content strategy and build differentiated competitive advantages.

2. Xiaohongshu's approach offers multiple actionable lessons: It strategically elevated mid-to-long form video to an independent section early on, assigned a dedicated team and prioritized the initiative in its OKR framework, built a full-stack support system across capital, traffic, product features, and commercialization, rolled out tiered support policies for creators at different career stages, offered free 4K access to lower the experience barrier for creators and users, and innovated its commercial model with a new ad revenue sharing program.

3. Key risk considerations: Mid-to-long form video has a longer commercial payback period, requiring sustained commitment from platforms and gradual validation of the commercial closed loop. Platforms should not rush into the space blindly, and should adjust their布局 to align with their own existing user base and positioning.

Xiaohongshu's counter-trend expansion into mid-to-long form video is an important new development in the content community industry, providing a new case study for research into content platform competition and business models. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. New industry trends: Total mobile internet traffic has plateaued, the short-form video sector is a saturated red ocean, and user demand in the content industry is bifurcating. User demand has shifted from instant entertainment stimulation to in-depth valuable content, creating a structural supply gap for high-quality mid-to-long form content. The sector has become a new priority布局 area for major leading platforms, and differentiated competition has emerged as a new strategic choice for content platforms.

2. New exploration of business models: Leveraging its core community positioning as an active search platform, Xiaohongshu has seized the ecological niche where mid-to-long content matches user demand. It is adapting YouTube's ad revenue sharing model and combining it with multiple existing monetization pathways from its established product seeding ecosystem, in an attempt to build a complete commercial closed loop for mid-to-long form video. This counter-trend strategic choice validates the logic that matching community positioning with differentiated content tracks drives success.

3. The commercial closed loop for this sector is not yet fully proven, and market validation will require further observation. This makes it a prominent case study for research into differentiated development strategies for content platforms.