Revenues at Xiaohongshu, the start-up known as China’s answer to Instagram, surged to $1 billion in the first quarter of 2024 as it ramped up advertising from retailers targeting Gen Z women, reports the Financial Times. The picture and video sharing app generated $200 million in net profit in the first three months of the year on just over $1 billion of sales, according to two people briefed on the numbers, which are not public. This is up from $40 million in the same period last year on revenues of about $600 million.
China’s fastest-growing social media platform, which is popular with young women, is a rare recent success story in a tech sector hit by bankruptcies and falling valuations.
In July, the social media start-up gained the backing of venture capital firm DST Global in a share sale between current and new shareholders that valued the company at $17 billion. At the height of Chinese internet start-up valuations in 2021, Xiaohongshu was valued at $20 billion during a funding round that brought in Singaporean state-backed investor Temasek.