“New AI Search Product on Xiaohongshu Launched Quietly: A Secret Weapon to Defeat Baidu Completely?”

“New AI Search Product on Xiaohongshu Launched Quietly: A Secret Weapon to Defeat Baidu Completely?”

Red has quietly launched a new AI search product called “Diandian”. The company behind “Diandian” is Shanghai Vivid Chapter Technology Co., Ltd., with Wei Kuang, a product manager of Red, as the legal person. It is an intelligent search assistant focused on life scenarios, aggregating Red’s note content and information from the entire network to provide users with accurate answers and video replies to solve daily life problems such as travel guides and food recommendations.

This isn’t Red’s first foray into AI products. In March 2023, a large model research and development team was established to develop the large model “Little Sweet Potato”. In April, the AI painting product “Trik” was launched. In July, the text-to-image function “At This Moment” was introduced. In September, the AI chat function “Da Vinci” was developed, and “AI Voice Chat” was also launched. Currently, Red is focusing on “Diandian” internally, while the priority of other products has been reduced.

Testing the functions of “Diandian” reveals that through the accumulation of content on the Red social platform, it provides users with personalized and life-oriented information search services. However, as an independent app, its usage scenario is a bit awkward. Users may be more inclined to complete searches on the Red app because the warning comments under Red notes are also important reference information. Red is also trying to integrate the “Diandian” function within the app and is conducting a small-scale grey-scale test of the new function – Ask “Diandian” in the search bar.

Red’s launch of an AI search product is inevitable. Official data shows that 70% of Red’s monthly active users have search behavior. One-third of users start searching as soon as they open the app, and the average daily search volume is as high as 6 times. Users who enter note pages through search have a high conversion rate. The rapid growth of Red’s search volume is due, on the one hand, to its precise algorithm recommendation system, which improves search accuracy and efficiency. On the other hand, its community nature allows users to obtain more real and diverse feedback and experience sharing, which is difficult for traditional search engines to provide.

Baidu is facing challenges. Baidu currently has a daily search volume slightly higher than 1 billion times. Red’s search volume has reached half of Baidu’s. At Red’s current growth rate, it may surpass Baidu and become the number one in the domestic search industry within the next year. Red has also poached a large number of search R & D talents from Baidu.

Since 2023, Red has increased its attention to the AI and technology tracks and has invested in the large model startup “The Dark Side of the Moon” and MiniMax.

Recently, Red has adjusted its organizational structure. A new executive, Dai Lidan, has joined the strategy and investment line. She is responsible for strategic work and组建 a strategic investment team, focusing on hard technology tracks, especially in the field of AI applications. The original investment team remains unchanged and focuses on financial investment. Red has also restructured the algorithm departments of commercialization, community, and e-commerce to establish the “Applied Algorithm Department”, which is led by Xiahou, the person in charge of the community technology department, and reports to the vice president of technology, Feng Di. It is expected that commercialization will accelerate.

According to Bloomberg, Red is expected to double its overall profit to more than $1 billion in 2024, perhaps in preparation for a potential initial public offering, reflecting the company’s strategic shift from focusing on user growth to focusing on profit. Red achieved profitability for the first time in 2023, with nearly $3.7 billion in revenue and $500 million in net profit. In 2022, it had a loss of $200 million and revenue of about $2 billion. This year, Red completed an old share transaction and its valuation reached $17 billion. DST and Sequoia China participated in the financing.