Lifestyle Platform's High-Stakes Gamble on the Grassroots Game

Lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu is expanding beyond its origins as a female-focused curation space by leveraging international football broadcasting rights and local amateur leagues. In a mid-summer live-streaming test, amateur matches streamed from a rooftop pitch were watched by an audience numbering in the hundreds, hosted on Xiaohongshu rather than a traditional sports network. By mid-July, after the conclusion of a major international football tournament, the company’s sports and outdoor division reported a sharp rise in engagement hours during the tournament and a fivefold year-over-year increase in live-stream viewership. Internal surveys indicated that during the tournament’s later stages, the male audience share for these sports broadcasts climbed from 60% to about 80%. The strategy, described as the culmination of a decade-long effort, also includes the platform hosting more than 14 million entries and nearly 2,000 localized grassroots football profiles, with early sports references dating to May 2014.