Xiaohongshu: the redlines

The one arena where a marketing mistake is capital destruction: the 《交易导流违规管理细则》 (effective 2025-03-12) bans guiding users off-platform for transactions through any channel except the platform's own commerce surfaces. Banned vectors include links, 口令 (share codes), screenshots, watermarks, QR codes, mini-programs — including disguised variants; penalties reach permanent account ban + frozen merchant funds. Enforcement tightened again mid-2025 (private-message rules against dropping WeChat/phone numbers).

The nuance that matters for an app

The crackdown targets transactions moved off-platform. The documented survivable patterns:

• "App Store 搜 XXX" — naming the app for store search, with no link/QR — is the standard indie-dev survival posture (a pattern, not a guarantee; it lives on tolerance, not license).
• 企业号 (verified business account) + 聚光 unlocks official lead-capture and link components — the compliant path if the channel proves out and deserves ¥5,000 of commitment.

Why this file is load-bearing

Every other arena in the column tolerates a conversion link somewhere (bio, comments, landing). This one criminalizes the funnel's last step by default — so the SOP must treat conversion as a store-search handoff and measure it as branded-search lift, not click-through. An account built for months dies in one wrong note; the redlines are not a compliance appendix, they are the design constraint the whole play is shaped around.

PRINCIPLES

1. Know which platform can execute your account — on 小红书 the funnel's last step is the regulated one.
2. Convert by name, not by link: brand the app name into the content; measure branded store-search, not clicks.
3. Buy the official rails when the channel earns it — 企业号+聚光 converts a tolerated pattern into a licensed one.

Sources: 细则 coverage (新浪科技) · 永久封号情形 · mid-2025 私信 tightening · June 2025 update