The platform's own executives supply the load-bearing numbers (COO Conan, restated April 2025): ~70% of monthly actives use search; 1 in 3 opens the app and goes straight to search; 42% of new users search on day one; 170M users/month seek purchase advice. Third-party split: consumption ≈ 70% recommendation feed / 20% search / 10% follow — but search traffic converts ~4.1× better (千瓜), and long-tail category queries grew 70%+ in 2024.
The two clocks
- A note's recommendation life: 3–7 days (a hit, ~1 month).
- A note's search life: keyword-optimized notes keep surfacing for 6–12+ months.
Notes are compounding SEO assets, not feed ephemera — the structural reason this arena suits a solo operator with search-engine muscle: the skill is keyword-intent coverage, already trained (a4-the-language-arbitrage's wall works in this arena's favor for a native speaker; the FlexMesh SEO/GEO practice (geo-by-interrogation) ports almost unchanged).
The folklore layer, labeled
The universally cited scoring formula — CES = like×1 + collect×1 + comment×4 + share×4 + follow×8 — has never been published by the platform; it circulates from operator circles, and one operator who regressed scraped hits against it found it explains little. Treat the ordering (comment/follow ≫ like) as directionally real, the coefficients as fiction. The tiered traffic-pool model (~200–500 initial impressions, escalating pools) is likewise reverse-engineering, not policy. "限流" (shadow-throttling) is mostly folklore: documented reach-suppression causes are 违禁词 (banned words), 引流 violations (xiaohongshu-redlines), and plagiarism; third-party "限流检测" tools are scams.
Paid tools
薯条: self-serve, per-impression (~¥15/1,000), open to personal accounts. 聚光: CPC (cost per click), requires 企业认证 (verified business account) + ¥5,000 first deposit — but unlocks the legitimate lead-capture components.
PRINCIPLES
- Write for queries, not for the feed: the durable distribution is search; keyword-first titles and bodies are the craft, and it is literally SEO.
- A note is an asset with a 6–12 month tail — portfolio math beats virality math.
- Use folklore for direction, never for coefficients: comments and follows outrank likes; everything numeric is fiction until the platform publishes.
Sources: COO search figures (电商派) · 新浪财经 2025-04 · 千瓜 2025 report · CES formula circulation · operator regression against CES (即刻) · note longevity · 薯条 vs 聚光 · 限流 folklore debunk