# Starting from "Everyday Trust," How Xiaohongshu Is Reconstructing the Foundational Logic of Financial Marketing

Why is AI and financial trust shifting toward everyday experiences?

Author | Chuan Chuan

Editor | Da Feng

Currently, the global financial markets are facing significant uncertainties. The financial industry is generally turning cautious and conservative. Financial consumers’ investment expectations are becoming more rational and pragmatic, and their risk preferences and decision-making motivations are also changing markedly. In this context, traditional marketing methods that focused on product headline returns are gradually losing effectiveness. Faced with a complex and volatile market environment, the public is no longer willing to blindly trust one-way promises or propaganda from financial institutions. The cost of trust communication in financial marketing continues to rise. This has prompted the industry to rethink how to iterate and innovate its marketing paradigms.

Meanwhile, a related and equally noteworthy change is underway. In the face of highly complex macroeconomic conditions, people are increasingly shifting their attention back to seemingly more “manageable” individual life aspects: they seek certainty and security in daily life, rebuild confidence, and thus rediscover the meaning of finance on a micro level—such as saving for GAP travel or buying insurance for their pets. The pool of financial participants is expanding continuously, and more and more, they are starting from their own life experiences, re-evaluating genuine needs and feelings, and putting forward more concrete, everyday-oriented demands for financial products and services. This has not only spawned new financial trends and emerging demographics closely related to daily life but also further integrated financial practices into everyday scenarios, providing new ideas for the transformation of financial brand marketing.

At this pivotal moment of industry change, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) has partnered with CBNData (the First Financial Business Data Center) to release the “Xiaohongshu Financial Industry White Paper.” Combining Xiaohongshu’s thriving ecosystem of financial and wealth content, the report explores trust-breaking solutions in the new era, starting from “life,” and jointly discusses with major financial institutions and brands how to navigate the trust crisis.

A mirror of the financial industry’s transformation online?

Xiaohongshu as a window into market opportunities

Over the past year, Xiaohongshu’s financial wealth ecosystem has experienced explosive growth on both supply and demand sides:

On one hand, a vast amount of UGC (User-Generated Content) forms the foundation of Xiaohongshu’s community financial wealth content. Popular finance influencers remain active over the long term, industry scholars engage enthusiastically, and professional financial institutions (KOBs) continue to join. The number of finance professionals opening KOS (Knowledge & Opinion Sharing) accounts has surged year-over-year, bringing a wealth of professional, trustworthy, and forward-looking financial knowledge. This marks that Xiaohongshu’s influence in the finance and wealth sectors has entered a mature stage. On the other hand, searches related to finance on Xiaohongshu are growing rapidly. In 2025, Xiaohongshu’s monthly finance-related searches exceeded 240 million, with 73% of active users engaging in such searches (based on Xiaohongshu Data Platform December 2025). Users have developed a habit of frequently searching for finance and wealth topics, which are closely linked to daily life, covering the entire decision-making process of financial consumption.

Many signals of deep transformation in the financial industry are already visible on lifestyle interest platforms like Xiaohongshu.

For example, from the investor perspective, Generation Z is undoubtedly becoming a key force reshaping the financial market. Previously, Cailian Press reported that nearly 70% of brokerage account openings involved post-90s and post-00s, which aligns with Xiaohongshu’s demographic data showing that over half of its finance-interested users are post-95s and post-00s (Data Platform January 2026). In other words, Xiaohongshu may be witnessing a “generational revolution” in financial participation: as “digital natives,” Gen Z naturally adapts to online financial environments, habitually uses Xiaohongshu and other social media to gather financial information, make investment decisions, and develop financial awareness early. They are eager to search, discuss, and learn wealth knowledge within communities, seamlessly connecting wealth management with travel insurance, self-investment, and other lifestyle goals. This broadens the form and core of traditional financial products, making products that offer additional value-added services or comprehensive solutions more attractive to Xiaohongshu users.

Similarly, as content platforms like Xiaohongshu increasingly become key venues for financial knowledge dissemination and product promotion, people’s decision-making starting points for financial consumption are no longer limited to bank apps or broker websites. Instead, they may begin with a lively review, a practical financial guide, or a real personal claim experience. The shift in how financial services reach consumers through scene-based channels makes the process more vivid and relatable.

Fundamentally, the growth in both supply and demand of Xiaohongshu’s financial wealth content reflects a clear online mirror of the industry’s broader trend shift. It is a real-time reflection of how institutions, practitioners, and consumers are responding to change. This also positions Xiaohongshu as a potential window into industry trends and a platform for capturing growth opportunities amid transformation.

In an era of trust scarcity, what is the key to financial marketing?

In the UCA (Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) era, the overlapping internal and external uncertainties make “trust” a scarce resource. Consumers demand higher transparency and disclosure from financial products, dislike information asymmetry and jargon, and find it difficult to establish trust or goodwill toward any financial institution or brand through infrequent, cautious, or suspicious transactions.

Rebuilding user trust, especially through long-term, high-quality emotional connections, may be the decisive factor for the industry to cycle through downturns and break through growth bottlenecks. Financial institutions and brands deeply engaged on Xiaohongshu have already discovered that a possible solution is to return to life itself—starting from everyday experiences.

Xiaohongshu leverages its core trait of “ordinary people sharing real experiences,” advocating for building trust based on the warmth of daily life. With this “human touch,” rich in lifestyle interest sharing and strong interaction, financial wealth content on Xiaohongshu exhibits a clear sense of life—whether it’s a new mother sharing her real experience with pregnancy insurance, a novice recording their first fund investment diary, parents teaching children to manage pocket money, or experienced investors carefully writing market tips.

These authentic experiences from ordinary people break down the high professional barriers traditionally associated with financial wealth, making financial knowledge more accessible and understandable. They foster emotional resonance through interaction. In a sense, the trust path is evolving—from simply “trusting institutions” to “trusting real people and their experiences,” creating more sticky and sustainable trust relationships.

Excerpt from “Why Financial Wealth Users Prefer Xiaohongshu” in the “Xiaohongshu Financial Industry White Paper”

This financial trust is not solely derived from the professional offerings of institutions and products but increasingly built on real-life experiences, specific scenarios, and community interactions. Financial wealth is no longer just cold jargon or digital figures; it is gradually transformed into tangible, understandable life visions through sharing and exchange. On Xiaohongshu, financial trust is closely linked to “everyday life,” which also becomes a key differentiator attracting financial wealth audiences.

Rooted in this “life-based trust,” Xiaohongshu has gradually cultivated a series of new financial trends and emerging demographics closely related to daily life, providing valuable references for future trust-based marketing in the industry.

For example, the “She” consciousness in finance continues to grow. Women now account for over 70% of Xiaohongshu’s finance-interested users (Data Platform January 2026). Women’s demand for financial knowledge is increasing, driving the depth and breadth of women-focused financial content. This amplifies values like “women’s economic independence” and “women’s financial power,” creating new opportunities for financial institutions to develop products and services tailored to women at different life stages.

Similarly, financial needs across the entire family lifecycle, especially in aging and parenting scenarios, are gaining attention. For instance, Xiaohongshu launched the “Re-raise Parents” campaign, focusing on aging education, combining retirement guides and financial literacy, offering young people more practical ideas for elder care and retirement planning. This resonated widely within the community, boosting related content views and searches, with topics like middle-aged and elderly health insurance and retirement financial planning heating up.

Advocating for a new paradigm in financial marketing:

From “selling products” to “offering life solutions”

As trust increasingly connects with “everyday life,” traditional product-centric financial marketing is evolving. If rebuilding trust is rooted in everyday scenarios, then marketing should shift from simply “selling products” to genuinely “offering life solutions.” In recent years, many financial institutions and brands have begun exploring this approach on Xiaohongshu.

For example, ZhongAn Insurance, addressing the public’s limited awareness of maternity and pregnancy insurance, first used Xiaohongshu insights to identify that pregnant women’s needs change significantly at different stages—from “preconception checkups” to “gestational diabetes prevention,” from “preparing hospital bags” to “postpartum recovery.” The brand continuously optimized its maternity insurance products around these real-life scenarios, tailoring coverage and communication for different groups like older women and high-demand mothers, actively addressing practical issues such as pregnancy complications. This not only significantly increased lead conversions but also elevated brand visibility and content penetration, making it a leader in the maternity insurance segment (Data Platform and Lingxi backend, January-December 2025).

Another example is China Construction Bank’s collaboration with Xiaohongshu’s “Stroll Life” IP, creating the “Stroll Street” experience in Beijing’s Baita Temple Hutongs. The campaign integrated the bank’s brand into the local lifestyle atmosphere, guiding users to immerse themselves in city life, while linking CCB’s selected benefits with local merchants through consumption scenarios. During the event, over 230 million exposures were achieved (Data Platform December 2025), successfully connecting brand favorability with user conversion.

In Xiaohongshu, the core of “life-based proposals” is to deeply connect financial products with users’ life needs and personal goals. By transforming abstract profit logic into concrete life solutions, financial services become part of realizing an ideal life.

This approach also requires financial institutions to gradually move away from short-term traffic-driven marketing, emphasizing long-term trust building. By continuously providing valuable content, maintaining genuine interactions, and offering timely services at different life stages, they can establish trust touchpoints throughout users’ life trajectories, gradually forming a full-lifecycle brand companionship.

Conclusion

In an era full of uncertainties, the public’s focus on tangible life scenarios and emotional value continues to grow. This is a natural response to seeking control amid complexity and also offers new inspiration for the industry’s transformation.

Returning to life has become a key path for the financial industry to shift from “scale-driven” to “value-driven.” When financial institutions truly understand users’ life anxieties and real needs, and redesign products and communication from a life perspective, they may find a more solid foundation of trust amid market volatility.

This was the original intention behind the March release of the “Xiaohongshu Financial Industry White Paper” in collaboration with CBNData: to re-examine industry changes from the perspective of “life-based trust,” providing new frameworks and practical insights for the industry.