CANNES, France, June 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 18, Xiaohongshu Chief Marketing Officer Zhiheng (Yajuan Wang) took to the stage at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to deliver a keynote that introduced the global audience to one of China's most influential marketing models: "seeding". For the first time on an international stage, she outlined Xiaohongshu's unique community ecosystem and the philosophy behind its native marketing approach, which has reshaped brand communication and consumer behavior in China.
In her address, Zhiheng unpacked the value, underlying logic, and success drivers of "seeding"—a model originating organically in Xiaohongshu's vibrant community, where users share real experiences and personal recommendations with one another, sparking genuine interest and influencing purchase decisions.
Zhiheng shared that many users see Xiaohongshu as a "digital bestie" — a space where they connect with others through shared interests and emotions. Others view it as an "encyclopedia for life" and "search engine for young people," for seeking advice based on lived experiences. "Today, Xiaohongshu has become a hub for young people's lifestyles and interests," she stated at the beginning of her speech, highlighting the community platform's distinctive features.
According to Zhiheng, three key strategic choices have underpinned Xiaohongshu's growth over its 12-year history:
First, prioritizing user-generated content (UGC) by distributing over 50% of platform traffic to everyday users with fewer followers; Second, adopting a dual-column feed interface that empowers user choice in content discovery over the more algorithmically efficient single-column feed; Third, nurturing a community atmosphere of "authentic sharing, friendly interactions" over short-term growth. For example, in 2021, Xiaohongshu co-created a set of Community Guidelines with users, and set the company's annual goal as prioritizing the health of the community ecosystem instead of user growth, fostering "authenticity" within the platform's DNA.
This ecosystem, rooted in sharing authentic life experiences, fuels Xiaohongshu's vibrant community and lays the building blocks for "seeding". Over 3,000 interest-based content verticals have formed on the platform. Numerous trends originate here before going viral across the Chinese internet, and increasingly, beyond, establishing Xiaohongshu as a "trend incubator" and the go-to destination for consumer decision-making for Chinese youth.
Zhiheng demonstrated how effective seeding drives tangible business growth: For example, the Chinese furniture brand KUKA, tailored content for different audiences – highlighting the functional aspects of their Hertz sofa to budget-conscious families, while showcasing its aesthetic in vintage-inspired spaces to design-oriented users. This "real people, real life, real scenarios" approach achieved content click-through rates far exceeding industry averages. Within nine months after launching, it sold over 20,000 units offline, with 69% of buyers viewing related notes on Xiaohongshu before purchasing.
When the secondhand marketplace app Zhuanzhuan adopted a "seeding" strategy on Xiaohongshu, instead of traditional user acquisition tactics like pushing promotions and incentives, they pinpointed a core audience interested in "secondhand guitars" via data analysis. Following an inverted audience funnel strategy, they further identified high potential audiences as music hobbyists, creating differentiated content to break through to broader audiences. After interest was successfully "seeded" through this category, they expanded to secondhand CCD cameras, ultimately attracting over 40,000 new users to the app.
Zhiheng outlined five key pillars for effective seeding on Xiaohongshu:
High-Quality Products/Services: Good offerings build strong word of mouth. If the product doesn't suit the community, users will speak up.
Deep User Insights: Leveraging the vast breadth and depth of individual expression within the community to uncover niche opportunities.
Precise Audience Targeting: Understanding their lifestyle, interests, and values.
Content with High CTR: Identifying the core motivations behind why users buy and communicating effectively via quality content.
Authentic Creators: Over 100 million people have posted on Xiaohongshu. They bring personal perspective and peer trust, amplifying the "seeding" effect.
"Seeding is about seeing the specific needs of real people and responding with precise, human communication," Zhiheng said. From consumer goods and local services to content services, the unique ecosystem on Xiaohongshu has given rise to the popular saying, "everything can be seeded."
A measure of effective "seeding" also points to longevity. Brands that succeed in seeding often maintain growth momentum for 30, 60 days, or even longer, powered by the lasting influence of quality UGC.
Zhiheng concluded her speech by reflecting on the broader value of seeding: In the Xiaohongshu community, sharing inspires real needs, enabling real people to create real influence. "As an app combining both discovery and search mindshares, and a UGC community where trust and connection exist among strangers, Xiaohongshu helps users efficiently make more informed choices suited to their needs. It helps businesses better understand users and better serve them in creating wonderful life experiences."
In addition to the keynote speech delivery, Xiaohongshu was also invited to host a booth at the festival.
Earlier this year, a sudden, surge of global netizens unexpectedly introduced many to Xiaohongshu. Zhiheng shared a short video montage during her speech, revisiting the rare cross-cultural connections sparked among individuals during this period, moments filled with laughter and heartfelt emotions. Inspired by these genuine exchanges, Xiaohongshu's interactive installation at Cannes presented a "global village" experience.
Themed "A Global Village from China," the booth embodies the community values of "share, connect, and love." It showcases popular overseas creators and MCN agency cases on Xiaohongshu to international audiences. Interactive activities featuring traditional Chinese intangible cultural heritage crafts, like artisanal lacquer fan making, highlight Chinese culture and convey Xiaohongshu's open and friendly community atmosphere.
For press inquiries, please contact:
media@xiaohongshu.com
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Real People, Real Influence: Xiaohongshu's Native Marketing Model "Seeding" Debuts at Cannes Lions
Real People, Real Influence: Xiaohongshu's Native Marketing Model "Seeding" Debuts at Cannes Lions
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- Innovative technologies enable retailers to implement intelligent stores at scale to deliver smarter, more responsive shopping experiences
- Industry partners to display production-ready AI solutions for loss prevention, digital twins, AI agents, customer analytics, and more
SAN JOSE, Calif. and NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail's Big Show -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today announced collaboration with technology partners for AI-powered intelligent in-store retail solutions designed to meet increasing customer expectations with scalability, improved productivity and increased profitability.
"AI is reshaping shopping experiences, enabling real-time analysis of video and other data to give retailers actionable insights to optimizing staff efficiency, reducing shrinkage, increasing profits, and avoiding stock-outs," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "By combining Supermicro's complete and scalable AI platforms with NVIDIA RTX PRO accelerated computing solutions, we're enabling retailers to build intelligent stores that maximize the benefits of AI-driven applications."
According to the latest NVIDIA State of AI in Retail & CPG report, 89% of respondents reported that AI is helping to increase annual revenue, while 95% said it is helping decrease annual costs, highlighting the measurable business impact retailers are already achieving because of AI1.
For more information, please visit https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/edge/servers
Supermicro Complete and Scalable Edge AI Infrastructure
Retail-centric AI applications require sub-second responsiveness which is only possible, at scale, if data is processed directly at the edge. Supermicro's Edge AI infrastructure enables the deployment of solutions in distributed environments, such as intelligent retail stores and supply chains, to provide a complete solution.
Deploying at the edge presents a myriad of unique challenges in comparison to the data center. Supermicro's broad Edge AI portfolio of products helps customers and partners overcome these challenges while striking the right balance between performance and ROI.
For deployments in harsh environments where conditioned space is not available, the fanless E103 series of products bring AI processing power where it couldn't go before. Supermicro also offers a fanned small form factor E300 series systems with AI capabilities.
When there is a demanding AI workload at the edge, customers and partners can turn to numerous systems capable of holding the latest discrete GPUs for AI acceleration. Ranging from 1U short-depth to larger 4U form factors, solutions can be right-sized to meet the customer's needs by enabling the latest generation of NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series.
Supermicro Intelligent Store Partners
Supermicro is collaborating with ecosystem partners including Everseen, Kinetic Vision, ALLSIDES, LiveX, WobotAI, and Aible, to create intelligent stores that positively impact day-to-day retail operations as well as longer term supply chain management.
- Everseen's Evercheck solution uses Vision AI to help reduce shrink and improve staff productivity and customer experiences. Built on the Everseen Vision AI platform, Evercheck detects, and deters recovery of unwanted behaviors at checkout, helping retailers recover losses and streamline front-of-store operations.
"Everseen has spent years working alongside some of the world's largest retailers, understanding the realities of the store floor and solving loss challenges where they actually happen," said Joe White, CEO of Everseen. "By partnering with Supermicro and leveraging NVIDIA-accelerated computing, Evercheck delivers real-time computer vision at the edge - transforming store activity into intelligence retailers can act on immediately."
- Wobot AI, focused on building Video AI Agents for the physical world, will be demonstrating how the cameras retailers already own can be turned into systems that continuously observe, learn, and produce usable insight. By converting ordinary CCTV infrastructure into autonomous agents that recognize patterns, identify friction, and surface decisions, Wobot's AI Agents enable retailers to improve day-to-day operations with practical and measurable outcomes.
"By working with Supermicro and NVIDIA at the edge, we're able to deploy Video AI Agents in a way that's scalable, reliable, and focused on real-time operational insight—not experimentation," said Will Kelso, President, Revenue & Growth at Wobot AI.
- LiveX AI - "Retail is entering an era where AI agents become the default interaction layer between brands and customers," said Jerry Li, Co-Founder and CEO of LiveX AI. "With NVIDIA's accelerated AI and Supermicro's edge infrastructure, we can deploy a helpful, human-like AI agent directly in physical spaces—such as kiosks or holograms—bringing the speed, intelligence, and continuity of digital experiences into brick-and-mortar environments. This collaboration makes AI agents usable, in real time, where customers actually are."
-
- Kinetic Vision and ALLSIDES are bundling their expertise for a True Digital Twin solution designed to develop, test, and optimize supply chain processes, checkout stations, and other complex systems.
"The combination of Supermicro's high reliability optimized infrastructure and NVIDIA's accelerated computing stack gives Kinetic Vision the foundation to innovate at speed. Together, we are helping retailers move from experimentation to production-ready AI solutions that drive measurable operational and customer experience gains," says Jeremy Jarratt, Kinetic Vision CEO.
Franz Tschimben, CEO at ALLSIDES, adds: "Building on the combined strengths of NVIDIA and Supermicro, we deliver a high-fidelity 3D digital twin data layer for AI training that enables retailers to power applications across the entire retail value chain — from training robots with physical AI, to production and production planning, virtual store layouts and consumer feedback systems, and e-commerce integrations — helping drive higher conversion rates, faster decision-making, and greater operational efficiency."
- Supermicro will also feature Superb AI's retail-focused VSS solution, combining Superb AI's proprietary VLM with NVIDIA AI Blueprint components to enable subjective reasoning capabilities, natural-language search, automated incident summarization, and customer behavior insights across store camera networks.
- Aible will highlight its automated agent solution, which analyzes vast amounts of data across millions of patterns to explain changes in retail KPIs, such as the average purchase amount or number of purchases. Aible will also demonstrate how the latest NVIDIA Retail blueprints can be incorporated into agentic solutions that automatically customize customer experiences and optimize retail operations at scale.
Arijit Sengupta, CEO of Aible, adds, "Today's market and labor conditions are constantly changing. Only autonomous agents can understand and adjust to these ever-changing patterns of customer behavior, inventory costs and supply, and labor access at scale. Working with NVIDIA and Supermicro, Aible brings autonomous agents subject to business user review to the retail edge."
These intelligent retail solutions will be demonstrated by Supermicro and its partners at NRF: Retail's Big Show in New York City from January 11-13. To learn more about AI-powered retail applications or Supermicro's AI Infrastructure solutions, visit Supermicro booth #5281 and attend its speaking session featuring PepsiCo and Kinetic Vision. For more details, please visit www.supermicro.com/NRF
1Source: "NVIDIA State of AI in Retail and CPG" 2026
About Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first to market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro's motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions® allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).
Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.
All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
- Innovative technologies enable retailers to implement intelligent stores at scale to deliver smarter, more responsive shopping experiences
- Industry partners to display production-ready AI solutions for loss prevention, digital twins, AI agents, customer analytics, and more
SAN JOSE, Calif. and NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail's Big Show -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today announced collaboration with technology partners for AI-powered intelligent in-store retail solutions designed to meet increasing customer expectations with scalability, improved productivity and increased profitability.
"AI is reshaping shopping experiences, enabling real-time analysis of video and other data to give retailers actionable insights to optimizing staff efficiency, reducing shrinkage, increasing profits, and avoiding stock-outs," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "By combining Supermicro's complete and scalable AI platforms with NVIDIA RTX PRO accelerated computing solutions, we're enabling retailers to build intelligent stores that maximize the benefits of AI-driven applications."
According to the latest NVIDIA State of AI in Retail & CPG report, 89% of respondents reported that AI is helping to increase annual revenue, while 95% said it is helping decrease annual costs, highlighting the measurable business impact retailers are already achieving because of AI1.
For more information, please visit https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/edge/servers
Supermicro Complete and Scalable Edge AI Infrastructure
Retail-centric AI applications require sub-second responsiveness which is only possible, at scale, if data is processed directly at the edge. Supermicro's Edge AI infrastructure enables the deployment of solutions in distributed environments, such as intelligent retail stores and supply chains, to provide a complete solution.
Deploying at the edge presents a myriad of unique challenges in comparison to the data center. Supermicro's broad Edge AI portfolio of products helps customers and partners overcome these challenges while striking the right balance between performance and ROI.
For deployments in harsh environments where conditioned space is not available, the fanless E103 series of products bring AI processing power where it couldn't go before. Supermicro also offers a fanned small form factor E300 series systems with AI capabilities.
When there is a demanding AI workload at the edge, customers and partners can turn to numerous systems capable of holding the latest discrete GPUs for AI acceleration. Ranging from 1U short-depth to larger 4U form factors, solutions can be right-sized to meet the customer's needs by enabling the latest generation of NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series.
Supermicro Intelligent Store Partners
Supermicro is collaborating with ecosystem partners including Everseen, Kinetic Vision, ALLSIDES, LiveX, WobotAI, and Aible, to create intelligent stores that positively impact day-to-day retail operations as well as longer term supply chain management.
- Everseen's Evercheck solution uses Vision AI to help reduce shrink and improve staff productivity and customer experiences. Built on the Everseen Vision AI platform, Evercheck detects, and deters recovery of unwanted behaviors at checkout, helping retailers recover losses and streamline front-of-store operations.
"Everseen has spent years working alongside some of the world's largest retailers, understanding the realities of the store floor and solving loss challenges where they actually happen," said Joe White, CEO of Everseen. "By partnering with Supermicro and leveraging NVIDIA-accelerated computing, Evercheck delivers real-time computer vision at the edge - transforming store activity into intelligence retailers can act on immediately."
- Wobot AI, focused on building Video AI Agents for the physical world, will be demonstrating how the cameras retailers already own can be turned into systems that continuously observe, learn, and produce usable insight. By converting ordinary CCTV infrastructure into autonomous agents that recognize patterns, identify friction, and surface decisions, Wobot's AI Agents enable retailers to improve day-to-day operations with practical and measurable outcomes.
"By working with Supermicro and NVIDIA at the edge, we're able to deploy Video AI Agents in a way that's scalable, reliable, and focused on real-time operational insight—not experimentation," said Will Kelso, President, Revenue & Growth at Wobot AI.
- LiveX AI - "Retail is entering an era where AI agents become the default interaction layer between brands and customers," said Jerry Li, Co-Founder and CEO of LiveX AI. "With NVIDIA's accelerated AI and Supermicro's edge infrastructure, we can deploy a helpful, human-like AI agent directly in physical spaces—such as kiosks or holograms—bringing the speed, intelligence, and continuity of digital experiences into brick-and-mortar environments. This collaboration makes AI agents usable, in real time, where customers actually are."
-
- Kinetic Vision and ALLSIDES are bundling their expertise for a True Digital Twin solution designed to develop, test, and optimize supply chain processes, checkout stations, and other complex systems.
"The combination of Supermicro's high reliability optimized infrastructure and NVIDIA's accelerated computing stack gives Kinetic Vision the foundation to innovate at speed. Together, we are helping retailers move from experimentation to production-ready AI solutions that drive measurable operational and customer experience gains," says Jeremy Jarratt, Kinetic Vision CEO.
Franz Tschimben, CEO at ALLSIDES, adds: "Building on the combined strengths of NVIDIA and Supermicro, we deliver a high-fidelity 3D digital twin data layer for AI training that enables retailers to power applications across the entire retail value chain — from training robots with physical AI, to production and production planning, virtual store layouts and consumer feedback systems, and e-commerce integrations — helping drive higher conversion rates, faster decision-making, and greater operational efficiency."
- Supermicro will also feature Superb AI's retail-focused VSS solution, combining Superb AI's proprietary VLM with NVIDIA AI Blueprint components to enable subjective reasoning capabilities, natural-language search, automated incident summarization, and customer behavior insights across store camera networks.
- Aible will highlight its automated agent solution, which analyzes vast amounts of data across millions of patterns to explain changes in retail KPIs, such as the average purchase amount or number of purchases. Aible will also demonstrate how the latest NVIDIA Retail blueprints can be incorporated into agentic solutions that automatically customize customer experiences and optimize retail operations at scale.
Arijit Sengupta, CEO of Aible, adds, "Today's market and labor conditions are constantly changing. Only autonomous agents can understand and adjust to these ever-changing patterns of customer behavior, inventory costs and supply, and labor access at scale. Working with NVIDIA and Supermicro, Aible brings autonomous agents subject to business user review to the retail edge."
These intelligent retail solutions will be demonstrated by Supermicro and its partners at NRF: Retail's Big Show in New York City from January 11-13. To learn more about AI-powered retail applications or Supermicro's AI Infrastructure solutions, visit Supermicro booth #5281 and attend its speaking session featuring PepsiCo and Kinetic Vision. For more details, please visit www.supermicro.com/NRF
1Source: "NVIDIA State of AI in Retail and CPG" 2026
About Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first to market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro's motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions® allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).
Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.
All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Supermicro Announces Intelligent In-Store Retail Solutions in Collaboration with a Broad Range of Industry Partners
