Communication, Society and Media ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 28 Original Paper Exploring the Mobility of the New Media Platform Little Red Book Sixian Li 1* 1 London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, London, the United Kingdom * Sixian Li, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, London, the United Kingdom Received: May 10, 2024 Accepted: May 18, 2024 Online Published: May 28, 2024 doi:10.22158/csm.v7n1p28 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v7n1p28 Abstract Little Red Book is an new emerging platform. Some researchers are focusing on this platform, but they intend to discuss the commercial values of it. The mobility of the little red book is rarely noticed. But the intrinsic connection between platforms and mobility is an important issue, and this theme is an important aspect of media, culture and mobility. This article is trying to explore the relationship between new platform Little Red Book and mobility. This article begins by exploring the ways in which the Little Red Book facilitates the flow of ideas and self-mobility, followed by a discussion of the ways in which it restricts mobility in some ways. Keywords Little Red Book, mobility, platform, privacy, User-Generated Content 1. Introduction The chapter reviews the key literature concerned with the relationship between Little Red Book and Mobility. Numerous scholars have conducted extensive research in Little Red Book and Mobility. Much of the current literature on Little Red Book pays particular attention to its commercial properties and values. Although a considerable body of research has been carried out on Little Red Book’s business model and marketing strategy, much less is known about the relationship between Little Red Book and Mobility. This review critically evaluates Little Red Book can enable the Mobility in a bid to address the gap. The relationship between platform and mobility is essential for a wide range of researches. This topic is an important aspect of Media, Mobility and Culture. Recently, researchers have shown an increased interest in platform, mobility. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm Communication, Society and Media Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024 29 Published by SCHOLINK INC. This chapter begins with the ways in which application Little Red Book promote the Mobility of ideas and “the self”. This is followed by analyzing some aspects Little Red Book limits Mobility. Finally, draw the study conclusion, summarize the ideas and lead to the subsequent research. 2. Little Red Book Can Enable Mobility 2.1 Little Red Book Promotes Mobility among Audience Groups Little Red Book can promote mobility among audience groups. Jia Guo (2022) proved that Little Red Book is a female-focused social media and e-commerce platform. Little Red Book can provide a platform for young women to share ideas and thinking. According to the 2022 Little Red Book data report by China Media Industry Research—Qian-Gua Database, women currently account for 88.37% of Little Red Book, while men account for 11.61%. The Little Red Book platform is dominated by women, and users of the Little Red Book platform are trending younger, with their ages mainly concentrated in the 18-34 age group. More than 56% of users come from the four top tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Urban white-collar workers and elite women in the workplace are the main user groups, with strong spending power and strong consumer demand (2020 Little Red Book Data Report, 2022). As of September 2022, the number of active monthly users of Little Red Book broke 100 million, and 70% of these users are post-90s, with 300 million notes about life and 8 billion notes exposed in a single day. The top three user focus points are 9.98% for fashion, 9.85% for beauty and 8.05% for food. Fashion and beauty are still the main trend of Little Red Book users. From the data it is clear that young women make up a large proportion of Little Red Book users, they have decent jobs, higher spending power and high consumer demand, and tend to express themselves in a community dominated by such a female group. Elmira and Chloe claimed that the growth of Instagram continues, with the majority of its users being young women (2017). First of all, the content on Little Red Book covers many topics related to women’s interests and hobbies, such as fashion, beauty, food. So female users are more likely to express their views and experiences on these topics. Secondly, social platforms are generally used as spaces for interaction and communication between users. Women tend to be more active socially and prefer to share their lives, experience and feelings with others, including sharing shopping experiences, beauty tips and life insights on Little Red Book. Thirdly, women usually pay more attention to emotional expression and communication in their daily lives, and are more willing to express their emotions and opinions through text, pictures and expressions than men. As a graphic-based platform, Little Red Book provides a wealth of expression methods, making it easier for female users to express themselves in the way they prefer. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm Communication, Society and Media Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024 30 Published by SCHOLINK INC. Last but not least, on Little Red Book, female users may share many common experiences and interests with each other, and they may want to share their stories and experiences to connect with other users and gain empathy and support. In brief, Little Red Book can promote mobility among audience groups. 2.2 Little Red Book Enables Mobility in its Content Little Red Book can enable mobility in its content. It enables the mobility of ideas, the mobility of “the self”. Little Red Book can provide a platform for users to discuss problems, situations, solutions, ideas with each other and so on. Little Red Book, as an online virtual community, the major content is note. Most of the notes contain pictures and text. Notes include ideas and thinking of users usually. On the one hand, users express their thinking and ideas by writing notes, editing notes posting notes, sharing notes. When users post their notes on the Little Red Book, in general, the push algorithm in the platform mechanism associates the content with the publisher’s friends, the publisher’s location, and pushes the notes to the publisher’s friends, other users in the publisher’s vicinity, and other users who frequently click to read and view such content. The Little Red Book has many different types of notes, users have different purposes to write notes. They can write notes to ask other users for answers, share their own travel experience with others, introduce good products to users, make friends with others, interact with other users, give other users suggestions about places, trip plan, destinations. If they have bad experience after travelling, they will write notes to point out the weaknesses and shortcomings of places and give reference to others. Some users may even take notes posted by other users and put them into their own content, asking others for their opinion and expressing their own opinion on other users’ notes. In a virtual online community like Little Red Book, users exchange ideas and enable the mobility of ideas in this way. Peter, A. (2004) proved that in the sociology of Zygmunt Bauman, contemporary society, labelled consumer society by Bauman, is viewed as liquid modernity, which underlines mobility as indicative of our time. Besides, after opening Little Red Book, several columns of different items will be displayed on the main screen. At the bottom there are five columns, from left to right: Home, Video, Messages, Me, in the center is Posting. Users can see other users’ notes with pictures and text in the “Home”. In “Home”, due to the limitations of the device, not all the contents of the notes are displayed on the screen, only the cover, title, publisher and number of likes are displayed. Although at first glance the user does not fully see the content of other users’ notes, the type of note and the content involved can be inferred from the title, the cover. Publishers’ thinking and ideas are usually showed by the title words, the cover pictures because title, cover are also the parts of notes. The second column is “Video”, users can see different types of short and long-form videos. Even though notes are more common in Little Red Book, videos can also be another method to express ideas www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm Communication, Society and Media Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024 31 Published by SCHOLINK INC. and thinking. The central is “Posting”, users can choose photos from phones or shoot for notes. When users open “Posting”, Little Red Book provide hot template and layout for users to choose. Users who use hot template generally get more views. If users are not sure about their notes, Little Red Book has “Draft” for them to save and change. It helps publishers to consider the content of their notes without worrying about them not being saved, they can post their notes after considering. So Little Red Book enables the mobility of ideas in its content. The fourth column is “Messages”, users can receive notification from platform or receive private messages from other users. Users also can join some chat groups to talk with others about life, movies, sports, products and so on. The fifth column is “Me”, users can see their own posts, collects, likes. They can find followers, friends, users they are following. Users can edit profile to show others ideas and thinking in “Me”. On the other hand, little Red Book can enable the mobility of “the self”. For example, some users may encounter problems and confusion with clothing and dressing and they post notes to collect other users’ opinions. Herbert Blumer (2015) proved that Mead regarded the distinctive mark of all societies, human or otherwise, to be the formation of social acts by their members. Some users show themselves to others, others give them advice to change. Corrado and Giacomo (2010) proved that the mirror mechanism radically challenges the traditional view of the self and of the others. Some users are influenced by other users and adapt themselves. As I have said, Little Red Book can enable mobility. 2.3 Little Red Book Facilitates Mobility through the Platform’s Own Functions Little Red Book can enable mobility of ideas and thinking through its own functions. As an online virtual community, it has lots of social features, such as following, liking, commenting on notes. Little Red Book provides a community for users to use, they can easily join other users’ chat group, read and browse publishers’ notes and leave comments in the comments section. Users can connect with others by sharing ideas, discussing topics. They just need to open this platform Little Red Book on their phone screen. Park and Kang (2021) proved that personal identity had a significant positive effect on quasi-social interactions in the life culture and politics sectors. Like: Users can like UGC they like on Little Red Book to show their approval and liking of the content. The Like feature encourages users to interact with the content, prompting them to engage and express their interests and preferences on the platform. At the same time, likes also increase the exposure of UGC, making more users pay attention and participate, thus increasing the mobility of UGC. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm Communication, Society and Media Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024 32 Published by SCHOLINK INC. Commenting: Little Red Book allows users to comment on UGC, where they can ask questions, answer and share their experiences. The commenting function encourages interaction and communication between users. Users can interact with other users and share their insights and experiences through comments, thus promoting the formation of social circles on the platform and increasing the interaction and fluidity of UGC. Retweeting: Users can retweet UGC of interest to their own personal pages or share it with other users. At the same time, re-posting also helps users expand their social relationships and form a chain of UGC spreading among users, thus increasing the fluidity of UGC. Algorithm recommendation: Through personalized algorithm recommendation function, Little Red Book recommends UGC with high relevance to users based on their interests and behaviors. This personalized recommendation makes it easier for users to find the content they are interested in, increasing their participation and interactivity in UGC, thus promoting the fluidity of the platform. Interactive reward mechanisms: Little Red Book also has some interactive reward mechanisms, such as check-ins, points and punch cards, to encourage users to interact on the platform. These interactive reward mechanisms motivate users to actively participate in UGC activities such as likes, comments and retweets, increasing users’ activity and participation on the platform, thus promoting the fluidity of the platform. In short, through the above functions, Little Red Book drives users to interact, share, spread and engage in UGC on the platform, thus Little Red Book enables mobility. 2.4 Little Red Book Enables Mobility by User-Generated Content (UGC) Little Red Book enables mobility of ideas by User-Generated Content (UGC). User-generated content: Little Red Book allows users to create and share various forms of UGC, including product reviews, shopping tips, beauty tutorials, fashion collaterals and more. These UGCs enrich the content on the platform and attract more users to interact with them, thus promoting the fluidity of the platform. Users can post UGC to share their shopping and usage experiences, as well as gain inspiration and advice from other users’ UGC. Social interaction: Little Red Book encourages users to engage in social interaction on UGC, such as liking, commenting and sharing. Users can leave comments, ask questions or share their experiences under UGC, interact with other users and form social circles. This social interaction enhances user stickiness, prompting users to continue interacting on the platform and sharing more UGC, thus improving the mobility of the platform. E-commerce shopping: UGC content on Little Red Book is usually related to shopping, where users can find their preferred products and purchase them directly through the platform. Greater value uncertainty in platforms with User-Generated Content than in platforms based on firm-generated content (Hemang Subramanian, Sabyasachi Mitra, & Sam Ransbotham, 2021). Product reviews and www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm Communication, Society and Media Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024 33 Published by SCHOLINK INC. trial tips in UGC play a role in guiding users’ shopping decisions. In the process of browsing and shopping, users will interact with other users and share shopping tips and shopping experiences, thus forming a shopping community and increasing the mobility of the platform. Community operation: Little Red Book attracts a group of users with the same interests by creating several communities that target specific interests and topics. Community members can discuss, share and interact together in the communities, forming a social network among users. Community administrators regularly organize online and offline events to encourage community members to get to know and interact with each other, increasing the mobility of the platform. To put it simply, Little Red Book enables mobility of ideas by User-Generated Content (UGC). 3. Little Red Book can limit mobility 3.1 Little Red Book Limits Mobility in Content Review Little Red Book limits mobility of ideas and thinking in content review. Little Red Book has a strict content review policy to regulate the content posted by users on the platform, which includes restrictions on certain types of notes, such as politically sensitive topics, violent pornography, inappropriate wording, illegal content will be subject to different degrees of restriction. Flow restriction on the Little Red Book platform means that within a certain period of time, Little Red Book restricts the frequency, quantity or manner in which users access, operate or post content in order to control the flow of the platform or maintain the stable operation of the platform. Flow restriction is a common management measure for many internet platforms, aiming to prevent malicious behavior, reduce spam, protect user experience and maintain the normal operation of the platform. Jun, L. and Jingyi (2020) proved that censorship programs being oriented more toward multimedia content like images than the text content of multimedia posts. Firstly, limit the number of times a user performs a certain type of operation, such as posting content, liking, commenting, following, etc., within a certain period of time to prevent behavior such as volume swiping, cheating and bots. Secondly, limit the number or frequency of users publishing content within a certain period of time to prevent publishing a large amount of spam, illegal content or infringement. The specific ways and restrictions of the Little Red Book platform to restrict traffic may vary according to the platform’s policies and rules, and will usually be judged based on a number of factors such as the user’s behavioral patterns, account history, IP address and device information. When users encounter flow restrictions, they may be prompted by the system to wait for a period of time before they can continue to operate, or they may need to complete additional verification steps, such as verification codes, SMS verification, etc. Users should comply with the rules and restrictions of the Little Red www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm Communication, Society and Media Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024 34 Published by SCHOLINK INC. Book platform and avoid using any illegal means to bypass the flow restriction measures, otherwise they may face penalties such as account banning and content deletion. In short, Little Red Book limits mobility of ideas and thinking in content review. 3.2 Little Red Book’s Information Cocoon Limits the Mobility Little Red Book’s Information Cocoon limits the ideas of mobility. The term “information cocoon” in the Internet usually refers to the filtering and screening of users’ information flow by certain platforms or social networks, limiting users’ access to information to a specific range, so that they can only see content related to their interests, preferences or browsing history, thus forming a kind of information "cocoon" that limits users’ access to diverse information and views. A similar information cocoon may exist on the Little Red Book platform. As a social shopping platform, Little Red Book uses algorithms to personalize users’ information flow based on their personal interests, topics they follow, browsing history and other information, limiting their exposure to a specific range of content in order to provide content that better matches their interests. Such personalized recommendations may result in users seeing content on Little Red Book mainly related to their interests, while their knowledge of other areas or opinions may be more limited, thus creating a kind of information cocoon phenomenon. The information cocoon may have a number of potential impacts on users, such as potentially leading to users getting caught up in filtering and sifting through information and lacking a diverse range of information and perspectives, which may affect their overall knowledge and understanding of the world. As I have said, Little Red Book’s Information Cocoon limits the ideas of mobility. 3.3 Little Red Book Limits Mobility by its Privacy Features Little Red Book’s privacy features limit the mobility. As a social shopping platform, Little Red Book involves the protection of users’ personal privacy information, which is very important. In order to protect the privacy rights of users, Little Red Book may impose restrictions on privacy features to prevent abuse, infringement of user privacy or violation of relevant laws and regulations. The following are some of the situations in which Little Red Book may impose restrictions on privacy features: Privacy settings: Little Red Book may impose restrictions on users’ privacy settings, such as limiting the frequency of changing the privacy settings of users’ accounts and restricting certain modifications to users’ privacy settings, in order to prevent users from changing their settings frequently and bypassing privacy protection measures. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm Communication, Society and Media Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024 35 Published by SCHOLINK INC. Access to privacy information: Little Red Book may restrict users’ access to other users’ privacy information, such as restricting the viewing of other users’ profiles, restricting the viewing of other users’ follow lists, fan lists etc., in order to protect users’ personal privacy. Privacy information posting: Little Red Book may restrict the content posted by users with privacy information, such as restricting the posting of content with sensitive information such as other people’s mobile phone numbers, ID numbers, bank account numbers etc., in order to protect the privacy of users. Privacy verification: Little Red Book may require users to undergo privacy verification in certain operations, such as mobile phone number verification and real name authentication, to ensure the authenticity and legitimacy of users’ identities when using the platform. That is to say, Little Red Book limits mobility by privacy features. 4. Conclusion and Limits Overall, these studies highlight the need for exploring the topic about Little Red Book can enable the mobility. Considering all of this evidence, it seems that Little Red Book Enables the mobility of ideas and “the self”. However, such studies remain narrow in focus dealing only with Little Red Book Platform, mobility. There remain several aspects of Little Red Book limited mobility about which relatively little is known. A more systematic and theoretical analysis is required for Little Red Book and Mobility. One of the tough challenges for all researchers in this domain is lacking of related theories about the relationship between Little Red Book and Mobility. So it is necessary to draw on other relevant research theories, use a new research methodology, look at the topic and issue from a new perspective, and conduct an in-depth discussion and research. References Guo, J. (2022). The postfeminist entrepreneurial self and the platformisation of labour: A case study of yesheng female lifestyle bloggers on Xiaohongshu. Global Media and China, 7(3), 303-318. Retrieved from 10.1177/20594364221095896 Peter, A. (n.d.). Review Essay Liquid Modernity: Bauman on Contemporary Welfare Society. Acta Sociologica, 47(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699304043854 Elmira, D., & Chloe, R. (2017). 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