# Category content intel: what TikTok and Xiaohongshu are saying about a product category

Give your agent a category keyword and get back the top posts on TikTok and Xiaohongshu (RedNote) with engagement, plus the follower counts of the creators behind the TikTok hits. 3 steps through 鹦鹉AI. Low frequency, high decision value.

## Try it

Setup line (paste into any agent): `set up data capabilities — https://parrot.amorist.cn/llms.txt`

Then ask: "Using 鹦鹉AI, search TikTok for 'protein powder' sorted by likes and Xiaohongshu for '蛋白粉' sorted by popularity. Show me the price first. Return a CSV with platform, likes, comments, plays, caption and posted date, sorted by likes. Then pull the profiles of the top 10 TikTok creators and add their follower counts."

- **Search both sources** TikTok shows Western demand, Xiaohongshu shows Chinese consumer behaviour. One prompt, two markets.
- **Use the native language on Xiaohongshu** Search the Chinese term. An English keyword returns a thin, unrepresentative page.
- **Sort by engagement** Both routes accept a sort. Likes-first surfaces what resonated, not what was posted last.
- **Profile the creators behind the hits** Follower count tells you whether a hit came from reach or from resonance.

## The steps

What 鹦鹉 AI calls, and what each call costs.

| # | Step | What the agent asks | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Search TikTok | keyword search with sort and publish-time filters, 20 videos per page | 0.7 credits per call |
| 2 | Search Xiaohongshu | keyword search with popularity sort and a publish-time window | 15.5 credits per call |
| 3 | Profile the top creators | follower count and video count for one TikTok handle | 0.7 credits per call |

- Search TikTok: One page per call. Region defaults to US.
- Search Xiaohongshu: Billed only on success; errors are free. Returns 20 notes per page.
- Profile the top creators: Runs once per creator you keep. Charged on 2xx only.

At the rates above, 10 rows where every call hits comes to 23.20 credits. The receipt below is what it actually cost.

## What it actually cost

Run on 2026-09-14.

- TikTok: 20 videos for 'protein powder', top post 719,160 likes
- Xiaohongshu: 20 notes for '蛋白粉' in the last six months, top note 48,588 likes
- Creators profiled: 10 of 10 TikTok creators, 11,500 to 11,000,000 followers
- Total metered: 22.40 credits: 0.70 credits TikTok search, 15.40 credits Xiaohongshu search, 7.01 credits profiles

Twelve calls. The two searches returned 40 posts; the ten profile pulls added follower counts to the TikTok hits. The spread is the finding: the same category's top TikTok post has fifteen times the likes of the top Xiaohongshu note, and the creators behind the TikTok hits range from an 11k-follower account to an 11M one, so reach alone does not explain the ranking. The Xiaohongshu search is the expensive call; everything else is TikHub's per-success rate.

Download the CSV of this run: https://parrot.amorist.cn/workflows/category-content-intel-tiktok-xiaohongshu.csv

HTML version: https://parrot.amorist.cn/workflows/category-content-intel-tiktok-xiaohongshu

## Before you start

**What does searching both sources cost?** The receipt above is one real run. The Xiaohongshu call is the expensive one; the TikHub calls are the cheap ones.

**Can I get transcripts?** Yes. The catalog has TikTok transcript routes; add them as a step for the posts you shortlist.

**What about Instagram or YouTube?** Add those searches to the prompt. The catalog has keyword search on both.

**How do I track this over time?** Run the same prompt weekly and keep the CSVs. The agent can diff the top posts between runs.

**Why did my DIY TikTok scraper die?** Endpoints and anti-bot checks move. That is expected. This workflow uses maintained tools so the maintenance sits with them.

**Can one scraper cover both TikTok and Xiaohongshu?** Often not well. Many social scrapers are TikTok-first and lag on RedNote. Treat them as separate steps with separate failure modes.

## Related

- Search posts by keyword: https://parrot.amorist.cn/use-cases/search-posts-by-keyword
- Search videos and channels by keyword: https://parrot.amorist.cn/use-cases/search-videos-and-channels-by-keyword
- Find creators by keyword: https://parrot.amorist.cn/use-cases/find-creators-by-keyword
- A channel's profile and lifetime stats: https://parrot.amorist.cn/use-cases/youtube-channel-stats