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This paper analyzes user reactions to Xiaohongshu's built-in translation feature using sentiment and thematic analysis of 6,723 comments. The study reveals generally positive user sentiment, especially for translating posts and comments. However, users also expressed concerns about functionality, accessibility, and translation accuracy while actively experimenting with diverse language inputs.
Users on Xiaohongshu are generally happy with the platform's new translation feature, but their creative use of slang, emoji, and coded language highlights the challenges of real-world machine translation.
The growing integration of machine translation into social media platforms is transforming how users interact with each other across cultural and linguistic boundaries. This paper examines user reactions to the launch of Xiaohongshu's built-in translation feature in January 2025. Drawing on a dataset of 6,723 comments collected from 11 official posts promoting the translation function, this paper combines sentiment analysis with thematic analysis to investigate how users perceived and experimented with the function. Results show that reactions were generally positive, particularly for translating posts and comments, although concerns regarding functionality, accessibility, and translation accuracy were also expressed. In addition to evaluative feedback, users actively tested the function with diverse inputs, including words and phrases in English and Chinese, abbreviations in pinyin, internet slang, and other language forms such as emoji, kaomoji, coded texts, etc. The findings highlight the importance of closer collaboration among computer scientists, translation scholars, and platform designers to better understand and improve translation technologies in real world communicative context.
