PS Café: How a Singapore Cafe Won Chinese Tourists on RED

For thebridgereaches.com readers · A benchmark case on Chinese-traveller visibility in Singapore

PS Café has several outlets in Singapore, but the Harding Road branch is the special one. Chinese travellers call it the "Wizard of Oz forest glass house," and it is widely shared on Xiaohongshu (RED) with tags like "same as Jay Chou," "same as Stefanie Sun," and "forest-style courtyard." In one RED note, a traveller wrote in detail about the truffle fries, the crab-and-prawn laksa and the pan-seared barramundi — and even mentioned that "my mom kept praising this basil chicken rice, saying it was super delicious; even a Chinese stomach can happily eat brunch here."

What it got right (the replicable moves)

1. It created RED content proactively, instead of waiting to be discovered

According to public case information from the agency FY Ads Singapore, PS Café actively approached them, hoping to attract Chinese consumers on RED and Dianping. The first thing FY Ads did for PS Café was content creation and curation: producing visually appealing posts that highlight signature dishes, ambience and a high-end experience, tailored to RED users' tastes. That means when a traveller searches "Singapore forest café" or "Singapore Jay Chou restaurant" on RED, PS Café's Harding Road branch shows up in the results.

2. It amplified with KOLs, not just its own official account

FY Ads' strategy explicitly mentions partnering with key opinion leaders (KOLs) in food and lifestyle to produce "authentic, relatable content" that sparked curiosity and interest among RED users. That explains why PS Café's notes don't read like brand ads, but more like "a tourist went, thought it looked great and tasted great" shares. For Singapore merchants, the takeaway is this: finding a KOC who can actually shoot and write matters more than hiring the blogger with the most followers.

3. It built a "verifiable" asset on Dianping

FY Ads also optimised PS Café's Dianping merchant page: completing restaurant information, highlighting ambience and dishes, surfacing positive reviews, and designing exclusive discounts and packages for Dianping users — plus location-based ads to reach Chinese travellers already in Singapore. This solves a key problem: after being seeded on RED, travellers go to Dianping to check "is this place actually any good." If the Dianping page is incomplete, has no packages and no recent reviews, the seeding can die right there.

4. It paved the road between "being seeded" and "spending in-store"

The results FY Ads published: PS Café's RED engagement rose, its Dianping exposure rose, and Chinese customers' in-store spending increased — especially in peak travel season. The chain is clear: RED creates desire → Dianping provides verification and conversion tools (packages / discounts) → in-store spending.

Why this is a window for Singapore businesses

Singapore tourism analyst Subramania Bhatt, in an interview with Xinhua, put it directly: Chinese tourists' interest "is no longer limited to iconic landmarks, but gradually extends to niche itineraries and unique experiences." They discover Singapore's fresh finds on RED and Douyin, which prompts them to experience independent cafés, nature hikes and restaurants tucked away in alleys — "interest is gradually spilling from landmark attractions to niche itineraries."

This means Singapore's independent cafés, small restaurants and experience operators are in the stage of being "discovered" by Chinese travellers. But "being discovered" and "being systematically operated" are two different things. PS Café belongs to the latter: it consciously built a presence on RED and Dianping, rather than waiting passively.

A piece of background data: in the first eight months of 2025, Singapore received about 2.3 million Chinese visitors, and China remains Singapore's largest source market. But spending behaviour is shifting: per-capita spend fell from about 2,270 SGD in 2023 to about 1,490 SGD in 2024, with a slight rebound to about 1,520 SGD in early 2025. That means travellers are spending more selectively — they will pay for a "worth-it experience," but need to be convinced "why it's worth it." Real RED content and Dianping packages and reviews are exactly where that "convincing" happens.

There is one more easily overlooked detail: being "China-friendly" in language and service itself lowers decision friction. Bhatt noted that Singapore operators are quietly making Mandarin service, Chinese menus and Chinese after-sales the norm — raising satisfaction without changing the city's character. For a restaurant seeded on RED, a tourist who arrives and finds staff who speak Chinese, a menu in Chinese, and even Alipay accepted gets that "caught and held" feeling that turns straight into a good review and a second round of sharing.

What BridgeReach can do for Singapore businesses (your playbook)

Building on the PS Café case and Singapore's current China-tourist trend, BridgeReach can give Singapore's restaurants, cafés, boutique hotels and experience operators a set of moves that map directly onto the path "from search to in-store":

First, build the infrastructure to be "findable in Chinese"

Many Singapore merchants' problem isn't that they're bad — it's that they aren't in the Chinese traveller's search path. When a tourist searches "Singapore café recommendation" or "Singapore niche restaurant," if your shop isn't in the results, it doesn't exist. BridgeReach can help merchants set up: a RED professional account (Chinese bio, address, opening hours, real photos), claim and optimise the Dianping page (upload a Chinese menu, mark the nearest MRT station in the address, manage recent reviews), and claim the Douyin POI. The goal: when travellers search "Singapore forest café" or "Singapore locals what to eat," your shop shows up in the results.

Second, replace "official promo" with "real content"

What made PS Café succeed wasn't a perfect menu photo — it was real notes like "same as Jay Chou," "truffle fries universally praised," "my mom said this rice is delicious." BridgeReach can help merchants connect with Chinese KOCs and travel bloggers in Singapore to produce real in-store experience content — not hard ads, but specific shares like "what I ordered, which seat I sat at, how much I spent, what's worth ordering and what to skip." This kind of content seeds far more efficiently on RED than a brand talking about itself.

Third, put Dianping's conversion tools to work

Many Singapore merchants don't know Dianping has voucher and package functions — let alone that Chinese travellers, after being seeded on RED, specifically go to Dianping to check whether the place has a discount. BridgeReach can help merchants design packages suited to Chinese tourists (for example, a "couple check-in package" or a "signature-dish tasting voucher") and list them on Dianping. A tourist who sees the RED note, finds the package on Dianping, and shows the voucher code in-store has a far shorter conversion path than one who merely "saw it."

Fourth, turn "China-friendly" into content material

If a merchant has a Chinese menu, Chinese-speaking staff, or accepts Alipay / WeChat Pay, those details should appear in the RED content. Bhatt's point — that Mandarin service and Chinese menus are becoming common — is, for travellers, a signal that lowers friction. BridgeReach can help merchants proactively showcase these "China-friendly" details, instead of waiting for tourists to discover them at the door.

One sentence to sum up: PS Café proved one thing — that in Singapore, a local café can, by being systematically operated on RED and Dianping, become a check-in spot Chinese travellers "search for, visit, photograph, and re-share." What BridgeReach does is help more Singapore businesses appear in the right spot of that search result — and make the tourists who show up willing to write the next note.

Published by thebridgereaches.com. Case information is based on FY Ads Singapore's public case, Xiaohongshu (RED) user shares and Xinhua reporting. Data sources: Singapore Tourism Board; China Trading Desk research; FY Ads Singapore; Xiaohongshu (RED) platform public content.