With the future of TikTok in the balance, Xiaohonghshu, better known as RedNote in English, is trying to take advantage of its new popularity by partnering with US influencers who can help promote the company and bring more Americans to its site. The Chinese lifestyle and travel app, which has more than 300 million active users, most of them monthly, climbed to the top of the US app store charts last week as the TikTok ban loomed.
In a brief campaign obtained by WIRED, Solare Global, a marketing agency based in New York City, suggested that creators make posts sponsored by RedNote, which contain videos of them telling their followers about the sudden rise of the Chinese app in the US. The brief asked creators to describe “how fun and engaging the app is” and “emphasize its easy-to-use design and international appeal.” It also instructed them to share their RedNote accounts and encourage their followers to join them on the platform.
Xiaohongshu did not return a request for comment sent to his official WeChat account. Solare Global also did not respond to a request for comment asking how many influencers it has contacted or how much the company expects to pay per post.
The brief seen by WIRED required creators to change their videos on a 24-hour timeline to ensure they went up by January 17, the same day the Supreme Court was set to decide whether TikTok’s ban would go into effect two days later. It also stipulated that promoters must leave their videos for at least six months.
Xiaohongshu was founded in 2013 and has long focused on appealing to the domestic audience in China, especially young women living in big cities. Like TikTok, it revolves around a centralized algorithm that recommends users an endless stream of posts based on their interests and behavior. But instead of showing people one video at a time, Xiaohongshu presents slideshows of images, text posts, and videos in a grid format.
But perhaps the biggest difference between the two apps is how they handle content moderation. Because it is accessible in China, Xiaohongshu is required to comply with strict censorship regulations imposed by Beijing. (WIRED previously reported that Xiaohongshu was struggling to hire English-speaking moderators to help manage the mass of content posted by Americans.) TikTok, on the other hand, is not available in China. Its parent company, ByteDance, uses a different video app there called Douyin.
The influx of Americans to Xiaohongshu has given US and Chinese people a rare opportunity to communicate through a shared social network. Some users spent hours asking their new overseas friends questions about their different countries and cultures, from what school meals are like in Wisconsin to what a typical apartment looks like in Chengdu. Now it seems that Xiaohongshu is trying to use those feelings to promote itself as a good, global platform.
“The warmth of ordinary people being kind and curious about each other is the most popular concept right now,” said the influencer. “And we think it’s a good thing.”
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