With TikTok’s future in jeopardy, Xiaohongshu, known in English as RedNote, is looking to expand its new business by partnering with U.S. influencers who can help promote the company and bring more Americans to its platform. Trying to capitalize on popularity. The Chinese lifestyle and travel app, which has more than 300 million monthly active users, shot to the top of the U.S. app store charts last week as TikTok’s ban approaches.
In a campaign summary obtained by WIRED, New York City-based marketing agency Solare Global pitches creators to make sponsored posts on Red Note, and sells Chinese-made apps in the U.S. featured a video telling their followers about their sudden popularity. The brief asked creators to explain “how fun and engaging their apps are” and “highlight their user-friendly design and international appeal.” He also shared his RedNote account and encouraged his followers to join the platform.
Xiaohongshu did not respond to a request for comment sent to its official WeChat account. Solare Global also did not respond to requests for comment about how many influencers it has contacted or how much the company plans to pay per post.
A brief seen by WIRED gives creators a 24-hour window to ensure the release is made by January 17, when the Supreme Court is scheduled to decide whether to take effect on TikTok in two days. I was asking to play a video on line. It also stipulated that influencers must leave their videos alone for at least six months.
Xiaohongshu was founded in 2013 and has long focused primarily on appealing to a domestic Chinese audience, especially young women living in big cities. Similar to TikTok, it revolves around a central algorithm that recommends endless posts based on users’ interests and behaviors. But instead of showing people one video at a time, Xiaohongshu displays photo slideshows, 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 must follow strict censorship rules set by the Chinese government. (WIRED previously reported that Xiaohongshu is rushing to hire English-speaking moderators to moderate the large amount of content posted by Americans.) TikTok, on the other hand, is not available in China. Parent company ByteDance operates another video app there called Douyin.
The influx of Americans to Xiaohongshu has provided a valuable opportunity for people in the United States and China to connect on a shared social media platform. Some users spent hours asking their new international pen pals questions about their respective countries and cultures, from school lunches in Wisconsin to what a typical apartment in Chengdu was like. Now, Xiaohongshu appears to be trying to capitalize on these sentiments to promote itself as a positive global platform.
“The warmth of ordinary people being kind and curious about each other is the core emotion of this moment,” the influencer’s synopsis reads. “And we think that’s a beautiful thing.”
