Social media start-up Xiaohongshu has seen its Chinese app hit the top of the US iPhone downloads chart, in an unexpected reaction to short video app TikTok, which faces a ban later this week.
Xiaohongshu, which translates as “Little Red Book” but is widely known in the US as RedNote, topped Apple’s free app downloads this week as so-called TikTok refugees flocked to its platform.
One employee at the Shanghai-based company described the sudden surge in downloads as a “surprise,” as it has no plans to grow by targeting US users and the start-up is focused on consolidating its popularity in China.
Most of the content is in Mandarin, and the app does not have a translation feature to allow new US users to understand the posts. The application does not have an official English name.
They added that the company is trying to take advantage of the spike in traffic and may have to change its content review mechanisms if US influencers start posting.
“Xiaohongshu now faces the unique challenge of managing a single platform with Chinese and Western users who have vastly different expectations regarding content moderation and free speech, while maintaining compliance with Chinese internet regulations,” said Olivia Plotnick, founder of the social media agency. Wai Social.
“Rapidly adapting the platform to accommodate this influx of non-Mandarin speaking users would require significant investment and infrastructure changes that may not align with Xiaohongshu’s current focus.”
New American users were initially focused on introducing themselves to the Chinese audience, identifying themselves as “TikTok refugees” or “TikTok nomads.” One user named Trini posted her book recommendations, repeating “BookTok” community within TikTok, while another user known as “SoCal Masker” wrote in English and Chinese that he was “looking forward to this new opportunity to share his content.”
The sudden influx of users is largely a symbolic change led by influencers protesting the US move to ban TikTok, with several viral posts joking that they are simply switching to another Chinese platform. That “points to growing discontent with Meta’s platforms, which people assume will benefit from the TikTok ban,” Plotnick said.
ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, is bracing for a potential ban from the US Supreme Court does not overturn law to block the application unless a non-Chinese buyer is found before the January 19 deadline. The court indicated on Friday that it would uphold the ban because ByteDance has close ties to the Chinese government.
For TikTok’s 170 million US users, this wouldn’t mean the platform was going away immediately, but ByteDance wouldn’t be able to update the app and performance would drop.
Xiaohongshu is an Instagram-like app extremely popular among young Chinese women, who use the platform for travel, dining and beauty tips. It is an important platform for fashion and cosmetics brands to reach affluent urban consumers through post promotions or paying influencers. The base of male users is also constantly growing.
Company is profitable and was one of several success stories in China’s internet sector hit by bankruptcies and devaluations. Xiaohongshu is investing in its e-commerce business in China, trying to turn its traffic into new sources of revenue. Until now, it has struggled to make a big splash in e-commerce, a highly saturated market dominated by Alibaba’s Taobao and ByteDance’s Douyin, China’s sister version of TikTok.
Xiaohongshu did not respond to a request for comment.
In the summer, Xiaohongshu was estimated at 17 billion dollars in a secondary share sale in which venture capital firm DST Global bought shares from existing investors. At the peak of valuations for Chinese internet start-ups in 2021, the company was valued at $20 billion in a funding round that included Singaporean state-backed investor Temasek.
Xiaohongshu is targeting an initial public offering in Hong Kong but is waiting for Beijing to clarify its stance on overseas listings of major tech companies, the FT previously reported.
The start-up’s IPO plans are complicated by the wealth of information it holds about Chinese consumers, which could put it in the crosshairs of China’s restrictions on cross-border data sharing.
Additional reporting by Hannah Murphy in San Francisco and Gavin Huang in Hong Kong
