The mood among US TikTok users has been an anxious one in the past few weeks as they monitor the progress of the Supreme Court appeal that could determine whether TikTok will be forced to divest its operations or face a ban within the country.
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the case, and a last-minute stay of execution is still thought to be possible. However, with TikTok reportedly planning to shut down its US operations on 19th January, the day a potential ban would come into force, many users have been urgently looking for alternatives.
YouTube (with its Shorts offering) and Instagram (which has also invested in short video with Reels) are both well-positioned to benefit from the uncertainty around TikTok’s future. But another, much more unexpected, contender has recently emerged: Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social commerce app known as RedNote overseas. (I’ll use the name ‘RedNote’ in this article for the sake of clarity).
At the time of writing, RedNote is the top free app on both the iOS App Store and Google Play store, with Reuters reporting that more than 700,000 new users had flocked to the app in the span of two days.
RedNote is a significant social commerce player in China but has not pushed to expand overseas, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of its app content is in Mandarin. Now, however, it has a huge influx of international users on its doorstep. Could this turn RedNote into an influential social platform on an international scale, or will its overseas popularity be a flash in the pan?
RedNote originated in 2013 as an app for Chinese shoppers travelling abroad to share product recommendations and reviews, before its founders realised that Chinese consumers who had no travel plans were also using it to research overseas goods, which they ordered with the help of relatives who were living, travelling, or studying abroad.
This led to the app developing an ecommerce offering as RedNote began catering to shoppers who wanted to buy products directly. At the same time, the platform maintained a strong culture of detailed recommendations and reviews surrounding the products, led by Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). This has made RedNote a go-to source on everything from makeup tutorials to fashion tips, posts about daily life, and travel recommendations.
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Last October, CNN Travel reported on RedNote’s sway over the travel industry, with users sharing photogenic hotspots and recommendations for attractions on the app, leading crowds of mainland Chinese tourists to flock to the spots in question. This has led some overseas businesses to create a presence on RedNote in a bid to encourage Chinese tourists.
RedNote is also renowned for its authenticity – a core trait that the app has in common with TikTok, which is also prized for being unvarnished and ‘real’.
Last December, RedNote was reported to be on track to double its net income to more than $1 billion by the end of 2024, and there has been speculation about a possible IPO. RedNote has around 300 million monthly active users, according to a report by Qiangua (Chinese-language source), a dedicated digital intelligence tool for the platform. Qiangua also noted that 70% of RedNote’s userbase is female while 30% is male, and 50% of its users were born after 1995.
RedNote is often described as ‘China’s Instagram’, or as a combination of Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok. Both pictures and short videos can be uploaded to the app, enabling users to share memes and video content of all kinds.
Other users can like and comment on this content (there is also a bookmarking feature, ‘Collect’, that allows users to curate posts in a similar fashion to Pinterest boards).
While there are some differences to the TikTok interface, once newcomers get set up with an account, it is fairly easy to port over their regular content from TikTok. Creators who don’t provide Chinese subtitles, however, are quickly bombarded with requests to do so in the comments. Many users are making use of Capcut – a video editing app owned by TikTok parent ByteDance – to add subtitles and automatically translate them into Chinese.
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RedNote’s veteran Chinese userbase have taken it upon themselves to offer guides and tutorials for using the app, educating overseas users on what to do and not to do, with hashtags such as #tkrefugees (this is used both by newcomers and by Chinese users to signal posts for their attention).
Some aspects of RedNote’s interface will also be familiar to TikTok users, with a ‘For You’ feed in the left-most tab that algorithmically surfaces posts the app deems relevant to your interests, as well as feeds broken down by topic like ‘Painting’, ‘Music’, and ‘Fashion’. There is also a ‘Nearby’ feed that uses an account’s geographic location to surface locally-relevant content.
Of course, there are also various reasons why RedNote isn’t an ideal fit for TikTok users: first and foremost, the language barrier that separates the majority of its userbase from newcomers who (largely) don’t speak Chinese. Whilst its interface can be set to English, not all of the app’s messages and instructions are translated, and its rules and guidelines are available only in Chinese (with the exception of the Privacy Policy, which is translated into English for international users).
Many users are evidently willing to use RedNote despite this hurdle, but others may be put off, and it’s possible that the novelty of a new platform won’t translate into long-term usage. The availability of machine translation tools like Capcut’s subtitles has helped to bridge the language gap, however, as has the welcoming attitude of Chinese RedNote users willing to create guides and content for their new international friends. (With that said, it’s possible that other users will be unhappy with the sudden influx, particularly if newcomers disregard community norms or aren’t considerate of Chinese culture).
One RedNote user, 安猪Andrew, who makes bilingual vlogs in Chinese and English, explained for the benefit of RedNote’s newcomers that, “This app was originally designed for information sharing as well as searching, rather than short form content or scrolling. This means that the general expectation for the quality of content is significantly higher…
“Reposting 1:1 content directly from TikTok without any adjustments – I can see why that upsets local creators.”
There’s also the fact that RedNote, as a Chinese app – not a foreign version of a Chinese app like TikTok – is subject to the Chinese government’s restrictions on content. Chinese users have already issued warnings to overseas users about this, although interestingly, China’s foreign ministry has declined to say whether it plans to step up censorship of international content on RedNote, stating that, “we encourage and support people-to-people exchanges”.
Of course, this stance could be subject to change later on.
A screenshot of the ‘For You’ feed in RedNote’s app interface. Two of the recent videos are aimed at ‘TikTok Refugees’, while a third asks Chinese users how they feel about the mass influx of newcomers from the US. At the bottom in the centre is a new post button, similar to apps like TikTok and Instagram. Source: RedNote/Xiaohongshu
Until now, RedNote’s relevance and appeal to overseas businesses and users seemed to be limited to anyone looking to connect to Chinese shoppers or travellers who might either buy their products or travel to their location as a tourist.
This has abruptly changed, and RedNote’s team have been scrambling to build translation tools and moderate the sudden influx of English-language content, according to reports.
However, although RedNote didn’t have pre-existing plans to cater to global audiences, sources told Reuters that the company is keen to take advantage of the attention. Indeed, which company wouldn’t want to make the most of this unexpected opportunity?
While the influx of overseas users has primarily been from the United States, users from a wide variety of countries have been downloading and checking out RedNote, attracted by the spike in discussion and media coverage around the app. If these international (primarily English-language) users do stick around long-term, this will likely have a beneficial knock-on effect, attracting more and more users to enjoy their content and create their own.
Whether this does happen, however, will depend on a number of factors:
Whether or not TikTok is actually banned will likely be a major determining factor on whether this international interest in RedNote lasts. Right now, the app is benefiting from the uncertainty around a possible TikTok ban, with many users assuming the worst and wanting to establish a presence on a new, similar platform as quickly as possible, so that they aren’t stranded when 19th January arrives.
However, there are still a few possible paths to reversing TikTok’s ban, including intervention from incoming US president Donald Trump, who has indicated he is open to a “political solution” that will “preserve [TikTok] but protect people’s data”. Although Trump is due to take office a day after the ban goes into effect, it’s possible that a quick reversal would nullify any negative effects. Other speculation has surrounded a potential buyer for TikTok’s US operations, although the company appears disinclined to sell to avoid a ban.
If TikTok continues to operate in the US, it’s likely that interest in RedNote would die down as TikTok continues to fulfil its role in driving conversation, trends, and memes. After all, the migration away from TikTok isn’t due to any user dissatisfaction with the app – only its potential unavailability.
Some new users will no doubt stick around to enjoy RedNote’s community, and it’s possible that it will start to attract users looking for an alternative to Instagram given its similarities to that platform. However, the migration would lack the urgency that has surrounded the move away from TikTok, and would likely be a much more gradual shift.
RedNote’s team are reportedly looking into adding more translation tools to bridge the language gap between English- and Chinese-speaking users. This would go a long way towards encouraging overseas users to set up a presence – and to stick around.
Right now, RedNote only has three language settings for its interface: English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese (the latter two being different written scripts used in specific parts of China). Adding more language settings would encourage international users who aren’t confident in English – particularly if RedNote can make more of the app’s instructions and guidelines available in other languages.
RedNote might also be able to add native subtitling features, or possibly an integration with Capcut, to make it easier for international users to make their content accessible to Chinese users – and vice versa.
While I’ve focused on the TikTok-esque video and image-sharing features in this article, ecommerce is something that RedNote does extremely well, and it is a major part of its appeal in China. Writing on LinkedIn, Jennifer Quigley-Jones, CEO of Digital Voices, said that RedNote has “Built-in commerce that puts TikTok Shop to shame – imagine if Vinted/Depop lived inside TikTok”.
RedNote’s Shop tab leads to a varied marketplace of goods, from clothing to musical instruments (I was very taken by a Hello Kitty ukulele) with detailed imagery and videos breaking down the qualities of each product. The platform also boasts live shopping, a format in which influencers livestream themselves talking about and demonstrating products that viewers can buy from the stream.
This has been a major focus for TikTok over the past couple of years as it works to introduce live shopping (which is very popular in China) to the west. Unlike TikTok, which waited several years before beginning to roll out Shop, RedNote already has this built in to its app – although right now it doesn’t seem like the functionality is available for overseas users to make a purchase. Shipping and logistics would also be an issue, although given that RedNote got its start with overseas goods, many of its sellers may already be based overseas.
If RedNote wanted to make selling internationally a focus, it could potentially give TikTok a run for its money as a social commerce competitor, with a more community-oriented take on selling items (as TikTok has ramped up ecommerce, it has faced a backlash from users who find the shopping elements and ads intrusive) or a more seamless integration of ‘social’ and ‘commerce’.
This would be more likely if RedNote can maintain its current momentum, which definitely remains to be seen. However, the possibility of TikTok having competition from another Chinese social commerce player has suddenly opened up thanks to its potential US ban.