New customers have piled in to the Chinese language social media app RedNote simply days earlier than a proposed US ban on the favored social media app TikTok, because the lesser-known firm rushes to capitalize on the sudden inflow whereas strolling a fragile line of moderating English-language content material.
In a dwell chat dubbed “TikTok Refugees” on RedNote on Monday, greater than 50,000 US and Chinese language customers joined the room. Veteran Chinese language customers, with some sense of bewilderment, welcomed their American counterparts and swapped notes with them on subjects akin to meals and youth unemployment. Sometimes, nonetheless, the Individuals veered into riskier territory.
“Is it OK to ask about how legal guidelines are totally different in China versus Hong Kong?” one American consumer requested. A Chinese language consumer responded: “We desire to not discuss that right here.”
Such impromptu cultural exchanges have been going down all throughout RedNote, recognized in China as Xiaohongshu, because the app surged to the highest of US obtain rankings this week. Its reputation was pushed by US social media customers casting about for a substitute for ByteDance-owned TikTok days upfront of its looming ban.
RedNote, a enterprise capital-backed startup with a most up-to-date valuation of $17bn, permits customers to curate images, movies and textual content documenting their lives. It has been seen as a potential IPO candidate in China. Lately, it has turn into a de facto search engine for its 300 million-plus customers in search of journey ideas, anti-ageing lotions and restaurant suggestions.
In solely two days, greater than 700,000 new customers joined Xiaohongshu, an individual near the corporate stated. Xiaohongshu didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. US downloads of RedNote have been up greater than 200% year-over-year this week, and 194% from the week earlier than, in keeping with estimates from app knowledge analysis agency Sensor Tower.
The second-most widespread free app on Apple’s App Retailer record on Tuesday, Lemon8, one other social media app owned by ByteDance, skilled an identical surge final month, with downloads leaping by 190% in December to about 3.4m. The app noticed an identical rise in Google’s Play Retailer.
The inflow appeared to catch RedNote abruptly, with two sources aware of the corporate saying they have been scrambling to seek out methods to reasonable English-language content material and construct English-Chinese language translation instruments. TikTok customers posted movies of themselves talking in primary Mandarin in order to work together extra totally with RedNote customers.
RedNote maintains just one model of its app, somewhat than splitting it into abroad and home apps – a rarity amongst Chinese language social apps which might be topic to home moderation guidelines. ByteDance publishes two variations of its short-form video app: Duoyin in China and TikTok within the the rest of the world.
RedNote is eager to mine the sudden rush of consideration, as executives see it as a possible path to attain world reputation just like TikTok’s. The share costs of some China-listed firms that conduct companies with RedNote, akin to Hangzhou Onechance Tech Corp, surged as a lot as 20% on Tuesday, hitting the day by day restrict.
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The spike in US customers comes earlier than a 19 January deadline for ByteDance to promote TikTok or face a ban within the US on nationwide safety grounds. TikTok is presently utilized by about 170 million Individuals, roughly half of the nation’s inhabitants, and is overwhelmingly widespread with younger folks and the advertisers seeking to attain them.
“Individuals utilizing Rednote looks like a cheeky center finger to the US authorities for its overreach into companies and privateness issues,” stated Stella Kittrell, 29, a content material creator based mostly in Baltimore, Maryland. She stated she joined RedNote in hopes of additional collaborations with Chinese language firms which she discovered useful. Some customers stated they joined the platform to hunt alternate options to Meta-owned Fb and Instagram, and to Elon Musk’s X. Some expressed doubt that they might rebuild their TikTok follower base on these apps.
“It’s not the identical: Instagram, X or some other app,” stated Brian Atabansi, 29, a enterprise analyst and content material creator based mostly in San Diego, California. “Primarily due to how natural it’s to construct neighborhood on TikTok,” he stated.