Like the future of TikTok is at stakeXiaohonghshu, better known as RedNote in English, is trying to capitalize on his new popularity by partnering with American influencers who can help promote the company and attract more Americans to its platform. The Chinese lifestyle and travel app, which has more than 300 million mostly monthly active users, rose to the top of US app store charts last week following the ban from TikTok. approach.
In a campaign filing obtained by WIRED, Solare Global, a New York-based marketing agency, invited creators to create sponsored posts for RedNote, featuring videos of themselves speaking to their followers about the sudden rise of the Chinese app in the United States. The brief asked creators to describe “how fun and engaging the app is” and to “emphasize its user-friendly design and international appeal.” He also asked them to share their own RedNote accounts and encourage their followers to join them on the platform.
Xiaohongshu did not respond to 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 they contacted or how much the company expected to pay per post.
The brief seen by WIRED required creators to shoot their videos on a 24-hour timeline to ensure they were released before January 17. the same day the Supreme Court would decide whether the TikTok ban would take effect two days later. It also stipulated that influencers had to leave their videos online for at least six months.
Xiaohongshu was founded in 2013 and has long focused primarily on courting domestic audiences in China, particularly young women living in big cities. Like TikTok, it’s built around a central algorithm that recommends a never-ending stream of posts to users based on their interests and behavior. But instead of showing people one video at a time, Xiaohongshu presents photo slideshows, text messages, 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 follow strict censorship rules dictated by Beijing. (WIRED previously reported (that Xiaohongshu was scrambling to hire English-speaking moderators to help manage the flood of content posted by Americans.) TikTok, on the other hand, is not available in China. Its parent company, ByteDance, operates a separate video app there called Douyin.
The influx of Americans on Xiaohongshu provided a rare opportunity for Americans and Chinese to connect on a shared social media platform. Some users spent hours asking their new foreign correspondents questions about their respective countries and cultures, ranging from what a school lunch is like in Wisconsin to what a typical apartment in Chengdu looks like. It now appears that Xiaohongshu is trying to capitalize on these sentiments to present itself as a positive global platform.
“The warmth of normal people, kind and curious about each other, is the central feeling right now,” the influencer’s brief reads. “And we think that’s a beautiful thing.”