“Hey everybody, my identify is Ryan. I am a TikTok refugee. The American authorities is banning TikTok so we’re in search of an alternate…We’re very sorry to interrupt you right here. Hope we do not have to remain right here for too lengthy,” a Xiaohongshu consumer utilizing the identify Ryan Martin mentioned in a video posted yesterday seemingly addressing the app’s Chinese language consumer base. He translated the assertion into Chinese language and used a robotic voice generator to learn it within the video, which has since been appreciated over 24,000 occasions. “It’s tremendous, you aren’t interrupting. If you guys are energetic, we’re sleeping,” reads one of many prime feedback in Chinese language.
There are additionally dozens of dwell audio chatrooms on the platform the place American and Chinese language customers defined to one another, in all probability for the primary time in lots of circumstances, how their respective societies work and clarified widespread misunderstandings. The preferred chatroom has been listened to by practically 30,000 customers.
Whereas Xiaohongshu isn’t particularly named within the Defending People from International Adversary Managed Purposes Act that the Supreme Courtroom is at the moment contemplating and will lead to a US ban on TikTok, the regulation does stipulate that any “overseas adversary managed software” could face the same destiny sooner or later. In different phrases, there’s no assure that Xiaohongshu received’t observe in TikTok’s footsteps in being blocked by the US authorities as properly.
The TikTok ban may need catapulted Xiaohongshu to the focus within the US, however the app has been profitable for a very long time in China. Based in 2013, the Shanghai-based firm has operated one in all, if not the most, stylish platform in China over the previous few years and reportedly generated over $1 billion in annual earnings in 2024. To place it merely, it’s the most well liked app in China that non-Chinese language individuals have by no means heard of earlier than.
It additionally has a large following amongst Chinese language-speakers outdoors of the nation, starting from Chinese language college students abroad to Taiwanese individuals to diaspora communities in Malaysia. Eating places, vacationer sizzling spots, and journey firms all over the world have began noticing the app due to what number of Chinese language vacationers closely depend on it for native info and proposals shared by fellow Chinese language individuals.
The app is starkly totally different from TikTok in just a few main methods. Whereas Xiaohongshu does permit customers to put up brief vertical movies identical to TikTok, nearly all of the content material on the platform is photograph slideshows coupled with textual content, which is why individuals typically view it extra as a competitor to Instagram than TikTok. The app’s AI-powered grid-shaped feed (known as a “masonry grid” in skilled tech circles) has been so profitable in driving engagement that bigger social media firms like Tencent and ByteDance have copied the design in their very own merchandise. Lemon8, the opposite common social media app developed by ByteDance apart from TikTok, is extensively seen as an try and emulate Xiaohongshu and its success.
In reality, the app doesn’t actually have a good English translation of its personal identify: Xiaohongshu is the simply the phonetic translation of its Chinese language identify. 小红书. Whereas the literal translation “little purple e-book” could remind English-speaking customers of former Chinese language chief Mao Zedong’s assortment of speeches and propaganda slogans by the identical identify, it has a distinct connotation in China, the place customers interpret it as a supply of dependable user-generated suggestions for mundane issues, like which restaurant to go to or which beauty product to purchase.
