As TikTok’s future hangs within the steadiness, Xiaohonghshu, higher often called RedNote in English, is making an attempt to capitalize on its newfound reputation by partnering with US influencers who may also help promote the corporate and produce extra People onto its platform. The Chinese language life-style and journey app, which has over 300 million principally month-to-month energetic customers, surged to the highest of US app retailer charts final week because the TikTok ban approached.
In a marketing campaign temporary obtained by WIRED, Solare World, a New York Metropolis-based advertising and marketing company, pitched creators on making sponsored posts for RedNote, that includes movies of themselves telling their followers in regards to the Chinese language app’s sudden rise within the US. The temporary requested creators to explain “how enjoyable and fascinating the app is” and “emphasize its user-friendly design and worldwide enchantment.” It additionally instructed them to share their very own RedNote accounts and encourage their followers to hitch them on the platform.
Xiaohongshu didn’t return a request for remark despatched to its official WeChat account. Solare World additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark asking what number of influencers they contacted or how a lot the corporate anticipated to pay per submit.
The temporary considered by WIRED required creators to show their movies round on a 24-hour timeline to make sure they went up by January 17, the identical day the Supreme Courtroom was going to resolve whether or not the TikTok ban would go into impact two days later. It additionally stipulated that influencers should depart their movies up for no less than six months.
Xiaohongshu was based in 2013 and has lengthy principally centered on courting home audiences in China, significantly younger ladies who dwell in main cities. Like TikTok, it revolves round a central algorithm that recommends customers an countless stream of posts based mostly on their pursuits and conduct. However as an alternative of exhibiting folks one video at a time, Xiaohongshu presents picture slideshows, textual content posts, and movies in a grid format.
However maybe the largest distinction between the 2 apps is how they deal with content material moderation. As a result of it is accessible in China, Xiaohongshu is required to stick to strict censorship guidelines dictated by Beijing. (WIRED beforehand reported that Xiaohongshu was scrambling to rent English-speaking moderators to assist handle the flood of content material being posted by People.) TikTok, however, isn’t accessible in China. Its dad or mum firm, ByteDance, operates a separate video app there known as Douyin.
The inflow of People on Xiaohongshu supplied a uncommon alternative for folks within the US and China to attach on a shared social media platform. Some customers spent hours asking their new abroad pen friends questions on their respective nations and cultures, starting from what faculty lunch is like in Wisconsin to what a typical residence seems to be like in Chengdu. It now seems that Xiaohongshu is making an attempt to capitalize on these sentiments to advertise itself as a optimistic, world platform.
“The heat of regular folks being sort and inquisitive about each other is the core sentiment there in the meanwhile,” the influencer temporary mentioned. “And we expect it’s a good looking factor.”
