In the lead up to the ban of TikTok in the US, long time users of the platform have been rushing to other platforms as #tiktokrefugees to connect with their existing followers or restart their social media presence from scratch.
In a surprising twist, many went directly to another Chinese social media platform, Xiaohongshu, now known as RedNote in the US. Around 3 million new user accounts were started on the platform in just over a week, representing around 2% of the USA TikTok user base.
RedNote quickly climbed to the top of Apple’s US App Store, and the influx of new user marked the platform’s first large-scale entry into the Western market, especially with the wide reporting by outlets including Reuters, BBC, CNN and The Washington Post.
As the confusion over TikTok USA’s fate continues during the next 90 days, there is an opportunity for brands to reengage with these active content creators that are reestablishing themselves on other platforms, including Xiaohongshu, on a platform that combines some of the best social media and ecommerce features of TikTok and Instagram.
What is RedNote / Xiaohongshu / Little Red Book?
Red is a well-established Chinese social media app, launched in 2013, and now has over 300 million monthly active users with around 5-8% of those users outside of mainland China. The platform’s core focus on lifestyle content—covering travel, food, beauty, fashion, and wellness.
The core demographic of Red users are highly educated, living in 1st and 2nd Tier Cities in China, with strong spending power. The audience is 70% female and has continues to boost the popularity of categories including fashion, cosmetics and beauty.
It is most often compared to TikTok for its short-form video capabilities and Instagram for its visual curation, along with the “cluster feed” of Pinterest where 4 items can be seen at once on the feed, rather than a single item at a time on Instagram.
Like TikTok and Douyin, Red has also become a go-to search engine for user-driven recommendations, such as travel tips and product reviews. This is due to the “Nearby” tab on the home page, which only shows content that is close to the user, which boosts local engagement and social sharing.
Americans that joined the platform are largely seeing content from other Americans in the US, alongside content from Chinese speaking Americans. There has been plenty of curiosity about the platform and many new users are enjoying being able to connect and share content in a similar way to their experience on TikTok.
The use of Red as a search engine for product reviews helps enable a positive feedback loop known as the ‘social commerce cycle’ where users seek product reviews, and then buy products directly inside the app, from brands or from creator “shops”. Users then post their own reviews of the product on the platform and the cycle continues.
Instagram has shoppable posts, but that platform is not used as much for product reviews or as a search engine for reviews, so Red has a significant advantage here for engaging with an audience that is actively looking to buy products which are related to the most popular content areas.
Red has a dynamic and organic way to build communities, including live streaming and excellent hashtag and trend integration, this mirrors the organic engagement that has make TikTok so popular. Content does not always need to be polished and elite like Instagram. It can be casual, personal and more authentic.
For many TikTok users that have generated large audiences, including those that do live streaming, or sell on TikTok shop, the ban and the uncertainty around it has been particularly frustrating. Many have seen the ban as a level of overreach into their personal and professional use of social media in the USA.
The new arrivals to RedNote have been welcomed to the platform with a mixture of confusion and surprise, with many discussions of everyday life, comparisons to annual salary and weekly grocery bills being shared. Duolingo also noted a significant rise in downloads and signups for learning Mandarin.
For brand owners, this surge in adoption represents a golden opportunity to tap into a new and rapidly growing user base. The platform’s focus on community-driven discovery means advertisers can benefit from Red’s high engagement and potential to build brand loyalty among culturally curious audiences.
Despite its popularity, RedNote is still adapting to Western markets. The app’s interface and icon remain largely tailored to its Chinese roots, with minimal bilingual support. While this may present a hurdle for some users and advertisers, it also highlights RedNote’s significant growth potential.
The development teams are working around the clock to make the platform more user friendly to English-speaking audiences. On international app stores, the app icon is still in Chinese, as the core audience was originally mandarin speakers overseas. It will be interesting to see if the team update this in the coming days as TikTok gets removed from the app store on Sunday.
Some brands are already playing up the TikTok ban and becoming #tiktokrefugees themselves, and posting on Red and other platforms, including Lemon8. The setup of official accounts on platforms in China takes longer than on Western ones, and there will be a range of popular brands on TikTok in the US that are keen to follow their audience of existing and potential customers to other platforms.
The first stages of the ban initially hobbled a range of the cloud hosting service
The ban in the US technically blocks providers from delivering services to TikTok, including cloud hosting and data servers. This initially pushed the platform offline as the ban came into effect, but the announcement of a temporary reprieve for 90 days seems to have the system working again.
The question will be if the damage has already been done, and content creators continue to hedge their bets to ensure they are not overly reliant on one platform. This certainly seemed to be the case with large scale professional streamers, hosting their final TikTok streams over the weekend, saying goodbye to their audience, letting them know where else they can follow them and then shifting their efforts to other platforms for daily steaming and updates.
For now, Red’s rapid rise to prominence may signal a shift and fragmentation of audiences as TikTok users look to other platforms which suit the style of content they wish to continue consuming and creating. For brands already advertising on TikTok, transitioning to or incorporating Red could ensure continued access to a young, engaged audience and a way to remain relevant and competitive.
Make sure to follow some of our clients on Xiaohongshu:
For more insights on Red, make sure to download our China Social Media Platforms Guide here:
https://www.umssocial.com/china-social-media-platform-report/download
