Instead of wallowing in distress about doubtlessly dropping entry to their favourite short-form video app, many TikTokers are flocking to RedNote, a Chinese social media platform additionally known as Xiaohongshu. I’ve determined to spend a while on the platform myself, and it appears to be like like so-called “TikTok refugees” are enthusiastic about interacting with a group primarily comprised of Chinese-speaking customers — and vice versa.
Launched in 2013 as a purchasing platform, RedNote has grown into one in every of China’s hottest social apps that includes pictures, movies, and written content material. Now it’s seeing one other spike in customers from one other a part of the globe, with greater than 700,000 customers becoming a member of RedNote in simply two days, in line with a report from Reuters. The quantity remains to be small, at only a fraction of the 150 million Americans TikTok reported had been already utilizing the app in early 2023.
As famous by CNN, the title Xiaohongshu interprets to “little crimson ebook,” which “might be seen as a tongue-in-cheek reference to a red-covered ebook of quotations from the founding father of Communist China, Mao Zedong.” Many US customers appear to be utilizing the Chinese platform out of spite of the US authorities’s plan to ban TikTok — however in a deeply unserious approach.
Amongst all of the Chinese-language posts depicting modern match checks, mouthwatering meals movies, and memes I don’t fairly perceive but, is content material from TikTok expats. Many joke about their sudden look on the app, with one consumer questioning what Chinese customers may suppose after seeing an inflow of US-based customers and one other displaying their gradual transformation from a gun-wielding, Buc-ee’s merch-wearing American right into a Chinese-speaking RedNote consumer. Others are merely saying “howdy” to their new group — a few of whom have written captions in what I’d assume is machine-translated Chinese.
Even extra attention-grabbing although, are all of the RedNote customers welcoming TikTokers with open arms. Several RedNote customers are desirous to introduce the app whereas additionally sharing some suggestions and methods on the right way to navigate it. One creator says, “now’s the proper time to dive into Chinese tradition” via RedNote with the Chinese New Year developing, including that customers on the platform are “obsessive about Luigi, Trump, and Squid Game.” Some even provide to show their new group members Chinese.
But many TikTokers are equally inquisitive about RedNote customers in China, too. “Chinese associates, put up photos of your meal or snacks for immediately! Curious to see what you sometimes eat,” one consumer writes. Another asks, “I’m American. Do y’all like us? We know y’all not the enemy. Can all of us be associates?”
The development is definitely type of healthful, and I’m right here for it, however I’m not assured it is going to truly final. If these apps develop in reputation, they might doubtlessly face a ban, too. But the migration to RedNote is probably going only a development — and developments solely final so long as it takes for one more to exchange it.
