New customers have piled in to Chinese language social media app RedNote simply days earlier than a proposed US ban on the favored social media app TikTok, because the lesser-known firm rushes to capitalize on the sudden inflow whereas strolling a fragile line of moderating English-language content material, sources informed Reuters.
In a dwell chat dubbed “TikTok Refugees” on RedNote on Monday, greater than 50,000 American and Chinese language customers joined the room.
Veteran Chinese language customers, with some sense of bewilderment, welcomed their American counterparts and swapped notes with them on subjects like meals and youth unemployment.
Often, nonetheless, the Individuals veered into riskier territory.
“Is it ok to ask about how laws are different in China versus Hong Kong?” one American person requested.
“We prefer not to talk about that here,” a Chinese language person responded.
Such impromptu cultural exchanges have been going down all throughout RedNote, recognized in China as Xiaohongshu, because the app surged to the highest of US obtain rankings this week. Its recognition was pushed by American social media customers casting about for a substitute for ByteDance-owned TikTok days forward of its looming ban.
In solely two days, greater than 700,000 new customers joined Xiaohongshu, an individual near the corporate informed Reuters. Xiaohongshu didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
US downloads of RedNote have been up greater than 200% year-over-year this week, and 194% from the week prior, in response to estimates from app information analysis agency Sensor Tower.
The second most-popular free app on Apple’s App Retailer checklist on Tuesday, Lemon8, one other social media app owned by ByteDance, skilled the same surge final month, with downloads leaping by 190% in December to about 3.4 million.
The inflow appeared to catch RedNote abruptly, with two sources conversant in the corporate telling Reuters they have been scrambling to seek out methods to average English-language content material and construct English-Chinese language translation instruments.
RedNote maintains just one model of its app, slightly than splitting it into abroad and home apps – a rarity amongst Chinese language social apps which can be topic to home moderation guidelines.
Nonetheless, the corporate is eager to mine the sudden rush of consideration, as executives see it as a possible path to realize international recognition much like TikTok’s.
RedNote, a enterprise capital-backed startup with a most up-to-date valuation of $17 billion, permits customers to curate images, movies and textual content documenting their lives. It has been seen as a potential IPO candidate in China.
In recent times, it has develop into a de facto search engine for its 300 million-plus customers on the lookout for journey ideas, anti-aging lotions and restaurant suggestions.
The share costs of some China-listed corporations that conduct companies with RedNote, reminiscent of Hangzhou Onechance Tech Corp., surged as a lot as 20% on Tuesday, hitting the each day restrict.
The spike in US customers comes forward of a Jan. 19 deadline for ByteDance to promote TikTok or face a ban within the US on nationwide safety grounds.
TikTok is at present utilized by about 170 million Individuals, roughly half of the nation’s inhabitants, and is overwhelmingly widespread with younger folks and the advertisers trying to attain them.
“Americans using Rednote feels like a cheeky middle finger to the US government for its overreach into businesses and privacy concerns,” mentioned Stella Kittrell, 29, a content material creator primarily based in Baltimore, Md. She mentioned she joined RedNote in hopes of additional collaborations with Chinese language corporations which she discovered useful.
Some customers mentioned they joined the platform to hunt alternate options to Meta Platforms-owned Fb and Instagram, and to Elon Musk’s X. Some expressed doubt that they might rebuild their TikTok follower base on these apps.
“It’s not the same: Instagram, X, or any other app,” mentioned Brian Atabansi, 29, a enterprise analyst and content material creator primarily based in San Diego, California. “Mainly because of how organic it is to build community on TikTok,” he mentioned.
