“Hello everyone, my name is Ryan. I'm a TikTok refugee. The US government is banning TikTok, so we're looking for an alternative…We're so sorry to interrupt you here. Hope We won't have to stay here long.” Taller,'' a Xiahongshu user using the name Ryan Martin said in a video Posted Yesterday it appeared he was addressing the app's Chinese user base. They translated the statement into Chinese and used a robotic voice generator to read it in the video, which has since been liked more than 24,000 times. โOkay, you are not interfering. While you guys are active, we are sleeping,โ one of the top comments in Chinese reads.
The platform also features dozens of live audio chatrooms where American and Chinese users explained to each other, perhaps in many cases for the first time, how their respective societies work and clarified common misconceptions. The most popular chatroom is listened to by almost 30,000 users.
While Xiaohongshu is not specifically named in the Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemies Controlled Applications Act, which is currently being considered by the Supreme Court and could result in a US ban on TikTok, the law stipulates that any Also “foreign enemy controlled applications” may face a similar fate. In future. In other words, there is no guarantee that Xiaohongshu will not follow in TikTok's footsteps if blocked by the US government.
The TikTok ban may have thrust Xiaohongshu into the spotlight in the US, but the app has long been successful in China. Established in 2013, the Shanghai-based company has operated one of, if not The trendiest platform in the last few years and reportedly originated in China Annual profits exceed $1 billion In 2024. Simply put, it's the most popular app from China that non-Chinese people have never heard of before.
It also has a large following among Chinese speakers outside the country, ranging from Chinese students abroad to Taiwanese to the expatriate community in Malaysia. Restaurants, tourist hot spots and travel companies around the world People have started to pay attention to the app because of how many Chinese tourists rely heavily on it for local information and recommendations shared by fellow Chinese people.
This app is completely different from TikTok in some key ways. While Xiaohongshu allows users to post short vertical videos, just like TikTok, most of the content on the platform is photo slideshows with text, which is why people often see it more as a competitor to Instagram than TikTok. . The app's AI-powered grid-shaped feed (known as the “masonry grid” in professional tech circles) has been so successful in increasing engagement that big social media companies like Tencent and ByteDance have built the design into their own products. Have copied. Apart from TikTok, another popular social media app developed by ByteDance is Lemon8. It is widely seen as an attempt to emulate Xiaohongshu. And its success.
In fact, the app doesn't even have a good English translation of its name: Xiahongshu is just a phonetic translation of its Chinese name. ๅฐ็บขไนฆ. While the literal translation “Little Red Book” may remind English-speaking users of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong's collection of speeches and propaganda slogans of the same name, it has a different meaning in China, where users refer to it as a reliable user's source. Explain as. -Making recommendations for mundane things, like which restaurant to go to or which cosmetic product to buy.