RedNote Recruited US Influencers to Promote App Amid TikTok Ban Uncertainty

As the future of TikTok The balance is offXiaohonghshu, better known as RedNote in English, is trying to capitalize on this Its new popularity Partnering with US influencers who can help promote the company and bring more Americans to its platform. The Chinese lifestyle and travel app, which has more than 300 million monthly active users, topped the US App Store charts last week due to the TikTok ban. nearby.

In a campaign summary obtained by WIRED, Solar Global, a New York City-based marketing firm, supports creators to create sponsored posts for RedNote, with their videos informing their followers about the sudden rise of Chinese apps in the US. The brief asked creators to describe “how fun and engaging the app is” and “emphasize its user-friendly design and international appeal”. It instructed them to share their own RedNote accounts and encourage their followers to join them on the platform.

Xiaohongshu did not return requests for comment sent to his official WeChat account. Solare Global also did not respond to requests for comment on how many influencers it contacted or how much the company expected to pay per post.

The brief, seen by WIRED, requires creators to rotate their videos on a 24-hour timeline to ensure they go up by Jan. 17, same day The Supreme Court is set to decide in two days whether the TikTok ban will come into effect. It also states that influencers must release their videos for a minimum of six months.

Xiaohongshu was founded in 2013 and has long focused on China’s domestic audience, particularly young women who live in major cities. Like TikTok, it revolves around a central algorithm that recommends a constant stream of posts to users based on their interests and behavior. But instead of showing people one video at a time, Xiaohongshu presents photo slideshows, text posts and videos in a grid format.

But perhaps the biggest difference between the two apps is how they handle content moderation. Because it is accessible in China, Xiaohongshu must adhere to strict censorship rules dictated by Beijing. (Wired As previously reported (That Xiaohongshu scrambled to hire English-speaking moderators to help manage the flood of content posted by Americans.) TikTok, on the other hand, is not available in China. Its parent company operates ByteDance A separate video app There is called Douyin.

The arrival of Americans in Xiaohongshu provided a rare opportunity for people from the United States and China to connect on a shared social media platform. Some users spent hours asking their new foreign pen pals questions about their respective countries and cultures, from school lunches in Wisconsin to what a typical apartment looks like in Chengdu. It now appears that Xiaohongshu is trying to capitalize on those sentiments to promote itself as a positive, global platform.

“The warmth of normal people being kind and curious about each other is the key feeling out there right now,” the influencer brief said. “And we think that’s a beautiful thing.”