When US authorities decided to ban the short video app TikTok citing national security concerns, they probably did not imagine that thousands of users would seek refuge on another platform that would also be Chinese: Xiaohongshu, which in Mandarin means “little red book.” The application – practically unknown outside of China until earlier this week – has reached the top of the download chart in the Apple store in the United States in recent days. The movement responds to a kind of revenge by many American content creators, outraged by the foreseeable imminent closure of TikTok on American soil. The Supreme Court of the United States must rule on whether to support the law that stipulates that the crown jewel of the Chinese technology company ByteDance must separate itself from its parent company before January 19 or, otherwise, it will cease to operate in the country.
Xiaohongshu is one of the most popular social networks among young urbanites in China, where it has 300 million active users each month, of which 79% are women. It debuted in 2013 in the Asian giant as a reviews application, a kind of ode to capitalism very far from the slogans that the founder of the People’s Republic proclaimed in the speeches compiled in the work known worldwide as the red book of Mao. The reference, however, has not caused any inconvenience for the tiktokers Americans, who call the social network Red Note (red note) or simply Red (red). The app is a mix of Instagram, Pinterest and Tripadvisor; In it, photos and short videos are shared as well as text-based publications, restaurants, tourist destinations, exhibitions, films or recipes are recommended, and tips on clothing, makeup or gym routines are uploaded or skincare. Since the pandemic, it has become the internet search engine that many Chinese people use by default.
The arrival this week of a flood of foreigners to Xiaohongshu has been received on the platform with the label “TikTok refugees”, which this Wednesday had more than 5.5 million comments and almost 250 million views. “Why are there so many laowai [término chino para referirse a los extranjeros] here? Have I chosen the wrong application?” many users ask. “Hello American friends, can anyone help me with my English homework?” is one of the most repeated jokes in recent hours.
Chinese apps that expand internationally typically create separate versions for domestic and overseas markets due to differences in content regulations—in China many topics face heavy censorship—data security and privacy protection in different countries. This is the case of TikTok itself, which is available in more than 150 nations, but not in China, where Douyin is used. Therefore, the tsunami of Western faces in Xiaohongshu, which does not have an international version, has taken Chinese users completely by surprise.
“Many of you are wondering what we are doing here, why there are so many Americans,” the tiktoker Definitelynotchippy in a video posted on Xiaohongshu. This content creator, who has accumulated half a million followers on TikTok, explains that “Our Government insists that it bans TikTok because you, the Chinese, or your Government control it. “They want us to believe that you are bad,” he asserts, “but many of us are smarter, so we have decided to annoy our Government and download an application that is really Chinese.”
According to sources cited by Reuters, in just two days, Xiaohongshu has registered more than 700,000 new users. Although the sudden migration of tiktokers Americans is making headlines, it is currently very difficult to quantify. Some analysts believe that this is probably a small fraction of the 170 million users that TikTok has in the United States (almost half of the country’s population). It also remains to be seen how long the trend will last, since Xiaohongshu is not a social network designed for foreign audiences. China, where access to applications such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube (and a very long etcetera) is very restricted, has its own ecosystem of platforms, which are not particularly intuitive for Western users, much less for those who do not live in the Asian giant.
“I have never had such a good time in Xiaohongshu,” writes a thirty-something man living in Beijing who prefers to remain anonymous. “I love this atmosphere where Chinese and Americans are constantly interacting. The world is really beautiful, it’s like seeing a garden blooming,” he describes.
But the increase in foreign users also represents a challenge for Xiaohongshu itself, since, as the volume of content in a foreign language grows, pressure on the application’s review and moderation systems increases. Therefore, it also remains up in the air whether Xiaohongshu, motu proprio or at the behest of regulators in Beijing, it will limit foreign users’ access to the platform. Other doubts that arise from this movement are whether the algorithm will treat all users equally and whether communication will be completely fluid. “We want to be respectful of your community. We want to be good guests,” some American users say in their presentations.
Hu Xijin, former director of the pro-government newspaper Global Timesand one of the greatest national opinion leaders, has already spoken about it: “This event should not be understood as a risk, but as a unique opportunity. We should welcome TikTok refugees with an open mind, instead of feeling intimidated. (…) In my opinion, the most appropriate response is to go with the flow, expand and strengthen our capacity to adapt and advance until we become the center of the virtual world,” he wrote in his personal blog.
