The Chinese app Xiaohongshu / RedNote has been very successful in the United States lately. It is also increasing in France. A popularity which is not unrelated to the threats hovering over TikTok.
A Chinese application, where the interface leaves almost no room for the English language, tops downloads in the United States. This is the astonishing situation that we have noticed in recent days across the Atlantic. The application, which is called Xiaohongshu (小红书), is in fact at the top of the most downloaded free apps of the moment.
On the American version of the App Store, it is number one in the top, both for the iPhone and the iPad. Xiaohongshu (also called RedNote, because his name means little red book) allows itself in passing to overtake some very popular heavyweights, such as Google Maps, TikTok, Instagram, ChatGPT or even WhatsApp.
It’s not just America that’s falling under RedNote’s spell. Obviously, the mobile application is starting to break through in France. The ranking of free apps for iPhone places it in fourth position, behind ChatGPT, Threads and Temu (another Chinese app dedicated to e-commerce, but with a translated interface), according to our findings.
But what is Xiaohongshu / RedNote?
If you’ve ever heard of Xiaohongshu/RedNote, maybe it’s due to the partnership signed between the Chinese company and Kylian Mbappé. In this context, the French footballer appears in an advertisement where he is made to pronounce the Xiaohongshu brand several times. This is not a deepfake of the star, unlike other fakes.
Launched in 2013, it experienced a notable increase during the covid period in China and today, it claims more than 300 million active members each month, reported the newspaper Nikkei. For his part, Bloomberg evokes profits which are now approaching a billion dollars, and a possible IPO.
In a description shared on Google Play and the App Store, the app is presented as follows: “ Xiaohongshu REDnote, the foreign version of Xiaohongshu APP, is a lifestyle platform for young people, where everyone can share their life experiences, experience a real, beautiful and diverse world, and find the life they want. »
We therefore find functionalities equivalent to the service which belongs to Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads, Quest, etc.), for sharing photos and videos. It can also be used to spot trends, react to content, and even launch live videos. But that’s not all: it also has a whole section linked to online commerce.
Why is everyone rushing to RedNote / Xiaohongshu?
The meteoric rise of RedNote / Xiaohongshu in the charts is unsurprisingly linked to the increasingly uncertain destiny of TikTok in the USA. In principle, TikTok has until January 19 to find an American buyer, otherwise it will be completely banned in the United States. But Donald Trump has suggested that he could grant him a reprieve.
As the next US president takes full office on January 20, many netizens appear to be preparing for a very unfavorable scenario by migrating to RedNote/Xiaohongshu. This, while the app is very difficult to access – including registration – due to the lack of an interface translation into English.
The Verge saw “ Many US users call themselves ‘TikTok refugees’ in videos, while others write in text messages that they are looking for a new community because of TikTok’s potential ban “. The scale of the exodus remains difficult to gauge at this stage.
It is especially important to qualify it. It is plausible that the prospect of the end of TikTok in the United States – also pushed by Meta, who would like to eject TikTok – leads to a one-off crowd movement, which caused this jump of RedNote / Xiaohongshu in the charts. But it is plausible that many prefer to fall back on Instagram or YouTube.
This peak can certainly be compared to other momentary increases which allowed social networks to shine for a time, due to circumstances. We could cite Diaspora, Mastodon and Bluesky. If some people aggregate communities far from being anecdotal, this has not resulted in a reversal of the balance of power either.
Source: www.numerama.com
