The Chinese application Xiaohongshu / RedNote has enjoyed great success in the United States recently. It is also increasing in France. A popularity which is not unrelated to the threats hovering over TikTok.
A Chinese application, whose interface leaves almost no room for the English language, tops downloads in the United States. This is the astonishing situation that we have seen in recent days across the Atlantic. The application, called Xiaohongshu (小红书), is in fact at the top of the most downloaded free applications 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 its name means little red book) allows itself to overtake certain very popular heavyweights, such as Google Maps, TikTok, Instagram, ChatGPT or even WhatsApp.
America isn’t the only one falling under RedNote’s spell. Obviously, the mobile application is starting to break through in France. The ranking of free applications for iPhone places it in fourth position, behind ChatGPT, Threads and Temu (another Chinese application dedicated to e-commerce, but with a translated interface), according to our findings.
But what is Xiaohongshu/RedNote?
If you have already heard of Xiaohongshu/RedNote, it may be because of 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 brand Xiaohongshu several times. This is not a deepfake of the star, unlike other fakes.
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Xiaohongshu/RedNote (which also exists on Android) is a local equivalent of Instagram. Numerama has had the opportunity to discuss this application on several occasions: in this case of illicit drug trafficking in the Middle Kingdom, during the WhitePeopleFood trend, and on the occasion of a partnership between Tesla and McDonald’s.
Launched in 2013, it experienced a notable increase during the covid period in China and today claims more than 300 million active members each month, reports the Nikkei newspaper. For its part, Bloomberg mentions profits which are now approaching a billion dollars, and a possible IPO.
In a description shared on Google Play and the App Store, the application 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 related 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 office on January 20, many internet users seem to be preparing for a very unfavorable scenario by migrating to RedNote/Xiaohongshu. This, while the application is very difficult to access – including registration – due to the absence of an interface translated into English.
The Verge a vu « Many American users refer to themselves as “TikTok refugees” in their videos, while others write in text messages that they are looking for a new community due to TikTok’s potential ban. “. The scale of this exodus remains difficult to assess at this stage.
It is particularly important to nuance 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 – led 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 the regrouping of certain communities is far from being anecdotal, it does not necessarily result in a reversal of the balance of power.
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