Can overnight TikTok ‘alternative’ RedNote maintain its success?
YouTube (with its Shorts offering) and Instagram (which has also invested in short video with Reels) are both well-positioned to benefit from the uncertainty around TikTok’s future. But another, much more unexpected, contender has recently emerged: Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social commerce app known as RedNote overseas. (I’ll use the name ‘RedNote’ in this article for the sake of clarity).
At the time of writing, RedNote is the top free app on both the iOS App Store and Google Play store, with Reuters reporting that more than 700,000 new users had flocked to the app in the span of two days.
RedNote is a significant social commerce player in China but has not pushed to expand overseas, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of its app content is in Mandarin. Now, however, it has a huge influx of international users on its doorstep. Could this turn RedNote into an influential social platform on an international scale, or will its overseas popularity be a flash in the pan?
Rebecca Sentance asks the following questions: What is RedNote and what is its appeal as a TikTok alternative? Why is RedNote attracting ‘TikTok refugees’? Can RedNote’s overseas appeal last? |
Fast Track to Ecommerce: Partners and Platforms – Register by 25 February
This Fast Track is designed specifically for organisations that sell through retail partners and third-party platforms, to upskill teams of one to one thousand. |
