What The Hell America!

XiaohongshuiXiaohongshuXiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in Chinese, is a lifestyle e-commerce and social media platform.READ MORE, the Chinese social media platform known as RedNote, has been forced to adjust its overseas strategy after unexpectedly attracting millions of so-called TikTok refugees. But working to retain — and profiting from — a wider global user base could bring it under the same sort of scrutiny as its larger rival.  

After adding in-app English translations and bilingual subtitles, Xiaohongshu recently opened a Hong Kong office, and posted a role for global business development based in Hong Kong on its official LinkedIn account. The city is often the first step for Chinese companies expanding overseas. Earlier this month, it also launched a global e-commerce pilot program for mainland Chinese merchants that initially targets the U.S., Hong Kong, and Macau. 

“RedNote’s pivot signals an evolution to take markets outside China seriously,” Ivy Yang, a China tech analyst and founder of consulting firm Wavelet Strategy, told Rest of World. While the company had been trying to expand overseas, the “TikTok refugee phenomenon likely made this pivot a must-have rather than simmering on the back burner.” 

The unexpected surge of global users in January due to fears of a TikTok ban could provide a windfall for Xiaohongshu. But for the platform to compete with Western social media apps, it must retain these users, build cross-border e-commerce functions, and clarify its overseas business strategy, experts and business owners told Rest of World.  

“RedNote’s commercial success hinges on whether they can convert initial curiosity into lasting engagement by successfully transplanting their unique combination of content, community, and commerce that U.S. incumbents can’t replicate,” Yang said. 

Xiaohongshu did not respond to a request for comment.  

Launched in 2013 by entrepreneurs Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao, Xiaohongshu began as a guide for wealthy, mostly female Chinese travelers seeking shopping recommendations. It has since evolved into a dominant social media app in China, blending elements of TikTok and Instagram.

By 2023, the company, which calls itself a “lifestyle bible,” became profitable for the first time. In late 2024, the app had 225 million monthly active users mostly in China, and ranked as the seventh most popular social media platform in the country. It also more than doubled its profit to an estimated $1 billion — partly due to an expansion of its e-commerce features. This has fueled speculation about an upcoming initial public offering. 

“An IPO could provide the capital required for the company to secure the right personnel in the U.S. and compete internationally,” Yaling Jiang, founder of the research and strategy consultancy ApertureChina, told Rest of World.

“The profit potential is enormous,” Jiang said. 

But analysts and business owners are skeptical about Xiaohongshu’s commercial prospects in the West, as it has struggled to retain overseas users in recent weeks. The platform’s daily active users in the U.S. averaged 800,000 in March 2025 — a sharp decline from its peak of 1.3 million in January, though still up 114% from December 2024, data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower showed.

Xiaohongshu’s popularity had surged in non-Western countries, too. The app ranked among the top 10 on Apple’s App Store and Google Play between January 13 and January 21, the week the TikTok ban was scheduled to take effect. Global daily active users outside of China fell to 6.1 million in March, down from the January high of 8 million, but a 28% increase from December 2024, the data from Sensor Tower showed. 

Still, it is just a small fraction of the numbers using TikTok and Instagram daily.

“Xiaohongshu has too few users in the West to kickstart an e-commerce channel. It needs to figure out a growth strategy beyond one-time attention when TikTok first disappeared [briefly] from app stores,” Juozas Kaziukėnas, an independent e-commerce analyst, told Rest of World.  

“If anything, the users the app has will continue to decrease, and by December 2025 it will likely be as if the short-term trend to use the app never happened,” Kaziukėnas said. 

Yet, some American users are still banking on Xiaohongshu. Terri, a 23-year-old college student from Indiana, shares subtitled videos about American life geared toward Chinese users. After struggling for years on Facebook, where she has about 3,000 followers, she quickly gained over 73,000 followers on Xiaohongshu. 

“I don’t use any other social media besides RedNote now,” Terri told Rest of World, requesting to use only her first name over fears of cyberstalking. She said she has received partnership inquiries from Chinese cosmetic and clothing brands, but needs to pass Xiaohongshu’s verification process first.

To unlock monetization functions, the platform requires users to upload a photo of themselves with their full face visible, holding their passport to display the photo page. If she gets verified, Terri plans to join the Dandelion Program, Xiaohongshu’s longstanding initiative that connects influencers with brands for monetization. Over 400,000 mostly Chinese content creators have joined the Dandelion Platform, which allows entry for those with more than 1,000 followers. 

Features like livestreaming and running online stores, however, still require a Chinese ID. A Xiaohongshu staff member working on international business told Rest of World that foreign influencers can’t withdraw commission fees without a Chinese bank account. But they “can receive payments by connecting to overseas marketing agencies,” the staff member said, declining to provide details and requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. 

Xiaohongshu needs to address these hurdles quickly, Yang said, as e-commerce can help the platform differentiate itself. Every major Chinese social platform offers online shopping features, known as shoppertainment or social commerce. But the trend has been relatively slow to catch on in the West. 

“Unlike TikTok and Meta’s properties, which mostly make money from ads, RedNote’s strength is its integrated e-commerce. … Their cross-border e-commerce pilot program must streamline these functions to create [a] seamless content-to-commerce experience,” Yang said.  

On March 10, the company launched an overseas e-commerce program that will offer “comprehensive solutions” for online transactions, exports, and cross-border payments, according to an official statement. 

Even before the big uptick in users, Xiaohongshu had already begun expanding globally by forming partnerships with Chinese diaspora businesses, the company staff member told Rest of World. In December 2024, the platform had about 7 million overseas users — mostly of Chinese descent, they said.

Xiaohongshu hosted its first U.S. business partner recruitment fair in New York in December. At the event, the company said it was targeting Southeast Asia, North America, Hong Kong, and Macau, according to a PowerPoint presentation reviewed by Rest of World. Similar events were held in Los Angeles and Las Vegas in February, and most attendees were business owners of Chinese descent, a third-party event organizer told Rest of World. The organizer requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. 

Xiaohongshu’s e-commerce functions for overseas users need significant improvement, Aris Xiong, founder of jewelry brand Aris Jewelry, told Rest of World. She said the livestreaming feature was ineffective, as her streams mainly reached mainland Chinese users instead of her North American target audience, with no paid option to adjust the reach. 

But if Xiaohongshu steps up its efforts to expand beyond the Chinese diaspora, it could attract attention from the U.S. government, much like TikTok did. 

In April 2024, former President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations by January 2025. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law, President Donald Trump issued an executive order extending the divestment deadline to April 5, 2025. He has indicated he would consider further extensions. 

The law gives the U.S. president the power to declare popular social media apps from China dangerous, and require either a sale or a shutdown, Anupam Chander, law professor at Georgetown University, told Rest of World. 

“The president may lack the appetite to pursue a sale or a ban of Xiaohongshu, but we could still see broader targeting of foreign apps from China if they gain significant U.S. user bases,” he said.