What is REDnote, The Alleged TikTok Alternative?

What is REDnote, The Alleged TikTok Alternative?

With TikTok facing an impending ban in the US on January 19 unless it is sold, a new app is becoming popular in the US, and it is called REDnote. This app, also known as Xiaohongshu, is gaining popularity in the USA as an alternative to TikTok, and is bolstering its presence in the Philippines.

I know that Filipinos are probably clueless about REDnote, so I researched what the app is all about–and gave it a try.

According to various news reports, Xiaohongshu (which is Chinese for REDnote, hence the English app name) was launched in Shanghai in 2013 by Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu. That’s roughly around three years after Instagram was founded–and a year after it was purchased by Facebook.

The idea of the app is that it is lifestyle focused and blends elements of both Instagram and Pinterest with various topics to choose from and a feed that’s typical of what we see on Instagram and TikTok’s explore page. Unlike Weibo and TikTok’s sister site Douyin, REDnote focuses more on apolitical content. Outside of China, it has gained popularity in Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan and boasted 300 million monthly active users at the end of 2023.

That being said, I made a REDnote account out of curiosity and checked out what content it has to offer. The “Select Your Interests” page reminds me a lot of Pinterest, where you choose topics that you’re interested in so that REDnote’s feed will curate mostly content that focuses on those topics.

After all the sign up procedures, I was greeted with an Explore feed that’s similar to TikTok. The main difference perhaps is that majority of the content are in Chinese, though there are a few of them that are in English. Compared to TikTok, REDnote’s content curation looks better with different tabs to choose from under Explore. I check the Digital Technology and Music tabs, and the curated content is just what I was expecting–nothing lewd and suspicious so far.

While REDnote is mostly focused in China and the countries mentioned earlier, a quick look at the Nearby tab shows that there’s local content already–though I noticed that majority of them are made by Chinese creators. I have yet spotted any Filipino creator in the platform. I tried posting content on REDnote, but the app kept on asking me to input my phone number. To find Philippines in the list, I had to input 63 to get the correct international area code.

You can’t post on REDnote unless you have a registered number.

 

Add to the fact that most of the content in REDnote is in Chinese, it might take a while before it becomes fully accessible here in the Philippines. There’s also no auto translation tool, so you’re basically stuck at watching content in Chinese. I’m puzzled as to how some Americans are able to post in the platform, and I’m also unsure about how safe is the app itself–though some experts think REDnote has greater security risks than TikTok.

Can REDnote be an alternative to TikTok as what others think? Not at its current state, as the app is clearly catering to Chinese users and not a global fanbase. It remains to be seen if this will change–or if TikTok will have a hail mary moment before the January 19 ban.

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