Amid a Looming TikTok Ban, Is Rednote the Next Tiktok?
The Chinese social media app RedNote, also known as Little Red Book or Xiaohongshu, was the #1 most downloaded iOS app on Monday. With the US ban of TikTok looming, many US TikTok users are looking for alternatives, global interest in RedNote has surged. This trend begs the question: Can RedNote become the next TikTok? And if it did, what would that mean for university recruiters and communicators? Will RedNote open a new avenue for recruiting students? We think that RedNote will continue to attract “TikTok refugees” in the short term, and it’s certainly worth using if your university actively recruits in China already. There is uncertainty as to whether it can step up to fill TikTok’s shoes as a platform for ads and organic engagement targeting US students, but it’s certainly worth watching.
RedNote’s Momentum
Millions of US users have downloaded the Chinese app RedNote in recent days, rocketing the app to the #1 most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store in the US. This migration of “TikTok refugees” comes with the looming January 19 deadline for Tiktok to divest from Chinese ownership. TikTok might be spared by intervention from the Supreme Court before then or lax enforcement by Donald Trump when he takes office on January 20th, but US TikTok users have been hedging their bets. More than 500,000 users have joined a RedNote live group chat hosted by the user “TikTok Refugee Club.” RedNote contains more than 160,000 posts with the #tiktokrefugee topic. Even minor influencers on TikTok who migrated to RedNote have gathered thousands of followers on their first day of posting. And according to a Reuters source, RedNote gained 700,000 new users in the past two days alone. While the app’s nearly 300 million monthly active users are mostly in China, RedNote is responding quickly to the exploding demand for a TikTok alternative.
What Is RedNote?
As one of China’s fastest-growing social apps, RedNote, also known as XiaoHongShu, has been an essential tool in the China marketing toolkit for brands and universities alike for several years now. RedNote serves as a digital lifestyle community for young people. Since its launch in 2013, XiaoHongShu has experienced significant growth, with a user base of nearly 300 million monthly active users. The platform, which only gained substantial popularity during the pandemic, has successfully doubled its user base since mid-2020. Notably, about 88.8% of its users are female Millennials from Tier 1 and Tier 2 Chinese cities.
For anyone unfamiliar with the platform, it integrates content creation, social networking, and e-commerce, creating a unique ecosystem where users can share experiences, connect with others, discover new products, and make purchases. This makes it an influential player in China's social commerce and livestreaming arena, often likened to and compared to Instagram Live and TikTok Shop. RedNote is a venture-backed startup with a most recent valuation of $17 billion. Originally, the app’s core focus was “social commerce” and livestreams, but the app has evolved to allow users to curate photos, videos and text documenting their lives. The app now contains recorded short form video and livestreams on a variety of topics, from the serious to the silly. This has allowed the app to become a de facto search engine for users looking for travel tips, product recommendations, or life advice.
XiaoHongShu's blend of social networking and e-commerce functionalities and targeted advertising options make it an invaluable tool for universities looking to engage with prospective students, particularly young women in urban areas. The platform’s focus on lifestyle and community-based content provides a unique opportunity for higher education institutions to present themselves within the context of broader educational discourse and university-related reviews. Campaigns include 8-10 impression posts which appear as 'floating ads'—sponsored content on the explore page. Our campaigns focus on either generating likes or maximizing impressions, with the primary goal being lead generation through these posts.
Advertising On RedNote
When it comes to advertising, RedNote offers robust options particularly suited to higher education marketing. The platform supports two types of accounts: personal accounts for individual content sharing and engagement, and brand accounts for businesses aiming to promote products and services. All advertising on RedNote requires a Verified Business Account, ensuring adherence to the platform's strict guidelines for official brand representation. Currently, RedNote only allows business verification for companies with a Chinese business license, meaning that US universities will need to partner with an ad agency with a presence in China. Sunrise is one such agency.
More than just an e-commerce site, RedNote has evolved into a vibrant social platform offering PPC ad opportunities. This is increasingly used for posting reviews—ranging from products to travel experiences—which universities can leverage for sharing positive educational experiences and reviews related to campus life, study programs, and more.
For universities, advertising on RedNote offers a promising avenue to reach certain demographics and drive interest in their programs. The platform's advertising capabilities are housed within the Spotlight platform (聚光平台), a newly launched comprehensive tool designed to meet a wide array of marketing needs. This includes product seeding, sales volume enhancement, lead collection, live-stream promotion, and competitive positioning.
A unique aspect of RedNote's advertising strategy is its use of user-generated content, known as "notes." Universities can opt to use their original notes or collaborate with KOLs to create promotional materials. This method not only enhances the authenticity of the advertisements but also leverages the trust and influence that KOLs have within the RedNote community.
What Does This Mean for Universities?
Before the US TikTok refugees came to RedNote, RedNote was already an emerging social media platform for universities wishing to recruit and engage with Chinese students and stakeholders. While RedNote is less widespread than Wechat and Weibo among university marketers, RedBook would certainly be among the top 5 platforms through which to recruit Chinese students. Your international office may already be engaging on RedNote for that reason.
Will RedNote emerge as a new platform by which to engage US users? Maybe. For RedNote to do so, a few things would need to happen. First, efforts to ban TikTok would need to succeed and efforts to force a TikTok sale to a US company would need to fail. The Supreme Court, Trump, and Bytedance may make decisions that result in TikTok exiting the US market. Second, RedNote would need to avoid being banned just as TikTok was, although it’s possible that RedNote could “fly under the radar” and avoid Congressional attention for months or even years. Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have already laid out an ambitious agenda. Third, RedNote will need to improve its English-language user interface, content moderation, and customer service. And finally, US users unfamiliar with Chinese content rules will need to decide to stay.
It is difficult to predict if these three circumstances will pass and allow RedNote to replace TikTok, but it is worthwhile for universities to understand best practices for using and advertising on RedNote. Universities would do well to understand the content moderation rules, advertising system, and registration steps for getting set up on RedNote. An important first step is to gain understanding and exposure to the platform and consider partnership with an ad agency that has the experience and ability to register a business account on RedNote.
Sunrise International has served as a digital ad agency in China for global universities since 2012 and offers a range of services on RedNote for universities. Examples of RedNote verified accounts that we run include Pace, WPI, and Tulane.
Contact us at contact@sunriseinspires.com to learn more about RedNoteand to explore our case studies in depth!