Source | BohuFN

Xiaohongshu likely never anticipated that its international expansion would suddenly gain momentum.

Recently, there was considerable buzz about ByteDance's overseas version of "Xiaohongshu" — Lemon 8 entering the top 10 free apps in North America, potentially replicating Xiaohongshu's success abroad. However, last night, a surge of North American users began flocking to Xiaohongshu. Within just three hours, Xiaohongshu's download rankings in the US skyrocketed from outside the top 200 to number one.

The unexpected catalyst behind this phenomenon is ByteDance itself.

Over the past few years, TikTok has tried every tactic to stay in the US market, but now, a ban looms on the horizon. Last Friday, TikTok concluded its oral arguments before the US Supreme Court. TikTok's lawyer, Noel Francisco, stated during the hearing that unless the justices overturned the congressional bill or issued a temporary injunction, the platform would effectively shut down on January 19th.

Given that even the president cannot alter the verdict, and even if the next president, Trump, intended to intervene, TikTok will likely be removed from app stores within five days.

Unless US users learn to use VPNs.

As a result, a large number of TikTok users have started migrating to Xiaohongshu's international version. The topic on Xiaohongshu titled "TikToker Fugee," referring to TikTok refugees, has garnered 110 million views and 2.6 million discussions. From teaching Chinese, solving English problems, to sharing cat memes, Xiaohongshu users have completed the first wave of friendly interactions with their new overseas friends. Xiaohongshu-related concepts in the A-share market, such as Wangwang Technology, Yinli Media, and One Net One Creation, have also witnessed a surge in prices.

It would be an understatement to say that Xiaohongshu now has an opportunity to succeed in its overseas expansion.

Xiaohongshu has harbored ambitions for international expansion in recent years. As early as 2018, Xiaohongshu entered the Malaysian market, and in 2021, it launched multiple independent applications such as Uniik, Catolog, and Spark, but none gained significant traction.

With numerous social apps in North America, why is it Xiaohongshu that's benefiting? Can Xiaohongshu retain this influx of traffic and complete its internationalization in one fell swoop? As we often say, "A person's fate depends not only on personal effort but also on historical processes," this is what we seek to explore further.

01 Xiaohongshu's Overnight Overseas Success

Upon opening the Xiaohongshu app, one will notice that the homepage is abruptly filled with foreign languages. Most of the content consists of selfies or self-introduction videos from foreigners, and the IP locations of these posts are predominantly in the United States.

In just one day, several popular memes involving Chinese and American netizens emerged, such as discussing how to achieve "morning C, evening A" on Xiaohongshu (using Chinese in the morning and American in the evening) or jokes about being a Chinese spy and having to pay a "cat tax" (a cute cat picture) to stay.

How did all this transpire?

Primarily due to the impending TikTok ban (effective January 19th), user sentiment has plummeted. Specifically, there's a backlash against the US government's arbitrary banning of a platform and restricting speech under the pretext of protecting user data security, despite users' wishes.

Consequently, some TikTok users are resisting by finding a Chinese app similar to TikTok.

Some TikTok users who have switched to Xiaohongshu said, "Since the US government is worried about our personal data being taken by the Chinese, we'll just give it to the Chinese directly. Are you going to take my phone away too?"

To be honest, this resentment cannot be underestimated.

On one hand, TikTok users are creating content such as "Saying goodbye to my best Chinese spy friend on January 19th" to express their dissatisfaction through self-deprecation.

On the other hand, as of 9 PM today, the topic #tiktokrefugee on Xiaohongshu has garnered 2.6 million discussions and over 110 million views. The related discussions under the #tiktok topic exceed 6.28 million, with 1.39 billion views.

According to data from Qimai, in the US region, Xiaohongshu was ranked 209th in the app charts on January 12th and soared to the top on January 14th. In contrast, over the past year, it has fluctuated within the top 100 social app rankings in the US region.

This is one of the reasons why they did not choose mainstream European and American apps like Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook.

As for why they chose Xiaohongshu over Douyin, it's primarily because Xiaohongshu supports global mobile phone number registration, while Douyin requires a Chinese mobile phone number for registration. Additionally, Douyin's Chinese version is not available for download in the US region, whereas Xiaohongshu's US App Store version is easily accessible with one click, making Xiaohongshu a "refuge" for TikTok users.

Another coincidence is that Xiaohongshu recently underwent a redesign, moving the like, save, and comment buttons on the video interface to the right in a vertical arrangement, similar to Douyin. As a well-known media personality and seasoned editor put it:

"When a group of Americans come in and see this, they'll think it's Pinterest at first glance, Instagram when they click in, TikTok when they swipe, and a Reddit-like app when they start using it. They're probably going to get addicted."

02 Can Xiaohongshu Sustain This Massive Traffic?

Although internally, there's much surprise at this sudden influx of traffic, Xiaohongshu has made considerable efforts to retain it.

Many users have reported to BohuFN that when they opened Xiaohongshu today, they were served with a plethora of content from foreigners. As of press time, the topic on Xiaohongshu titled "TikToker Fugee," referring to TikTok refugees, has garnered 100 million views and 2.532 million discussions.

Furthermore, these foreign accounts are gaining followers at a rapid pace. BohuFN has observed that many accounts have grown to have thousands of followers. Some domestic users have expressed that they do not receive such treatment on foreign platforms.

For Xiaohongshu, the most valuable aspect of this sudden event is that it has significantly elevated Xiaohongshu's profile in North America. To put this into perspective, Temu spent over $14 million on two Super Bowl ads exceeding 30 seconds each to gain similar recognition in North America (as predicted by industry insiders).

However, regarding whether Xiaohongshu can retain these users and maintain its popularity, BohuFN is not optimistic.

Firstly, most of the "TikTok refugees" who have switched to Xiaohongshu are currently ordinary users who may not excel in content creation. For instance, most popular memes are actually created by domestic netizens and only circulate on domestic platforms. Users come to Xiaohongshu more out of emotion than interest, making it challenging for their engagement to last. As early as 2023, there were numerous posts on Xiaohongshu featuring people holding pieces of paper with the word "listen to advice" written on them, but this trend quickly subsided.

To put it bluntly, TikTok conquered North America through its algorithm's instrumental rationality, the addictive nature of short videos, and abundant creative tools, none of which are Xiaohongshu's strengths.

Secondly, the influx of American users is bound to raise issues of censorship and compliance within China. The best option for Xiaohongshu would be to adopt a dual-version operating model, similar to TikTok.

Equally important is how Xiaohongshu will address potential regulatory issues from the US if it succeeds in retaining users. TikTok is not the only Chinese-owned social media app that has attracted the attention of the US. In January 2016 and 2018, Kunlun Tech invested a total of $245 million in two separate transactions to acquire all shares of Grindr, a location-based dating app primarily targeting male LGBT individuals, except for employee stock ownership.

However, as Grindr prepared for its IPO, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) notified Kunlun Tech that it must sell Grindr, citing similar reasons as those given to TikTok: it posed an international security risk to the US. Ultimately, Kunlun Tech had to sell Grindr for $608.5 million.

Admittedly, starting from 2024, the underestimation of Xiaohongshu has been a hot topic of discussion in the Chinese internet community. This internet mid-sized company has rapidly achieved profitable scale while maintaining a certain growth rate, even resisting encroachments from ByteDance and others.

In 2025, the company clarified its commercialization path, and rumors of its IPO are becoming increasingly credible. This grand "influx event" seems more like a fireworks display before Xiaohongshu's IPO, grand and spectacular, with the materials used to create the fireworks being TikTok, China's most successful overseas product to date.

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