Why do Chinese internet companies always launch separate apps for international markets? For Xiaohongshu, the influx of foreign users might be more harmful than beneficial.

Why aren’t users migrating to Douyin? Because Douyin requires a Chinese phone number.

For American “refugees,” flooding into Xiaohongshu isn’t about consuming content—it’s an act of defiance against authority. Their reasoning seems to be: if the government fears Chinese TikTok, they’ll migrate to another Chinese app.

They love TikTok, they didn’t choose X or Meta, they’re Generation Z.

They care about both privacy and freedom of choice.

In the Xiaohongshu subreddit, many posts report users being banned.

Foreign-created posts have started appearing in my Xiaohongshu feed. It’s interesting how Xiaohongshu’s recommendation algorithm can surface these posts from zero-following accounts.