Rednote, the Chinese social media app that surged in international popularity during the brief US TikTok ban in January 2025, is taking steps to formally separate its Chinese and international user bases as part of a broader globalization push, according to a WIRED investigation published in April 2026.
The company has launched a new web domain, Rednote.com, for its international operations and has been redirecting some users there rather than to its original Chinese domain, Xiaohongshu.com. It has also published two distinct terms-of-service documents — one for domestic Chinese users and one for international users — with the most recent updates to each made in late March 2026.
The corporate restructuring goes further. Xiaohongshu, Rednote’s Chinese parent company, registered a separate entity called Rednote Technology PTE LTD in Singapore in mid-2025, according to public corporate registration databases. The company says it uses Singapore-based servers to store international user data, though its privacy policy notes that data may also be transferred to and processed in China. Rednote did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.
The two sets of terms differ in notable ways. The international version sets the minimum user age at 13, in line with US regulations, while the Chinese version asks users under 18 not to use the platform. Content moderation rules also diverge: the Chinese terms include explicit rules around political content, while the international guidelines prohibit discrimination based on race, religion, age, gender, disability, or sexuality.
One area of ambiguity is how Rednote determines which policy applies to a given user. Earlier versions of the terms, archived from December 2025, stated that anyone who registered before December 8, 2025 would be treated as a Chinese user, and those who registered afterward with a non-Chinese phone number would fall under the international policy. That language was removed from the most recent March update.
The separation mirrors moves made by other Chinese tech companies navigating international regulatory scrutiny. ByteDance operates TikTok as an entirely separate ecosystem from its Chinese counterpart Douyin, and Tencent maintains different rules and censorship mechanisms for WeChat and Weixin, its domestic version. Both Beijing and Western governments have been closely scrutinizing data security risks and content moderation practices on Chinese-owned platforms.
For now, the content visible to Chinese and international users on Rednote appears to be the same. However, the structural changes — separate legal entities, distinct terms, and dedicated hiring in Singapore — suggest the two sides of the platform could diverge more significantly over time. Rednote, which has around 300 million monthly active users in China, has also begun hiring corporate staff in the US to open new regional offices, according to the tech publication Rest of World.
Source: Business Latest