> Tiktok algo is the sauce

What makes you think the Bytedance chefs who cooked the sauce wont join the Redbook company? Their HQ were both located in China anyway.

Even if that could occur, they don't have time to hire, design and implement it before their window of capturing the wave is over. RedNote is in a right place wrong time situation that would be in a worse position that Tiktok was in for scrutiny since we already had the house the data here legal battle with Bytedance.

> Tiktok algo is the sauce, nothing else has the sauce.

Tiktok algo is nothing special: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/05/business/media/tiktok-alg...

The volume of interaction data from good interface design and huge user base is the core of the success.

Counterpoint: Reels, YT Shorts

Reels and YT Shorts are definitely worse, but I would attribute that to not having the same content to even show and not having the same amount of data because of a much smaller audience than to having an inferior recommendation system.

Rednote's algorithm is significantly better than reels

Xiaohongshu has better sauce than youtube shorts or instagram reels.

Using Chinese social media is cool now.

For a 1MM kids, not for 169MM others. They will go where there is the least friction which is likely a Meta or Alphabet product.

>They will go where there is the least friction which is likely a Meta or Alphabet product.

Fortunately, I think you're wrong about this. American children will be saying mandarin catchphrases before they start using Instagram Reels.

Just not if you're gay.

Misinformation. I've seen plenty of gay people on there. Including myself and my partner.

I have see Chinese users who state that they are gay or bisexual right on their profile page, too.

By all accounts, RedNote is hugely gay, with many people talking about how it's full of gay Chinese folks looking to connect with people.

"the sauce" is for the audience to figure out. The sauce was disgusting to me, but that didn't matter to those 100m consumers.

And yes, this begs the question of "when does something become a matter of national security". 10 million? A million moving over before the day of reckoning isn't a small thing.

the sauce = tiktok's algorithm. The audience doesn't figure that out, the company delivering the videos to you does. So far, no one else seems to have even come close. GenZ are proactively against Zuck, so that's even a bigger hole for Reels to overcome. Rednote doesn't have the algo people want and its interface isn't in English. It cost zilch for those kids to make a RedNote account. They are literally making it a meme. They wont be there in 2 months when no one else is there, and the joke is over. RedNote will have even more heavy handed moderation than TikTok as it is currently sharing its userbase with Chinese citizens. RedNote is not an answer to any of the underlying wants or desires of the Tiktok community except for a extreme minority of the TikTok userbase who are rallying against the US govt/Meta. Personally, I think the ban is within the power of the US government to do but do recognize the very real concerns and view of those who think the government shouldn't have done this. The incoming administration is free to seek to undo this if they want, but it can and should take an act of legislation to undo.