Xiaohongshu Pushes to Hire English-Speaking Managers

Chinese social media site Xiaohongshu, better known around the world as RedNote, is struggling to improve its English content after hundreds of thousands of American users. he suddenly entered the platform waiting for TikTok maybe to be banned in the United States on Sunday.

WIRED discovered job listings posted on recruiting platforms and tech companies in China this week for managers to help deal with the unexpected surge in English-language movies and documentaries uploaded to Xiaohongshu. (There were also several new recruitment notices posted looking for managers to work in Chinese, the platform’s default language.)

VXI Global Solutions, an American customer service company that has been operating in China since the early 2000s, posted job vacancies on recruitment websites. Zhilian Zhaopin and BOSS Zipstating that candidates “monitor videos using external friends’ accounts on Xiaohongshu.” The employer has marked it one of the lists “Xiaohongshu fast recruitment – TikTok to control refugees, short-term (contracts) have been approved.”

Jinhui Rongzhi TechnologyIT service outsourcing company, and Transna provider of AI-assisted translation services, posted a similar recruitment notice this week seeking English-speaking managers to work in Xiaohongshu. WIRED contacted the three companies to verify the accuracy of the listings. None of them agreed in time to be published. Xiaohongshu also did not return a request for comment.

Fees for these services range from 4,500 RMB to 8,000 RMB per month (approximately $600 to $1,100). Applicants are asked to demonstrate their English skills and prove that they have passed the test. One write-up he realized that the position must be filled within three days, and applicants should not apply if they cannot start immediately.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s top internet watchdog, says it has already been concerned about the information being shared by outsiders on Xiaohongshu. CAC warned the platform earlier this week to “ensure that Chinese users do not see posts by US users,” according to The Information.

Social media sites in China are legally allowed to remove a wide range of content, including nudity and violence, but mostly content that the government deems politically sensitive. Platforms like Xiaohongshu rely on large teams of contractors managed by export companies to handle both regular operations and emergency response.

“RedNote, like all Chinese corporate platforms, is under the repressive regime of the Chinese Communist Party,” wrote Allie Funk, director of technology and democracy research at the nonprofit human rights organization Freedom House, in an email to WIRED. “Independent researchers have documented how keywords deemed important to those in positions of power, such as discussing labor strikes or criticizing Xi Jinping, can be answered on the platform.”

But the number of American TikTok users – more than 700,000 in just two days, according to Reuters– may have limited Xiaohongshu’s abilities, said Eric Liu, an editor at China Digital Times, a California-based Chinese review publication, who also worked as a content moderator on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.