AI startups and founders are increasingly turning to Rednote, a Chinese social media app also known as Xiaohongshu or "Little Red Book," to discuss technology, promote products, and build communities. Originally launched in 2013 as a platform for shopping and beauty reviews, Rednote has evolved into a major hub for Chinese tech professionals in Silicon Valley and beyond, especially in the AI space. Since the release of ChatGPT, content related to artificial intelligence has surged on the app. According to Rednote, technology-related posts have more than doubled in the past year, and the number of tech creators has more than tripled. Users now share video reviews, tutorials, and personal experiences with new AI models, often comparing them in the same way they would review cosmetics or fashion items. Brandon Chen, co-founder and CEO of the AI chat app Intent, is one of many tech founders using Rednote. When he needed to organize hundreds of documents for a U.S. visa application, he built a custom AI tool to help. He shared before-and-after screenshots on Rednote, and within days, users began asking if he would turn it into a public app. That led to the launch of Riffo, a tool that helps users manage documents. Chen also used the platform to recruit Japanese speakers for his company’s expansion, receiving a response within 15 minutes. Qian Chen, a journalist and co-founder of the tech media company Valley101, uses Rednote to distribute her content, including videos on major tech events like Meta’s AI layoffs and the competition between ChatGPT and Google’s AI. She says her content performs particularly well on the platform. For founders like Bill Zhu, CEO of Pokee AI, Rednote offers a unique space to share their journey—successes, failures, and everything in between. He has posted about his fundraising process, connecting with users on a personal level. “You can actually connect with the founder,” Zhu said. “It’s someone you’re actually talking to. You can reach out to this person building this awesome piece of tech.” Rednote has also hosted special initiatives like its “AI Guide” campaign during the back-to-school season, bringing together 20 professors to discuss AI topics. The app’s AI-powered translation feature has helped expand its global reach, allowing users to instantly translate posts from Chinese to English and other languages. English content, including AMAs with prominent figures like Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief science officer of Hugging Face, is now more common. The platform’s culture of “sincere sharing” has made it a go-to for real, user-generated insights. “For AMAs, you can get firsthand answers to tell you, what is the next frontier?” said Tony Peng, founder of the Recode China AI newsletter. “It’s a place where you can learn directly from people building the future.”