RedNote competitor analysis: read 10 notes about a category in one call and get one comparison

Short answer: Send the share links of the notes your competitors (or their customers) posted — or a Chinese search query that finds them — to one batch call with synthesis: true, and LinkDigest reads every note in full and writes one comparison: the themes that recur, the hooks each note opens with, the formats, the claims they all make, the objections readers raise in the comments, and the gaps none of them cover. Every point names the note and quotes the words. A six-note comparison of Penang food notes took 172 seconds and 26 credits on 2026-10-18.

Disclosure: LinkDigest is the author's own service. Numbers are from runs recorded on this site, with their dates.

What a comparison contains

• Summary — what this set of notes is, who it reaches, what wins in it (at most 150 words).
• Themes — the angles that recur, with how many of the notes show each and a quote from each.
• Hooks — the opening devices (a number, a fear, a question, a before/after).
• Formats — listicle, tutorial, haul, vlog, itinerary.
• Claims — the benefits or promises several notes make.
• Objections — doubts, complaints and pain points readers raise in the top comments.
• Gaps — what none or few of the notes cover that readers ask for.
• Could not judge — what the material did not allow, with the reason.

A count stands only as far as its examples reach: a theme "in 3 of 5" cites three different notes, or the count is lowered to the notes actually cited. A quote that is not found word for word in its note is kept but marked unverified.

Two measured runs

Penang food, 2026-10-18. Six popular notes about eating in Penang, compared in English: 26 credits, 172 seconds. It is the sample report on the business page.

Camping gear, 2026-10-30. POST /api/v1/search with 露营装备 推荐 and digest: true: four notes found and read (two already cached, free), ranked by likes + 2 × saves + comments, one comparison — 7 credits in total (the search post).

Seven city reports, 2026-11-06. The same call in Japanese for Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, Fukuoka, Okinawa, onsen and tax-free shopping, 3–5 notes each, 5–12 credits each, 32–158 seconds (what Chinese tourists say about Japan).

The call

curl -s -X POST https://linkdigest.dev/api/v1/digest/batch \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ld_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://xhslink.com/o/...", "https://xhslink.com/o/..."], "synthesis": true, "translate_to": "en", "label": "camping gear, Nov"}'

The answer is 202 with a poll URL while the notes are read; GET /api/v1/digest/batch/<id>?include=digests returns every note and the comparison once done. In Claude Code or Cursor the same two steps are the MCP tools search_links and compare_links.

How brands use it

• Before a launch: read the 10 most-saved notes in the category; the "claims" and "objections" sections are the brief for the Chinese-language creative.
• Watching a competitor: paste their last 10 notes a month; the "hooks" and "formats" sections show what they changed.
• Listening: add "insight": true per note for audience, purchase intent and the questions readers asked, with quotes (analytics for foreign brands).

What you do not get

• Not a market share. It compares the notes you give it; it does not sample the platform.
• Not the thread. Reader objections come from the top comments the share page embeds (at most 5 per note, with up to 3 replies).
• Not a monitor by itself. For a daily run on a topic there is a watch: the same search → read → compare, every morning, by mail (daily brief).

Pricing: an image note 1 credit (up to 6 images), a video 1 credit plus 1 per minute, a search that finds notes 4 credits, the comparison 1 credit per started ten notes, translation +1 per note; 10 free credits on sign-up, then $5 for 250 (one-time) or $9 a month for 500. Platform notes: Xiaohongshu.