China-to-West Trend Timing Evidence

Check explicit topic aliases across Douyin, RedNote, Weibo, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Each result keeps exact-match records, earliest dated observations, coverage gaps, and observed timing between markets.

Accepted input

trendTopics is a JSON array. Every topic needs a name and at least one explicit alias. Use platformAliases when wording differs by language or platform.

{
  "trendTopics": [
    {
      "name": "Matcha drinks",
      "aliases": ["matcha"],
      "platformAliases": {
        "douyin": ["抹茶"],
        "rednote": ["抹茶"],
        "weibo": ["抹茶"],
        "tiktok": ["matcha drinks"]
      }
    }
  ],
  "sourcePageLimit": 1,
  "trendEvidenceLimit": 10,
  "maxItems": 20
}

Shared aliases are checked on every selected platform. Platform-specific aliases are checked only on that platform. Matching ignores case and punctuation; aliases are not translated or expanded into related concepts.

Response fields

Each row represents one submitted topic:

• topic contains its name and explicit aliases.
• china and west contain exact-match counts and the earliest dated observation found on each side.
• observations preserves bounded matching records with platform, submitted alias, timestamp, source ID or URL, and source text.
• lag reports the observed direction and day difference when both sides have dated evidence.
• corroboration_status distinguishes cross-market evidence, one-sided evidence, and no evidence.
• claims keeps origin, causality, and market-migration conclusions disabled.
• analysis and provenance record evidence coverage and collection outcomes.

{
  "record_type": "trend_corroboration",
  "topic": {
    "name": "Matcha drinks",
    "aliases": ["matcha", "抹茶"]
  },
  "china": {
    "evidence_count": 4,
    "first_observed_at": "2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
  },
  "west": {
    "evidence_count": 3,
    "first_observed_at": "2026-01-05T00:00:00.000Z"
  },
  "lag": {
    "status": "west_observed_after_china",
    "days": 4,
    "direction": "china_to_west_order"
  },
  "corroboration_status": "cross_market_observed",
  "claims": {
    "origin_supported": false,
    "causality_supported": false,
    "market_migration_supported": false
  }
}

Evidence boundary

Timestamps show when matching records appeared in the returned sample. They do not show when a trend began, and the sample may change with platform coverage and availability.

The china group means Douyin, RedNote, and Weibo. The west group means TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. These groups describe platform evidence, not the location or nationality of an author or viewer.

west_observed_after_china means only that the earliest dated China record in this run precedes the earliest dated Western record in this run. It is not evidence that the topic originated in China, caused later posts, or migrated between markets. An undated record contributes to counts but not lag.

Partial results

Platforms are evaluated independently. A failed platform produces a partial row while successful observations remain available. An empty result is a valid timing check with insufficient_evidence.