Days before popular US social media app TikTok is proposed to be banned, Chinese social media app Red Note is seeing a flood of new users as the little-known company eases English language restrictions While walking that fine line, they are rushing to take advantage of the sudden influx. content.
More than 50,000 users from the United States and China participated in a live chat dubbed “TikTok Refugees” on RedNote on Monday. Veteran Chinese users welcomed the American users, with some trepidation, and exchanged notes on topics such as food and youth unemployment. But from time to time, the Americans veered into more dangerous territory.
“Can I ask about the differences between the laws in China and Hong Kong?” asked one American user. “I don’t want to talk about that here,” one Chinese user responded.
Such impromptu cultural exchanges were happening across Red Note, which is known as “Xiaohongshu” in China, as it rose to the top of the US download rankings this week. Its popularity was boosted by social media users in the U.S. who had been searching for alternatives to ByteDance Inc.’s TikTok for days before its impending ban.
RedNote, a venture capital-backed startup whose latest valuation was $17 billion, allows users to curate photos, videos, and text that document their lives. The company is considered an IPO candidate in China. In recent years, it has become the de facto search engine for more than 300 million users looking for travel tips, anti-aging creams, and restaurant recommendations.
More than 700,000 new users have joined Xiaohonshu in just two days, according to people close to the company. Xiaohongshu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Downloads of Red Note in the U.S. rose more than 200% year-over-year this week and were up 194% from the previous week, according to estimates from app data research firm Sensor Tower.
The second most popular free app on Apple’s App Store list on Tuesday, Lemon8 (another social media app owned by ByteDance) experienced a similar spike last month, with downloads up about 190% in December. The number was 3.4 million. The app saw a similar rise on Google’s Play Store.
The influx appears to have surprised RedNote, which is scrambling to find ways to manage its English content and build English-to-Chinese translation tools, according to two people familiar with the company. TikTok users posted videos of themselves speaking in basic Mandarin to more fully engage with RedNote users.
RedNote doesn’t split the app into international and domestic apps and only maintains one version. This is unusual among Chinese social apps, which are subject to domestic moderation rules. ByteDance is rolling out two versions of its short-form video app. Duoyin in China and TikTok elsewhere.
RedNote is keen to mine the sudden surge in attention as executives see this as a potential path to gaining global popularity similar to TikTok. Shares of some Chinese listed companies that trade with Red Note, such as Hangzhou One Chance Tech, rose as much as 20% on Tuesday, reaching daily limits.
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The surge in U.S. users comes ahead of a Jan. 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a U.S. ban on national security grounds. TikTok is currently used by about 170 million Americans, about half of the U.S. population, and is overwhelmingly popular with young people and advertisers looking to reach them.
Stella Kittrell, a 29-year-old content creator based in Baltimore, Maryland, said, “Americans using Red Note are like a cheeky middle finger to a U.S. government that has gone too far with business and privacy concerns.” “I feel that way,” he said. She said she joined RedNote looking forward to further collaboration with Chinese companies that she felt would be helpful. Some users said they joined the platform to find an alternative to Meta-owned Facebook, Instagram and Elon Musk’s X. Some users expressed doubts that these apps could rebuild TikTok’s follower base.
“Instagram, X, and other apps are not the same,” said Brian Atavansi, 29, a business analyst and content creator based in San Diego, California. “Mainly because of how organic it is to build a community on TikTok,” he says.
