Story: Just days before the proposed ban on social media TikTok, the number of new U.S. users of the Chinese app Xiaohongshu (known in the West as RedNote) surged.
In fact, it topped Apple’s U.S. App Store free download charts this week.
More than 50,000 U.S. and Chinese users joined a live chat room called “TikTok Refugees” on Monday, sparking impromptu cultural exchanges between longtime Chinese users and new U.S. users on the app, including Americans seeking help from Chinese Math homework help and asking for help from Chinese.
A “refugee” user named Crystal, who refused to reveal her last name, posted this introduction:
“I just wanted to thank you for welcoming us to the app. If we’re doing something wrong, please let us know because we’re used to making videos of people dancing and doing stupid things.
“Please tell us, hopefully within two weeks we’ll be bilingual. I mean, that’s my goal in life. It would help us everywhere.
TikTok has a user base of 170 million in the United States, about half of the U.S. population, and is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
The U.S. Department of Justice said TikTok posed a national security threat because China could use Americans’ data to conduct espionage, blackmail or manipulate the content displayed to users.
Content creator Gwenna Laithland also turned to RedNote, saying she saw it as a silent protest against TikTok’s ban.
“We as the American public have felt so silenced and ignored, and now is our chance to stick our middle finger in the air and say, ‘No! No, we don’t like this! You don’t like it.’ Don’t listen to us!”
“But so far we have begged our representatives to please tell us what this security issue is and why Byte Bounce is more culpable than others. If apps owned, run and accessed by China is a problem, why is RedNote Does it even exist? It’s a question of equality.
“Once we get tired of giving the government the middle finger, the novelty will wear off. We’ll hang out, but now, I just hang out and consume.
Two sources told Reuters the sudden influx of funds surprised RedNote.
A person close to the company told Reuters that more than 700,000 new users had joined in just two days.
Xiaohongshu is a bit like the Chinese version of Instagram, more suitable for domestic users in China who have little English content.
The company is currently working on ways to manage English content and build English-Chinese translation tools, sources said.
The company hopes to tap into the sudden influx of attention, as executives see it as a potential path to TikTok-like global recognition.
Shares of some listed Chinese companies that do business with Xiaohongshu soared to their daily limits on Tuesday.
All this comes as ByteDance has a deadline of January 19 to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a ban.
