TikTok Users Are Flocking to Another Chinese Social Media App as U.S. Ban Looms

With the ban on TikTok looming and little indication that the Supreme Court will stop it, users are already looking for a new place to scroll away their day. Instead of turning to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, a swath of people—driven both by desperation and pettiness—are hopping onto RedNote (also known as Xiaohongshu), a social media app owned by Chinese company Xingyin Information Technology.

So many Americans have downloaded RedNote in the last few days that it has been pushed to the top spot in the Apple App Store. Existing users on the platform—based primarily in China—have been quite welcoming to the orphaned users, posting videos explaining how to use the app with hashtags like #TikTokRefugees, which have gone viral across the app. American users, meanwhile, have made a point to show respect to their new hosts, posting tributes to President Xi. The parties are already finding common ground, including over their mutual respect for alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione.

the fact people can post pictures with comments on rednote and people are asking for help with their english hw is so funnyyy pic.twitter.com/6IE7FjSjSO

— ophelia 🏁 (@notopheliagrace) January 13, 2025

xiaohongshu at the top of app downloads today, *and* “tiktok refugees” are already finding a home among the chinese luigi mangione stans. they’re joking about sending their data directly to xi jinping in a red envelope. you know the american tech lobby is pissed right now lol pic.twitter.com/eTWMqelcAn

— morgan sung (@morgan_sung) January 13, 2025

RedNote is not a perfect TikTok replacement—its interface acts more like Pinterest than your standard infinite video scroll, and it’s been described as China’s Instagram—but it does check a couple of important boxes for creators who are worried they’ll lose their following should the looming TikTok ban hit on January 19. First, it is a vertical video-native platform, similar to TikTok. Second, it has built-in shopping features similar to the TikTok Shop that have become a boon for creators looking to set up a storefront, stemming from the app’s early days as a social shopping app focused on fashion.

But perhaps just as important as functionality is the statement it makes. While TikTok is getting banned by US politicians for its ties to the Chinese government that are obscured by the fact the American version of the app is headquartered in Los Angeles, RedNote is explicitly a Chinese-owned service. It is owned by Xingyin Information Technology, which has direct ties to the Chinese government. Now Americans are flocking to it, pretty explicitly because their government told them not to.

It’s hard to say just how long the TikTok refugee movement will last on RedNote. The app surely was not hurting before Americans flooded to it—it received a $17 billion valuation in 2024, and that was before it broke $1 billion in total revenue for the year. But the new audience may give the app a reason to appeal to a new market with plenty of money to burn.

American politicians will likely turn their ire to RedNote at some point if it continues to gain steam. While it’s unlikely it’ll ever truly be the new TikTok, it would likely be subject to the same law that will effectively ban TikTok in the US, as it applies to any China-based company. The same goes for other explicit TikTok knockoffs like Lemon8, which will be subject to the ban, as well.

Frankly, if the US government wants to squash these apps so badly, maybe it should block American venture capitalists from pouring money into them rather than banning citizens from using them. It was, in no small part, US dollars that helped spur the massive growth of RedNote and TikTok, and the funders seem happy to cash in just about anywhere regardless of any concerns regarding “national security” or otherwise. Turns out the money all spends the same no matter what.