TikTok Users Flock To Chinese App RedNote

Thousands of American TikTok users are creating accounts on Chinese app RedNote in the face of TikTok's uncertain future. While some users see it as a legitimate option for replacing their use of TikTok, many are doing it as an act of political defiance. For their part, many Chinese natives on the app are welcoming the new "TikTok refugees."

What Is RedNote?

RedNote, or as its known in China, Xiaohongshu, is a social media and e-commerce platform that launched back in 2013. While there are many features similar to TikTok, it has been more directly compared to a "Chinese version" of Instagram, thanks to its age and initial feature set and focus. 

Interestingly, the app's primary roots are in shopping advice, and many users still turn to it daily for their shopping needs. 

While much of the app is in Mandarin and not particularly accessible to people who don't speak or understand the language, RedNote has seemingly been focusing on more English and translation features in order to make the app more immediately usable. 

Xiaohongshu claimed around 300 million mother users at its recent peak, a number around twice the size of TikTok's U.S. user base (but only 30 percent of TikTok's global monthly reach of 1 billion). 

Why Are Americans Joining The App?

Some of America's biggest creators, including people like Mr. Beast, have joined RedNote. The app does have a very similar feel to TikTok, and reportedly as many as 70 percent of RedNote's users were born after 1989. This means that, while navigating the app may prove difficult for people who don't speak Mandarin, the "vibe" feels very familiar. You can also pretty easily find people creating videos in English, or English subtitles. 

Of course, many users are also doing it as an act of protest against what they see as unfair and targeted censorship of one specific company. The basis for the U.S. law forcing a sale of TikTok or banning it is a supposed risk to national security — something the government has declined to prove, and a risk many experts say should come with a big asterisk. 

And in the court of public opinion, the fears that China could use the app to spread propaganda just don't concern users much, especially given the proliferation of foreign propaganda on home-grown apps like Twitter and Facebook. In other words, many users see a focus on the potential threat from a frenemy like China as a hollow concern amid the myriad ways all social media companies harvest and sell user data, often to nefarious ends.

There's no shortage of users saying they joined a Chinese-based social media platform specifically as an act of rebellion against banning an app owned by a China-based company. 

But Wait — Wouldn't RedNote Get Banned Too? 

As of publishing this article, the top three free apps on Apple's App store are RedNote, Lemon8, and Clapper. All three, presumably have to do with TikTok's uncertain future. However, both RedNote and Lemon8 — which is a sister app to TikTok and also owned by ByteDance — would presumably suffer the same fate as TikTok in the case of a ban. 

So, yeah, with all the publicity around RedNote now, there's a good chance that app could also be forcibly removed from mobile app stores along with TikTok.

That makes Clapper the only one of the top 3 with an actual shot at hanging around. The problem, though, is Clapper is inherently a 17-and-up platform, meaning a large swath of the youngest Gen Z and oldest Gen Alpha kids aren't "allowed" to use the app. Still, Clapper has been heavily pushing advertisements on TikTok trying to capture some of the migration interest. 

So Should I Join RedNote? 

There's no question we're in a significant cultural moment in the United States. It is, frankly, bizarre to see so many users on a foreign app welcoming U.S.-based users as "refugees" of government censorship. 

And, if for no other reason than just "checking it out," joining RedNote for the time being certainly signals your interest in being a slightly more active part of this cultural moment. (It also signals you really don't care whether or not a foreign-owned company has your data — which, let's be honest, many probably already do). 

That said, if you're looking for a legitimate alternative to TikTok, RedNote is not it right now, and potentially not long for the world on U.S. phones anyway. It certainly can't replace the legitimate careers and income built on TikTok for thousands of creators. They just don't have the U.S.-based infrastructure to easily support U.S.-based monetization. 

It is, however, a fun cultural experiment, particularly if you wan to see how Chinese users are reacting. And, truthfully, how similar we all really are.