TikTok alternative: What is RedNote? Trending Chinese app ‘Xiaohongshu’ attracting digital migration as ban looms
Ahead of a possible TikTok ban this week, RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu), a Chinese platform is gaining popularity.
Unless China-based ByteDance sells the assets of TikTok by the January 19 deadline, the platform faces a ban in the United States. In the aftermath of the ban taking effect this week, Apple and Google would no longer offer the app for downloads for new users. In the meantime, users are already scrambling to ease into TikTok alternatives.
As of Monday, RedNote downloads skyrocketed on the Apple App Store. Now a top free app, the Chinese short-form video app option fuses the functionality of Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest. As one of the most popular apps in China, it’s also natively called ‘Xiaohongshu,’ which translates to “Little Red Book.” Launched in 2013, it first emerged as a shopping platform, allowing users to share product reviews.
'TikTok Refugees to flock RedNote, aka Xiaohongshu
Although RedNote comparisons to a Chinese equivalent of Instagram, visually mirroring Pinterest’s layout, are more rampant than it is envisioned as a solution to the looming TikTok ban, US social media users are deeply considering digitally migrating to the platform as creators and influencers urged their followers to jump ship while self-identifying as “#TikTokRefugees.”
Despite an existing pool of US alternatives to TikTok and platforms like Instagram, YouTube shorts, and Facebook revising their own presentations to emulate the short-form video feed, none has taken the trending dominant stance.
According to The US Sun, 170 million people, roughly half of the US population, use TikTok. Even though users are currently flocking to RedNote, there’s no guarantee that the platform will gain an equally massive upper hand in influencing the audiences, a soft power role TikTok gradually eased into over the years.
Why the TikTok ban
RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, is valued at over $17 billion, according to the Financial Times. As the clock ticks on the potential TikTok ban right ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, existing users will still be able to access it. However, the app will eventually be rendered unusable over degrading qualities. Due to its Chinese origins, RedNote - a symbol of the new rebellion - also primarily features content in Chinese. The considerable US shift to the Chinese alternative has caused existing Chinese users to feel unsettled.
Passing a law last year, Congress forced TikTok’s parent company to sell its US operations as ByteDance’s ties to China are deemed a national security risk if user data is shared with the Chinese government.
Also read | American tennis star pukes mid-4-hour match; Michael Jordan ‘flu game’ deja vu sets in
RedNote memes on the rise
In light of the context, RedNote’s sudden booming popularity—a reflection of American users’ direct interaction with the Chinese platform—has been viewed as a hilarious rebellion, also being dubbed “lowkey the modern Boston Tea Party."
Nonchalant jokes like “Hi, I’m Spy No 649782. Welcome to join Red note. Make sure you post happy notes everyday or your privacy data might be sold to US government” and “I’m a Chinese spy. Give me your data” are already going viral on the app. More and more RedNote memes have also flooded X/Twitter, as users wrote, “Americans on Xiaohongshu talking about how they don’t believe the anti china propaganda anymore.” Meanwhile, others have been “distraught” over Americans taking over the app.
Recommended Topics