More than half a million ‘TikTok refugees’ flock to China’s RedNote as ban looms
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RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, rockets to top of US app stores, along with ByteDance’s Lemon8. New users have piled in to the Chinese social media app RedNote just days before a proposed US ban on the popular social media app TikTok, as the lesser-known company rushes to capitalize on the sudden influx while walking a delicate line of moderating English-language content.
In a live chat dubbed “TikTok Refugees” on RedNote on Monday, more than 50,000 US and Chinese users joined the room. Veteran Chinese users, with some sense of bewilderment, welcomed their American counterparts and swapped notes with them on topics such as food and youth unemployment. Occasionally, however, the Americans veered into riskier territory.
“Is it OK to ask about how laws are different in China versus Hong Kong?” one American user asked. A Chinese user responded: “We prefer not to talk about that here.”. Such impromptu cultural exchanges were taking place all across RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, as the app surged to the top of US download rankings this week. Its popularity was driven by US social media users casting about for an alternative to ByteDance-owned TikTok days in advance of its looming ban.
RedNote, a venture capital-backed startup with a most recent valuation of $17bn, allows users to curate photos, videos and text documenting their lives. It has been viewed as a possible IPO candidate in China. In recent years, it has become a de facto search engine for its 300 million-plus users looking for travel tips, anti-ageing creams and restaurant recommendations.
