New users from the United States are flocking to the Chinese social media app RedNote before a proposed U.S. ban on the popular social media app TikTok comes into effect. Known in China as “Xiaohongshu”, the social media platform is known as the Instagram of China.
The Chinese name Xiaohongshu means “Little Red Book” in English, a phrase that refers to a collection of quotes by Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong. Chinese users regard RedNote as a search engine for recommendations. Some of the most popular topics on the app span beauty, fashion, travel and food. Its users in China are mostly young and female.
What is RedNote?
RedNote was initially named “Hong Kong Shopping Guide,” targeting Chinese tourists who are looking for recommendations outside the mainland. Founded in 2013 by Shanghai-based Xingyin Information Technology, the platform rapidly became popular in Mandarin-speaking countries and has more than 300 million monthly active users.
Despite the app’s interface being different from TikTok and Instagram, it has gained sudden popularity among Americans who are joining the platform in protest against the TikTok ban. The interface is different from TikTok in that videos do not immediately start playing upon opening the app. Users must log in to begin using it.
The app also displays multiple posts including videos, photos and longer-form texts simultaneously. Users can engage in discussions, share their posts, call each other and even purchase products on the platform. RedNote has also recently been making a big push into live-streaming sales.
RedNote is available in only one version, a rare choice among Chinese social apps that usually split their platforms into overseas and domestic apps due to China’s moderation rules.
Why not Instagram?
U.S. downloads of RedNote rose more than 200 percent annually this week and 194 percent from the week prior, according to estimates from app data research firm Sensor Tower.
The second most popular free app on Apple’s App Store list was Lemon8, another social media app owned by ByteDance which also owns TikTok. Lemon8 experienced a similar surge last month, with downloads jumping by 190 percent in December to about 3.4 million.
The surge in U.S. users on Chinese social media apps comes ahead of a January 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in the U.S. on the grounds of national security. Almost 170 million Americans currently use TikTok, around half of the country’s population.
But why not Instagram or Facebook? The potential TikTok ban is also coming at a time when Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has announced changes to Facebook and Instagram’s content moderation. Last week, Meta abandoned a third-party fact-checking program on the basis that it had become a “tool to censor”. The group said it will switch to a system of community notes, similar to those used by the X platform.
Zuckerberg said fact-checking organizations proved to be biased when it came to selecting content to moderate, adding that he wanted to ensure free speech on all platforms. “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression,” he said in a post.
In addition to Meta’s new content moderation updates, U.S. users are deliberately choosing RedNote and other Chinese apps in an act of protest against Trump’s claims that China is stealing users’ data. TikToks with millions of views have shown U.S. users “surrendering” all their data to China and becoming a “TikTok refugee” on RedNote.
TikTok ban to take effect
In 2020, then-president Trump led the initial effort to ban TikTok with an executive order, citing national security concerns. Trump supported TikTok’s acquisition by Microsoft but the deal fell through. Software giant Oracle made a bid to become TikTok’s trusted technology partner in the U.S. After significant pressure, TikTok agreed to protect U.S. data through a partnership with Oracle.
Following the partnership with Oracle, the Biden administration sought to further regulate TikTok and banned the app from federal devices in February 2023. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew defended the company in March 2023 in a hearing before lawmakers, who advocated for banning the app.
In May 2023, Montana became the first U.S. state to sign legislation banning TikTok but a federal judge in November blocked the ban before it took effect. In March last year, the House of Representatives passed the TikTok bill and the Senate passed it in April 2024. Shortly after, Biden signed the bipartisan law, forcing TikTok’s parent company to divest from its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban.
On January 10, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about the law and seemed inclined to uphold it, pushing users to download RedNote and other TikTok alternatives. It is not yet clear when the Supreme Court’s final ruling will be delivered, but the ban is due to take effect on Sunday, a day before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
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5 popular TikTok alternatives
Some of the most popular TikTok alternatives include:
RedNote
With a surge in downloads of more than 200 percent annually this week, RedNote is becoming one of the most popular alternatives for TikTok. Many TikTok users have already decided to move to RedNote, despite it being mostly in Mandarin. The company is currently seeking ways to make it more accessible to English speakers through translation tools which will likely increase its adoption further among Americans.
Lemon8
Lemon8, also owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, is a less popular lifestyle app that allows users to post pictures and short-form videos. The platform lets users post TikTok-like videos but it leans more toward pictures and has been described as a mixture of Instagram and Pinterest.
However, the law that targets TikTok also states the divest-or-ban requirement for ByteDance applies generally to apps that are owned or operated by the two companies or any of their subsidiaries. That means even though Lemon8 is not explicitly named in the statute, its future in the U.S. is similar to TikTok.
Instagram launched Reels in 2020, a feed of short videos similar to TikTok where users can create content or scroll through. The feature has proven to be massively popular and will likely see an increase in usage following the TikTok ban.
However, with Meta announcing changes to Facebook and Instagram’s content moderation, concerns among users are rising, pushing them toward other social media platforms. Some users are also deleting their accounts and boycotting Meta in protest of its latest content moderation changes.
YouTube
Despite TikTok dominating headlines as a driver of internet trends, Pew Research Center says YouTube is in fact the most widely-used platform among teens and adults.
YouTube also offers Shorts that are similar to Reels on Instagram and Facebook, allowing users to watch hours of short-form videos. That said, YouTube is still popular for its longer-form videos so it may not be popular among users seeking a TikTok alternative.
Clapper
Clapper, a TikTok look-alike, has also gained some traction ahead of the ban. The app was launched in 2020 by Dallas-based entrepreneur Edison Chen, and focuses on Gen X and millennial users. Monetization of content is possible on Clapper through the Clapper Fam feature, which allows creators to lock selected content behind a paywall.
In September 2020, the company described itself in a Facebook post as a “free speech” platform that did not “censor posts and comments.” However, in a blog post on its website from 2021, the company wrote it “stopped being a Free Speech platform” in September 2020 and changed its mission and goals to focus on community.
