As a TikTok Ban Looms, Users Are Flocking to Another Chinese-Owned App

As the deadline for a potential U.S. ban on TikTok looms closer, users are rapidly migrating to alternative platforms. Xiaohongshu or “Red Note,” a Shanghai-based app that mixes short-form videos with e-commerce and image and text posts, has emerged as a surprisingly popular contender.

As of today (Jan. 14), Red Note is the most downloaded free app in the U.S. Apple (AAPL) App Store. For some of the 170 million U.S. users of TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, switching to another Chinese-owned app is a form of rebellion against the U.S. government’s attempts to ban TikTok. “Don’t underestimate how petty we are,” said one TikTok user yesterday in a post that garnered 4.8 million views, where they described the move to Red Note as “a great way to protest.”

Influenced by concerns over China’s ability to access sensitive user data, an impending TikTok ban could take effect as soon as Jan. 19, barring opposition from the Supreme Court or the sale of TikTok to a U.S. owner. Chinese officials have reportedly considered selling the app to Elon Musk, according to Bloomberg—a development that ByteDance later called “pure fiction” in a statement.

The ban is set to prevent U.S. app stores, such as those operated by Apple and Google (GOOGL), from distributing the video-sharing app. While it’s unclear what would happen to those who already have TikTok installed on their devices, it’s likely that, without updates, the app would become unusable over time.

What is Red Note?

TikTok users preparing for such a scenario have begun migrating to Red Note, labeling themselves as “TikTok refugees”—a hashtag that has already garnered more than 100 million views on the platform. Initially established in 2013 as a shopping platform, Red Note has over the years incorporated social video and streaming features and attracts more than 300 million active users per month. The company is already wildly popular in China—91 percent of Chinese influencers regularly post content on the platform, according to a 2022 survey from PJDaren.

Red Note, which was most recently valued at $17 billion, has raised nearly $1 billion from investors like Boyu Capital and HongShan Capital Group, according to Crunchbase, and reportedly more than doubled its profit last year to $1 billion. Its co-founders include Charlwin Mao, who formerly worked at Bain Consulting and Bain Capital, and former Bertelsmann executive Miranda Qu.

Red Note isn’t the only TikTok alternative vying to attract the video-sharing app’s user base. Lemon8, a lifestyle-centered social media app that is also owned by ByteDance and reportedly has more than 1 million daily active users, is currently the second most popular free app on Apple’s App Store. Following closely behind is Clapper, a Texas-based short-form video app with 400,000 daily users.

Whether any of these apps will serve as a permanent replacement for TikTok remains to be seen. Despite the fact that Red Note’s Chinese ownership and Lemon8’s ties to ByteDance could potentially also render these apps inaccessible to U.S. users in the future, not everyone is convinced that a TikTok copycat is the way forward.

“The true heir apparent will be whatever app or platform provides what people want to do online [next],” Karen North, a digital social media expert and professor at the University of Southern California, told Observer.

The social media industry is a fickle one—TikTok, for example, didn’t even exist until 2017, when it appeared as “the next generation of amazingly engaging, amazingly viral, short-form video experiences,” said North. “The question is: do people still want that?” she asked. “The staying power of any one platform is limited, because people are looking for the next experience.”