TikTok could be outlawed in the U.S. as soon as Jan. 19 over concerns about its Chinese ownership, unless it gets a reprieve from the Supreme Court or if Beijing-based parent company ByteDance complies with a federal law forcing it to sell its stake in the app.
With that sword dangling over TikTok’s head, thousands of the app’s American users have been downloading a potential alternative: Xiaohongshu, also called “Red Note,” a social app that lets users share content in a variety of formats including photos, text, videos and livestreaming.
The kicker? Red Note is owned by a Chinese-based company, Xingin Information Technology (Shanghai) — and many TikTok “refugees” have been delighting in the irony that the U.S.’s potential ban of one Chinese app over national security fears is driving the adoption of another one.
Over the past two days, Xiaohongshu has been the No. 1 downloaded free iPhone app on Apple’s App Store in the U.S. During that period, more than 700,000 new users joined Red Note, per a Reuters report. TikTok users creating accounts on Red Note have added hashtags such as #tiktokrefugee or #tiktok to their posts.
On Tuesday, more than 100,000 people had joined a live group-chat on Red Note hosted by a user with the handle “TikTok Refugee Club,” where “people from around the world chatted with Chinese users about urban safety,” while in another forum participants “discussed censorship and shared tips in the comments on how to avoid being banned from the platform for bringing up politically sensitive topics,” per the New York Times.
Xiaohongshu, founded in 2013, was valued at $17 billion after raising funding last year from investors including Boyu Capital and HongShan Capital Group (formerly Sequoia Capital’s Chinese investment arm), according to financial database PitchBook. The company has raised more than $900 million in total funding to date and has more than 2,000 employees, per PitchBook.
Despite its viral moment, Red Note could also be targeted by the U.S. divest-or-ban law. In addition to specifying that TikTok and ByteDance are subject to the law, the restrictions imposed by the legislation apply to any company that is “controlled by a foreign adversary,” meaning any Chinese-based company would fall under the same provisions. As a Reddit commenter on the r/TikTok subreddit put it, “Nobody thinks rednote is a viable long-term replacement. This is just a form of protest; a big middle finger to the US government and their billionaire masters.”
Xiaohongshu’s Chinese name, 小红书, translates as “little red book” — which is the name of the book of quotations by Mao Zedong — but users more commonly refer to it in English as “Red Note.”
“Xiaohongshu is a lifestyle platform that inspires people to discover and connect with a range of diverse lifestyles, where over 300 million users every month share their life experiences,” says the app’s description on Apple’s App Store. The app can let users discover posts about “a range of diverse interests and hobbies that are popular among young people, from recent trends such as stove-boiled tea, camping in the wild, frisbee and other outdoor activities, to hobbies such as discovering fashion styles, cooking, reading, painting, sports and fitness.”
On its website, Xiaohongshu says it has a mission to “inspire lives.” “The innovative platform integrates the authentic content shared by its community with commerce, quickly becoming one of the most popular destinations for making lifestyle decisions,” the website says.