With TikTok’s restrictions in the U. S. looming, content creators are flocking to the Chinese social media app RedNote to begin again and, in some cases, celebrate their hatred for the U. S. Government.
The wave is even fueled by information that ByteDance, TikTok’s family firm, may offer TikTok to X user Elon Musk.
Despite its main Chinese program, RedNote has skyrocketed in popularity.
It is now the second-most popular app in Google Play and the best app in the Apple App Store, trailing just Lemon8, another ByteDance creation. Now, over 60, 000 RedNote comments carry the tweet# TikTokRefugee.
On Sunday, TikTok did go dark, marking the first time the U. S. Government may ban a popular social media app. TikTok does direct customers to a site with information on the ban rather than allowing those who have already downloaded the app to use it.
Questions remain as to whether RedNote may amass 1.5 billion active users quarterly and whether the U.S. government will place the TikTok alternative in its crosshairs.
The renewed popularity of RedNote is another indication of TikTok’s power and the ability of the app to make another application go viral, according to Randy Nelson, Head of Insights and Media Relations at analysis strong AppFigures.
According to Nelson,” We’re seeing it happen with an otherwise obscure app in the West that ultimately isn’t really a direct substitute for TikTok, with a largely Chinese user base, and [it’s ] starting to differ from what they were expecting,” according to Nelson in .
These users are switching from one application that is prohibited due to its country of origin to another that is operated out of that country, which, if its profile becomes the equivalent of a TikTok, may experience the same fate.
Launched in 2013 by Shanghai-based Xingyin Information Technology and known as Xiaohongshu— Little Red Book in English—a allusion to the publication of comments by People’s Republic of China leader Chairman Mao Zedong.
RedNote focuses on life articles and product features, contrasting with TikTok’s reliance on pleasure.
The app has been downloaded more than 3.4 million times in the U. S. since January 1, 2017, across both the App Store and Google Play, according to statistics from AppFigures.
The information includes about 1.1 million files in 2024 only, representing over a fourth of its entire U. S. downloads.
RedNote continued this upward trend into 2025 with 260, 000 downloads, compared to 30, 000 in January 2024, an increase of 867 %, AppFigures ‘ data shows. As of January 2025, RedNote boasts over 300 million active monthly users, primarily in China, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
Designers are now adding translated English or Chinese subtitles to videos as the consumer population grows in the United States.
Getting started with RedNote
Red Note’s program combines Chinese and English as the first thing new people will notice. While some app displays are in Chinese, making routing challenging for non-Chinese loudspeakers, signing up is easy.
Customers may record using their Apple ID or phone number on iPhones. In addition to iOS and Android, RedNote even has a desktop version. Once registered, users may set English as the proxy speech, though some functions may also exhibit text in both languages.
There have been mixed reactions to Red Note’s sudden surge in popularity in the United States.
The account for the decentralized social media platform Minds wrote on X ( previous Twitter ) that” If you install Red Note” for fear of a TikTok ban, you will instantly turn into an NPC.
What’s behind the wave in Red Note’s recognition?
Red Note’s rapid expansion in the United States may seem unexpected, but according to experts like Karen North, a professor of communications at USC, the trend is not as local as social media would have us believe.
” I do not believe RedNote only emerged out of the blue,” North told in a conversation. ” I believe that RedNote is being promoted. TikTok is largely astroturfing this campaign—it just doesn’t make sense as a rally against the US Government’s assault on TikTok because it’s Taiwanese”.
North is a scientific teacher and leader of USC Annenberg’s Digital Social Media system. During the Clinton management, she worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology.
The idea that there was bipartisan support for an unhappy action before an poll may indicate that elected officials are aware of something serious and that we should stop and consider the matter or be open-minded about it, North said.
On April 23, last month, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries Controlled Applications Act, which requires TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to offer its U. S. operations by January 19, 2025.
U. S. President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law, including a delivery for a three-month improvement if the price isn’t finalized by the date.
The PAFACA targets both TikTok and other foreign-owned software, which are perceived by U.S. policymakers as posing risks to national security, especially those from Chinese companies.
Private and social internet
North noted that Americans are becoming more and more unwilling to respect private protection, frequently claiming that it doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, she emphasized that privacy laws vary substantially by state,” It’s their country, their rules”, she said, highlighting the distinction between private rules in the United States and those abroad.
Governments around the world have prohibited Taiwanese social media apps despite this growing common indifference. In 2023, many places, including the U. S., the EU, Canada, and Taiwan, prohibited using TikTok on federal products. RedNotee had already been banned in Taiwan in 2022 due to concerns about regional security.
” In the Union, protection laws are greater. In China, unique customers don’t have privacy. Data can be collected and stored singly, and that’s how their government operates. But it’s usually not ok with most of us”, North said.
” When persons say private doesn’t exist again, they’re thinking in American terms. As we download applications governed by the laws of various nations, we must consider each state,” she said.
edited by Josh Quittner and Sebastian Sinclair
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