Chinese app RedNote gains millions of US users this week as ‘TikTok refugees’ join ahead of ban Reuters
By Katie Paul
NEW YORK – Chinese social media app RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, gained nearly 3 million US users in a single day earlier this week as a flood of self-proclaimed “TikTok refugees” joined, according to new data from analytics firm Similarweb (NYSE :).
The Chinese-language app had about 3.4 million daily active users on iOS and Android devices in the United States as of Monday, down from less than 700,000 the day before and about 300,000 the week before, according to Similarweb estimates.
The influx of users has been fueled by a looming US ban on TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans, over national security concerns.
The data suggests an even bigger switch of US users to RedNote this week than previously known, explaining its dramatic rise to the top of the US app store download charts. Reuters reported on Tuesday that more than 700,000 new users had joined the app in just two days.
It also shows the platform is racing ahead of TikTok sister app Lemon8, which saw moderate growth after parent company ByteDance merged the two apps’ login functions in November.
Lemon8 had 1.7 million daily active users in the United States on Monday, up from about 1.1 million in previous weeks, according to Similarweb.
Meanwhile, TikTok usage in the US was down before the ban, down 2.1% week-on-week to about 82.2 million daily active users, Similarweb said.
Many Chinese users on RedNote welcomed the newcomers and eagerly answered questions about topics such as popular Chinese dishes, the city’s tourist attractions and even China’s birth policy, although there were also signs that American users were testing the restrictions imposed by censors in Beijing. .
For years, China has tightly controlled cyberspace through its “Great Firewall” censorship architecture and has blocked foreign social networks such as Instagram and X.
US users who have built up followers and careers on TikTok had hoped for months to find a way to avoid a US ban enacted into law in 2023, but the resignation appeared to be coming this week as the January 19 deadline approached.
