Eduardo Baptista, Katie Paul and Krystal Hu
(Reuters) – New users have flocked to Chinese social media app RedNote just days before a proposed U.S. ban on popular social media app TikTok, as the lesser-known company rushes to capitalize on the sudden influx while walking a delicate line of moderating English-language content, sources told Reuters. .
In a live chat called “TikTok Refugees” on RedNote on Monday, more than 50,000 American and Chinese users joined the room.
Veteran Chinese users, with a certain sense of bewilderment, greeted their American counterparts and exchanged notes with them on topics such as food and youth unemployment.
However, occasionally the Americans veered into riskier territory.
“Is it okay to ask how the laws are different in China and Hong Kong?” asked one American user.
“We prefer not to talk about it here,” the Chinese user replied.
Such impromptu cultural exchanges took place across RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, as the app soared to the top of the US download charts this week. Its popularity was fueled by US social media users looking for an alternative to ByteDance-owned TikTok days before its ban.
More than 700,000 new users joined Xiaohongshu in just two days, a person close to the company told Reuters. Xiaohongshu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Downloads of RedNote in the US were up more than 200% this week from last year and 194% from the week before, according to app data research firm Sensor Tower.
The second most popular free app on Apple’s (NASDAQ: ) App Store list on Tuesday, Lemon8, another social media app owned by ByteDance, saw a similar jump last month, with downloads jumping 190% in December to about 3.4 million .
The influx appears to have caught RedNote by surprise, with two sources familiar with the company telling Reuters that they are looking at ways to moderate English-language content and build English-to-Chinese translation tools.
RedNote maintains only one version of its app, rather than splitting it into foreign and domestic apps – a rarity among Chinese social apps that are subject to domestic moderation rules.
Still, the company wants to capitalize on the sudden surge in attention, as executives see it as a potential path to achieving TikTok-like global popularity.
RedNote, a venture capital-backed startup with a recent valuation of $17 billion, allows users to curate photos, videos and text that document their lives. It is considered a possible IPO candidate in China.
In recent years, it has become the de facto search engine for its more than 300 million users looking for travel tips, anti-aging creams and restaurant recommendations.
Share prices of some Chinese companies that do business with RedNote, such as Hangzhou Onechance Tech Corp, rose as much as 20% on Tuesday, hitting the daily limit.
The surge in US users comes ahead of a January 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a US ban on national security grounds.
TikTok is currently used by around 170 million Americans, roughly half of the country’s population, and is extremely popular with young people and advertisers looking to reach them.
“Americans who use Rednote feel like a brazen middle finger to the US government because of its excessive business intrusion and privacy concerns,” said Stella Kittrell, 29, a content creator based in Baltimore, Maryland. She said she joined RedNote in hopes of further cooperation with the Chinese company, which she found useful.
Some users said they joined the platform to seek alternatives to Facebook (NASDAQ: ) and Instagram owned by Meta Platforms, and Elon Musk’s Xu. Some expressed doubt that they could rebuild their TikTok follower base on those apps.
“It’s not the same: Instagram, X or any other app,” said Brian Atabansi, 29, a business analyst and content creator based in San Diego, California. “Mostly because of how organic it is to build a community on TikTok,” he said.
