American TikTok fanatics are moving to another Chinese short-form social media platform ahead of a possible TikTok ban next week.
Xiaohongshu, which translates as “little red book” but is called RedNote, became the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store on Monday.
With 300 million monthly active users, the app is like Pinterest with a mix of Instagram and TikTok. It also has a number of social shopping features.
Xiaohongshu was launched in 2013 and has attracted the attention of investors. It has raised approximately $917 million in venture funding and is valued at $17 billion. But the American focus has suddenly increased, especially considering that they have not helped the US market at all. Users should switch the language from Mandarin to English in the settings.
TikTok is now overflowing with content from users posting their experiences on Xiaohongshu. Much of the user interest comes from a common triviality: A government takes away a highly addictive app due to host country national security threats, and users simply find another app from said host country.
“This is actually the funniest turn of events,” one TikTok user commented on the video.
“I made my username my social security number so the guy with the red flag can get promoted faster,” one user joked in another TikTok comment, referring to a meme in which Chinese spies curate users’ highly private TikTok feeds.
The future of TikTok is still undecided. The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of this week on whether the app can continue to operate in the US unless it is spun off from its parent company or sold to an approved buyer.
Currently, it will be banned in the US on January 19th, and all signs point to the Supreme Court upholding the ban.
TikTok will likely be removed from app stores immediately so that companies like Apple and Google don’t have to pay huge fines. This does not mean that the app will be removed from the devices of American users. However, the quality of the application will eventually deteriorate or TikTok may prevent users from accessing videos on the platform.
President Donald Trump may also try to block the ban once he takes office on Jan. 20, but it’s unclear if those efforts will actually work.