Between December 2024 and January 2025, Chinese-developed social media app Xiaohongshu (better known in English as RedNote before changing its official English name to rednote) was chosen by TikTok users in the United States as the platform to join to protest the upcoming ban or forced TikTok sale. Despite being only available in Mandarin, U.S. downloads of the Instagram-like photo and social app reached in the first quarter of 2026. The app, which presents a visual format and functions similar to TikTok, including vertical scrolling, has seen Chinese-based audiences and U.S. audiences interact in new and unforeseen ways, such as language exchanges.
The U.S. TikTok ban
In April 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill ordering the sale of TikTok and its separation from ByteDance, or a ban on the entire platform within the U.S. market in case TikTok failed to comply. U.S. users choosing Xiaohongshu was a particularly surprising move, as previous surveys suggested different consumer preferences in case TikTok was banned. Traditional social media and video platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram were given as the possible winners of a TikTok ban. While Xiaohongshu might not be the platform U.S. TikTok users and content creators might decide in the future, consumers in the region have shown that alleged privacy issues specific to Chinese-developed technology are not their major concern. Overall, over countries and regions worldwide opted for banning TikTok on government-owned devices, while only Afghanistan and India opted for a full app ban.
Xiaohongshu vs Douyin in China
Differently from TikTok and Douyin (its original version accessible only in the Chinese market), which are two separate entities and do not operate within the same audiences, content management principles, and even terms of use on what the platforms allow, Xiaohongshu presents only one interface. While Douyin was the third most-valuable app based on user traffic value in China in 2024, Xiaohongshu ranked tenth with a user traffic value of billion yuan. In terms of content creators, Xiaohongshu hosted more micro creators (with up to followers) and fewer Key Opinion Leaders in 2023, while Douyin had a relatively smaller micro-creators base.