In the days leading up to the January 19 deadline for TikTok, users in the U.S. scrambled to find alternatives. But instead of YouTube, X, or Instagram, the so-called TikTok refugees flocked to Chinese apps such as XiaohongshuiXiaohongshuXiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in Chinese, is a lifestyle e-commerce and social media platform.READ MORE, and another ByteDance product, Lemon8, which uses a recommendation algorithm similar to that of TikTok.

In trying out Chinese apps as a form of protest — language barrier be damned — many of TikTok’s 170 million American users discovered the same features that had made TikTok so appealing: an infinite scroll of hyper-targeted recommendations, and interactions with friendly strangers. Xiaohongshu, one of China’s most popular lifestyle social networks, quickly became the most downloaded app on Apple’s U.S. App Store, followed by Lemon8.

A key driver behind the success of Chinese apps is that they have integrated e-commerce into their platforms, blending entertainment and networking with sales to monetize their famously addictive algorithms, according to Chinese social media experts and marketing firms. The platforms also continually surface fresh, engaging content, not only fueling binge-watching but also exposing users to new trends and shopping opportunities. 

“TikTok’s algorithm is so good and so influential that it became a very powerful social media platform that attracted a lot of people,” Mandy Hu, director of the Centre for Consumer Insights and associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told Rest of World. “[Their e-commerce] business model was a way to cash in on the popularity.”

All of China’s major social platforms have a component of shopping built into them, known in the industry as shoppertainment or social commerce. Xiaohongshu was launched in 2013 as a guide for Chinese travellers looking for shopping recommendations. The model has delivered: In 2023, TikTok’s Chinese sister app, Douyin, said its platform sales exceeded 2 trillion yuan ($2 billion). Xiaohongshu doesn’t disclose detailed figures, but the app’s aggressive expansion into social commerce in 2023 coincided with the first year it turned a net profit to the tune of $500 million.

At the same time, social networking is built into the most popular Chinese online shopping platforms, like Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com. They feature livestreamed videos of shopping influencers, and robust chat and photo-sharing functions, blurring the lines between social media and e-commerce.

With algorithms designed to spark impulse buys among wide swathes of users, China has become the global leader in social commerce, with nearly half the respondents in a 2024 McKinsey survey reporting they’d recently made purchases directly through social media apps.

Western social networks, on the other hand, remain focused on advertising revenue, and their algorithms tend to prioritize accounts that users have opted to follow, MaryLeigh Bliss, chief content officer at YPulse, a New York-based research firm that studies consumer trends among young people, told Rest of World. 

TikTok’s powerful search function and For You recommendation algorithm surfaced videos on anything that was trending, creating a heightened discovery experience, Bliss said. “It is kind of ironic considering [concerns about Chinese government influence], but truly, it democratized content in a way that no other app had.”

Although TikTok only launched TikTok Shop in 2023, American users’ social commerce content helped boost ByteDance’s non-China revenue by 60% last year, despite regulatory pressures. Last year, TikTok said it topped $100 million in Black Friday shopping revenue in the U.S. 

Without a ban, TikTok could one day rival Amazon, Ryan Broderick, a tech journalist and commentator, told Rest of World.

“Overwhelmingly, Chinese social apps are competing with traditional e-commerce platforms,” he said. “The fact that U.S. lawmakers aren’t talking about this signals that Western apps are going to be playing catch-up for a very long time, no matter what happens to TikTok.” 

Western platforms have tried to mimic some of TikTok’s functionality, such as through Instagram Reels, but have been criticized for issues that include an alleged lack of authenticity, Brett Dashevsky, founder of Creator Economy NYC, a networking group for online creators, told Rest of World. 

“Instagram feels like a stage where everyone’s watching and judging. But TikTok felt like a casual hangout where you could just be yourself,” Dashevsky said. “On Instagram, the algorithm amplifies your content to your followers — friends, family, and everyone you know — making [posting] feel more like a statement.”

“But on TikTok, the algorithm throws your content into the mix for anyone to see,” he said. “Your content stood on its own, and if it flopped, it just disappeared. No grid, no pressure. Just vibes.”

Many TikTok users have posted videos in recent days bashing Western media platforms. “I love TikTok, it doesn’t typically criticize what [people] look like, where they’re coming from. They want to know what you’re saying. It’s an actual community,” user Jason Finds said. 

The prospect of a TikTok ban still looms, as lawmakers have doubled down. A ban would have far-reaching legal implications for other Chinese platforms, Milton Mueller, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-founder of the Internet Governance Project, told Rest of World. Lemon8 could be subject to the same ban because it is owned by ByteDance, and the legislation could cover multiple companies and entities, potentially creating a “Great Firewall of the United States” over time, he said. 

“The logic of this ban is indeed a slippery slope,” said Mueller, adding that it could extend not only to Xiaohongshu but also to any Chinese newspaper or website seen to be influenced by Beijing.

Could Western companies emulate Chinese apps’ approach to shoppertainment? Meta tried, then backed off, closing down a shopping function for Instagram in early 2023, and said it was focusing on AI services. E-commerce platforms like Amazon have not been able to successfully integrate social content. YouTube has explored shopping features in some regions, recently tying up with an e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. The companies did not respond to requests for comment.

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There are also political factors in play. In China, the government encourages consumer spending through online platforms as it promotes their importance as an economic engine, while in the West, social media companies face relatively more regulatory scrutiny for designing algorithms to be addictive, or showing potentially harmful content.

“I think it’s just a matter of priorities,” Broderick said. “American social platforms were born as extensions of our TV or newspaper industries. Chinese tech platforms seem much more influenced by e-commerce. They’re playing different games.”

Ahead of the short-lived U.S. TikTok ban on January 19, so-called TikTok refugees flocked to popular Chinese social media app XiaohongshuiXiaohongshuXiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in Chinese, is a lifestyle e-commerce and social media platform.READ MORE. In the U.S., the app was number one on Apple’s App Store from January 13 to January 23, and it’s stayed in the top spot on Google Play since January 14. New data shows that the explosion in the popularity of Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, stretched well beyond U.S. borders.

A Rest of World analysis of App Store and Google Play ranking data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower found that Xiaohongshu’s popularity skyrocketed in non-Western countries, too. In 42 of the 63 non-Western countries tracked by Sensor Tower, the app ranked in the top three spots on the charts at some point between January 13 and January 21. 

Sensor Tower collects its ranking data from “publicly accessible estimates provided by the Apple App Store and Google Play [store].” While the firm doesn’t have direct insights into Apple’s and Google’s algorithms for determining rankings, the data suggests that “an app with a higher ranking is typically downloaded more than those with lower rankings.”

Based on data from the past month, Xiaohongshu started ranking as a top app on the App Store and the Google Play store in most non-Western countries around January 13, similar to when it climbed the U.S. charts. According to Google Trends, the terms “Xiaohongshu” and “RedNote” saw a boost in interest worldwide on January 13.

Prior to then, the app didn’t appear on Sensor Tower’s overall list of popular downloaded apps in most countries, likely because Sensor Tower only gathers data on the top 200 apps on the App Store and the top 660 apps on Google Play.

Ivy Yang, a China tech analyst and the founder of consulting firm Wavelet Strategy, noted that many people already use social media platforms that mimic TikTok’s features, like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. “But there is still something about TikTok that is interesting and special to them,” she told Rest of World. “So they really just wanted to find an alternative. And RedNote happens to be that.”

In Ghana, for example, the app ranked number one for a full week on the App Store, starting January 14. In Kuwait, it hit number one on the App Store on January 14 and stayed in the top four spots until a sharp drop on January 21. On Peru’s App Store, it ranked in the top three spots from January 15 to January 20, peaking at number one on the day of the TikTok ban.

The flurry of activity follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld legislation requiring TikTok to be divested from its parent company, ByteDance, or be banned in the country starting January 19. Although TikTok did shut down in the U.S. starting the evening of January 18, the app was restored the next day after President Donald Trump pledged to sign an executive order to delay the ban.

During that period, Americans flocked to Xiaohongshu as both a TikTok alternative and a form of  protest against the crackdown. Even though TikTok’s shutdown didn’t impact anyone outside the U.S., users around the world still downloaded Xiaohongshu in droves.

Yang suggested that speaks to the power of the U.S. market. “The importance of the U.S. as kind of the cultural zeitgeist that influences other people’s perception of a social media app, of what you can do on the app, and why you want to be on that app, is still very significant,” she said.

It also highlights TikTok’s power “in turning these little fads into a movement,” Yang said. She noted that many people first learned about Xiaohongshu because influencers checked it out ahead of the ban and then came back to TikTok to make videos about it.

While Xiaohongshu has always focused on Chinese users, the company rolled out a translation feature on January 19. Yangtse Evening Post reported that the feature has been accurately translating a multitude of languages, making it easier to use across the globe. 

Yang sees Xiaohongshu’s rise as “a really great opportunity where lots of people can have this platform to engage in these direct conversations.”

“Everything we’ve seen in the past week has been really heartwarming. You realize that people are more similar than they’re different, regardless of where they live,” she said. “Just in terms of humanity, I think that’s a wonderful development.”

Xiaohongshu did not respond to Rest of World’s request for comment.

Xiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in Chinese, is a lifestyle e-commerce and social media platform. Think Instagram meets Tiktok: an app whose feed offers an infinite scroll of Instagram-like posts, powered by TikTok-style customized recommendations. It recently shot to the top of the app download charts in the U.S., fueled by a surge of TikTok users seeking an alternative amid fears of a ban.

The social media platform made waves across Western media this week. At Rest of World, we’ve been writing about XiaohongshuiXiaohongshuXiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in Chinese, is a lifestyle e-commerce and social media platform.READ MORE and its influence — both within and outside China — for a couple of years. Here’s everything you should know about the app.

What is Xiaohongshu?

Xiaohongshu is one of the most popular social networks in China. It is not a TikTok dupe; that would be Douyin, which is also owned by TikTok-parent ByteDance. Xiaohongshu is more frequently compared to Instagram. The app offers an infinite scroll feed powered by algorithmic recommendations. Xiaohongshu users, most of whom are young women, commonly use the app to exchange tips on travel, shopping, and other lifestyle topics. It boasts over 300 million monthly active users.

Beyond personal lifestyle tips, Xiaohongshu has also shaped global tourism trends. Users helped transform Düsseldorf into a foodie hot spot, drawing Chinese tourists to the city’s Japanese restaurants and bakeries. Similarly, the platform has driven a surge of interest in Southeast Asian travel, with its users sharing curated itineraries and hidden gem photo ops that have fueled Chinese tourism to destinations like Thailand and Vietnam.

Is RedNote the same thing as Xiaohongshu?

Yes! Xiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in Chinese, has been dubbed “RedNote” by TikTokers. Xiaohongshu had not previously targeted American users, but was the most downloaded app on Apple’s U.S. App Store as of January 14. 

The “little red book” is reportedly a nod to the colors of Stanford and Bain Capital, where one of the app’s founders Charlwin Mao attended college and worked. Wired reporter Zeyi Yang suggests it may also be a wink at Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” of quotations.

How long has it been around? 

Xiaohongshu has been around for 12 years now, though it’s evolved significantly from a shopping-focused platform to a social network shaping global trends.

Who owns Xiaohongshu?

Xiaohongshu was founded in Shanghai in 2013 by Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu Fang. Investors including Tencent, Alibaba, and DST have put nearly $1 billion into the company, shooting up its valuation to $17 billion as of 2024. 

Why are so many people downloading it now? 

Thousands of “TikTok refugees” have flocked to Xiaohongshu after TikTok influencers called for a migration to the app to show their opposition to the U.S. government’s crackdown on TikTok. The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on a law that requires TikTok to be divested from its parent company ByteDance by January 19, or face a ban in the U.S.

Do you have to use your real name on Xiaohongshu?

The Chinese government has long required Chinese users to register with their real names on social media platforms, but previously, users often adopted the alias “momo” — a cute pink dinosaur — as a public username to speak more freely online. However, the era of anonymity is coming to an end: Apps like Xiaohongshu now require prominent influencers inside China to display their real names, tying online identities to verified personal information. These rules do not apply to people outside China.

In China, violations of content rules could result in account bans or legal repercussions, including jail time. American TikTokers who recently migrated to RedNote did not seem to know, or care, about platform rules. In the comments, some Chinese users reminded the newcomers not to discuss “politics, religion, and drugs.”

Who can create a Xiaohongshu account? 

Anyone around the world is able to make an account on Xiaohongshu — for now. In contrast to ByteDance which created a separate app (TikTok) for users outside China, Xiaohongshu focuses primarily on Chinese users, and adheres to Beijing’s strict censorship rules. Whether the app will change anything to cater to its newest (international) users remains to be seen.

American high school student Venus Rios sparked a flurry of chatter when she posted this week on Chinese social media platform XiaohongshuiXiaohongshuXiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in Chinese, is a lifestyle e-commerce and social media platform.READ MORE, writing in Chinese characters. 

“Hi Chinese netizens! I am American, if you need help with your English homework, please tell me!” Within a day, the 17-year-old had received nearly 2,000 comments.

Rios is among the thousands of “TikTok refugees” who have flocked to Xiaohongshu after TikTok influencers called for a migration to the app to show their opposition to the U.S. government’s crackdown on TikTok. The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on a law that requires TikTok to be divested from its parent company ByteDance by January 19, or face a ban in the U.S.

Dubbed “RedNote” by TikTokers, Xiaohongshu, which had not previously targeted American users, was the most-downloaded app on Apple’s U.S. App Store as of Tuesday. For Rios, using the app is more than an act of rebellion, she told Rest of World.

“I just wanted something that could replace TikTok, and also it was sort of an act of protest against our government,” the Texan said. 

Xiaohongshu, which means “little red book,” is one of the most popular social networks in China. Its feed offers an infinite scroll of Instagram-like posts, powered by TikTok-style customized recommendations. Xiaohongshu users, most of whom are young women, commonly use the app to exchange tips on travel, shopping, and other lifestyle topics. It boasts over 300 million monthly active users.

Xiaohongshu did not respond to Rest of World’s request for comment, including on the latest count of overseas users.

As of Tuesday morning, there were at least 58,000 posts related to “TikTok refugee” on the app’s search engine. A chatroom named “TikTok Refugees Home” livestreamed for hours on Monday, attracting over 727,300 participants.

In contrast to ByteDance which created a separate app, TikTok, for users outside China, Xiaohongshu focuses primarily on Chinese users, and adheres to Beijing’s strict censorship rules. TikTok’s Chinese sister app, Douyin, is not available for download in the U.S. 

Although Xiaohongshu is widely used by overseas Chinese people, the platform has made limited efforts to attract a broader international user base. Even Xiaohongshu’s logo is designed with the Chinese characters of its name. It offers no in-app translation for user posts or comments, and only suggests Chinese-language keywords in its search bar. 

Now, the sudden influx of Americans to Xiaohongshu has created an unusual space for exchanges between Chinese and American users. Over the past few days, they have exchanged cat memes, shared pictures of each other’s hometowns, and addressed thorny topics like racism, transgender rights, and Luigi Mangione. 

“I think Xiaohongshu is the Chinese app closest to American internet culture,” Roger Huang, a Mandarin-speaking Canadian author who signed up on Xiaohongshu in 2020 to learn about Chinese consumer trends, told Rest of World. “If a bunch of Americans showed up on WeChat, they’d be totally lost,” he said, referring to China’s ubiquitous instant messaging app. 

The interactions between American and Chinese users could have lasting positive implications, Huang said. “It could help more Americans realize that Shanghainese are not that different from New Yorkers. That would be healthy for U.S.-Chinese discourse in general.” 

But the sudden increase in American users likely poses new challenges for Xiaohongshu, as the platform tries to balance global business expansion with pressure to enforce China’s censorship laws.

China’s internet censorship system — often referred to as “The Great Firewall” — blocks content that is deemed sensitive, such as discussions of LGBTQ issues, street protests, and the Chinese leadership. American media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X are banned in China, while popular Chinese social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo are relatively complex and difficult for foreigners to navigate.

In China, internet users are required to register for social media accounts with their real names. Violations of content rules could result in account bans or legal repercussions, including jail time. People have learned to avoid sensitive topics, or adopt euphemisms. 

American TikTokers did not seem to know, or care, about these rules. Their posts on Xiaohongshu range from seeking opinions on the Ukraine war to homosexuality to the Chinese government — topics that often trigger censorship in China. In the comments, some Chinese users reminded the newcomers not to discuss “politics, religion, and drugs.”

Xiaohongshu’s censorship system is likely being greatly challenged, Eric Liu, a former content moderator for Weibo and currently a U.S.-based editor with China Digital Times, told Rest of World. 

“The fact that Americans are using Xiaohongshu is already [stepping] on the red line,” Liu said. “This is something that will not be able to last because Americans don’t practice self-censorship.” To comply with Chinese law, the app may need to create a wall between domestic and foreign users, as ByteDance has done with TikTok and Douyin, he added.  

While the influx of Americans is pushing Xiaohongshu to clarify its international strategy, creating a separate app for international users will expose it to the same scrutiny that TikTok is facing in the West, Sheng Zou, an assistant professor at the School of Communication of Hong Kong Baptist University, told Rest of World.

“The platform needs to figure out how global it wants to be, how it wants to position itself, and what its globalization or internationalization development plan is in the next few years,” said Zou, who researches social media and popular culture. 

Ultimately, it is up to users to determine if they want to be subjected to Chinese censorship, he said. Rios, who said she didn’t expect to spend so much time chatting with Chinese users, is not too concerned.

“If they think China is that interested in our data, I’d rather give it to them directly,” she said. “I don’t think China cares what I am doing, I think it is just a way [for the U.S. government] to control us.”

But not all Chinese users are thrilled. Lin, a 28-year-old Xiaohongshu user in China, found it “refreshing” to chat with American users at first, but soon grew tired of language and cultural barriers that led to stilted conversations, she told Rest of World. 

“Xiaohongshu by nature is a Chinese-speaking community … It is kind of like a Chinese cultural circle that is hard to have foreigners mingled in,” said Lin, who only gave her last name over fears of repercussions from speaking to foreign media. 

Ahead of the Supreme Court ruling, there is still uncertainty over whether TikTok will get banned. Some U.S. businesses have shown interest in buying TikTok, while Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the company, according to a report from Bloomberg.

For now, Americans like Rios are still enjoying exploring Xiaohongshu. Some are using the app’s powerful algorithm to find Chinese users who share their niche hobbies in birding, crochet, musical theatre, and League of Legends.

Other users are taking the opportunity to mock U.S. security concerns, with some Americans posting variations of the joke, “Hi I am looking for my Chinese spy,” and some Chinese users replying, “Who is calling me? I am coming!”