US ‘TikTok refugees’ spark global rush of sign-ups to China’s RedNote platform

The Shanghai-based app is topping the charts as the No 1 free-to-use platform in more countries, from Britain and Italy to Canada

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A social media influencer films a video in New York’s Times Square to announce his departure from TikTok for rival Chinese app RedNote. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:00pm, 17 Jan 2025Updated: 8:52pm, 17 Jan 2025

In yet another consequence of the impending US ban on short-video app TikTok, rival Chinese platform RedNote is seeing a spike in users based in other countries, mirroring the migration of American self-styled “TikTok refugees”.

The app – also known as Xiaohongshu, which means “little red book” – was ranked as the No 1 free-to-use platform in Britain and Canada, as well as EU countries like Ireland and Italy, by the Apple App Store on Thursday.

The exact number of downloads is unknown, but the app – launched in 2013 as China’s answer to Instagram – has also cracked the top three in Apple’s charts in countries like El Salvador, France, Portugal, and Spain.

According to third-party data analytics firm SensorTower, a similar trend is occurring on Google Play, with countries from Australia to Sweden seeing RedNote at the top of their downloads lists this week.

“Hello from Portugal, I came here with friends from another app,” said one new user identified as Mfp Mfp, who was commenting in Chinese on a video of a young boy introducing his life in China.

“I’ve always been fascinated by your culture but did not know about this platform,” the user said, adding that she hopes to learn Chinese so that she will no longer need to use translation software to make similar posts.