In the days preceding the ban on Tiktok in the United States on Sunday, US users flooded the Chinese Rednotte app, which offered an experience similar to their favorite short video app. The app, listed in the US app store with the Chinese name Xiaohonghu, quickly became the free number 1 app in the United States. But after Trump suspended the prohibition, the use of rednotes in the United States quickly decreased. On Monday, Rednot had lost more than half of its daily active users in the United States, after reaching a maximum of 32.5 million users’ active users on the day of the ban.
According to the intelligence company of the Likeweb digital market, on Monday, the users of Rednote in the United States on Monday decreased by 54% when the application of the ban was suspended. President Trump offered Tiktok a 75 -day extension of the deadline, granting Tiktok more time to negotiate an agreement that would keep him alive in the United States
The Sensor Tower Intelligence App provider recorded a similar trend during the week. According to its estimates, the average of the daily mobile users active in the United States for Rednote from 20 to 22 January decreased by about 17% compared to the previous week (from 13 to 19 January).
Tiktok users had originally joined to rednotes en masse to send a message to the legislators and to the goal. According to a report, which also mentions the sensor tower data, about 700,000 US users spilled on rednotes within two days from the closer of the prohibition expiry. Thursday, Similarweb said that Rednot had reached 3.4 million active users on iOS and Android in the United States, with an increase of 133.8% on a weekly basis.
US users who joined Rednotte were reporting that the fears of the government regarding the “threat to national security” represented by a Chinese property app with access to the personal data of US users were not a concern for them. In addition, they wanted to show that they would prefer to join another Chinese app rather than return to Instagram to use Reels.
There were several reasons why so many US US Tiktok users made this decision. Some found the hypocritical ban, given that Meta made profit for years from the data of their users, many have said in their videos, while others simply did not matter if China had their data or not.
As a popular Tiktok said, “you are telling me that the Chinese government has access to all my personal data and that what they have chosen to do with this information is to be psychologically manipulating me through algorithmic content to make me read obscene books on the fairies”.
(The sound refers to the fantasy books loved by the readers of the vast “Booktok” community of Tiktok, such as the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series by Sarah J. Maas. In other words, they did not see Tiktok as any type of threat. )
While the Tiktoker committed themselves to rednotes, surprising cultural exchanges began to occur.
Users asked each other about the cost of living in their area, while Chinese and US users wanted to know if their government had carefully characterized the other company. US users, for example, asked for information on the Chinese social credit system, while Chinese users of Rednotes asked if it were true that many Americans had to do two jobs to pay the bills. Food, health care and accuracy of US films and television programs, such as “Friends”, were among the numerous topics discussed.
However, the position of Rednotte as the top app in the United States was a trend that will probably not last, at least until Tiktok is available. First of all, Rednot is located in Mandarin, pushing many to turn to Duolingo to study the language. The language learning app recorded a 216% peak in the use in the United States, said. However, learning a new language is demanding and many users may have renounced time.
In addition, unlike Tiktok, Rednotte is focused on the Chinese market. Tiktok took advantage of the fact that he was a global app, something that Tiktok herself stressed when she discussed before the Supreme Court on the reason why she would no longer have been the same if forced to sell.
Before the ban, Tiktok’s daily active users in the United States have risen to a record level in the last year, with 106.8 million users on iOS and Android who used the Sunday app.
