‘TikTok Refugees’ Migrate to Xiaohongshu En Masse Ahead of U.S. Ban
Facing a looming TikTok ban in the U.S., American users, dubbed “TikTok refugees,” have already found an alternative platform — the Chinese social commerce platform Xiaohongshu.
Ahead of a potential ban this Sunday, Xiaohongshu, which is also known as Red Note or Booktok, quickly became the most downloaded free app on the U.S. App Store on Tuesday, surpassing Lemon8, a social network app that is also owned by TikTok parent ByteDance.
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In April, President Biden signed a bipartisan bill into law that requires ByteDance to sell the social media app or be forced to shutter its operations in the U.S. by Jan. 19. President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay its implementation of the upcoming law and reportedly met with TikTok’s chief executive officer Shou Chew last month.
In anticipation of a ban, TikTok users have turned to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts to diversify their online presence, thus a move to adopt another Chinese social media platform can be seen as an act of protest.
Many American users openly mocked the cybersecurity concerns of American elected officials with videos that bade farewell to their “Chinese spy.”
“It is impossible to underestimate how little I care that the Chinese have my data,” influencer Jen Hamilton said in a video shared with her 3.9 million followers on TikTok. Since joining Xiaohongshu on Monday, Hamilton has quickly gained 22,000 followers.
It remains unknown how many of TikTok’s 170 million American users made the jump to Xiaohongshu, but the hashtag “Tiktok refugee” has received more than 80 million views on Xiaohongshu.
To navigate Xiaohongshu’s platform, which is almost entirely in Mandarin, users have resorted to AI translation and help from English-speaking locals, or “Xiaohongshu natives.”
Aya, a fitness influencer with more than 1.6 million users on Xiaohongshu, cautioned new users to avoid posting revealing photos as “this platform has stricter rules about women’s clothing to protect their privacy,” she shared in a post.
Li Mate, a fashion influencer with more than 510,000 fans, pointed out that, “You can unlock more rights and features on your homepage as you gain more followers.”
Taking advantage of an influx of foreign users, local companies such as Ctrip.com, a popular online booking platform; Hema, the Alibaba-owned supermarket chain, and Meituan, a top food delivery player, began sharing English content on Xiaohongshu.
Lisa Eldridge, the celebrity makeup artist, also has plans to chime in with an upcoming post. “I can’t wait for the global beauty community to really discover the richness, depth and history of Chinese beauty,” Eldridge told WWD. Since joining the platform a year ago, Eldridge has garnered more than 38,000 fans.
“I feel that Xiaohongshu is more authentically true to Chinese culture… it also feels less frenetic than TikTok — it feels a bit more organized and a calmer space where you can really deep dive creatively into authentic Chinese culture and the progressive trends that they’re sharing,” Eldridge added.
Pharrell Williams, Maye Musk, Rita Ora, Bryan Johnson, and Pamela Reif are some of the celebrities and influencers already active on the platform.
With more than 100 million daily active users, Xiaohongshu has become the third-largest social network platform in China, trailing behind WeChat and Douyin, which is the Chinese equivalent of TikTok.
Compared with its local competition, Xiaohongshu occupies a unique position in the market, especially among Chinese luxury and fashion consumers.
“Red, or Xiaohongshu, represents the quintessential app in China — what we refer to as ‘the ultimate daily life hack for girls.’ This platform delivers engaging content that is genuinely relevant to its users,” said Elisa Harca, cofounder of Red Ant Asia, a Hong Kong and Shanghai-based marketing agency.
“The trend of TikTok users migrating to Red is particularly noteworthy for brands, as it signals an exciting opportunity for cross-cultural exchange between the West and East,” said Harca. “Users are increasingly sharing insights on fashion, beauty, food and lifestyle, fostering a vibrant dialogue.”
“For now, I don’t think there’s much to do for brands because there’s no pattern yet. If they stay, love it, and continue to use Xiaohongshu as their old TikTok, brands might have to start an international account beside the Chinese one,” said Didier Zheng, a London-based fashion influencer professionally known as DuoLipa.
“It will probably be the beginning of how their local performance starts to align with international standards and, consequently, facilitate a global communication strategy that can impact mainland China consumers,” Zheng said.
— With contributions from Tianwei Zhang (London)
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