Chinese social media app RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, gained nearly 3 million U.S. users in one day earlier this week as a flood of self-proclaimed “TikTok Refugees” joined, according to new data from analytics firm Similarweb.
The Chinese-language app had about 3.4 million daily active users across both iOS and Android devices in the United States as of Monday, up from fewer than 700,000 the day prior, and around 300,000 the week prior, according to the Similarweb estimate.
The influx of users has been driven by a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns.
The data suggests an even larger shift to RedNote by U.S. users this week than was previously known, explaining its dramatic rise to the top of U.S. app store download rankings. Reuters reported on Tuesday that more than 700,000 new users had joined the app in only two days.
Meanwhile, U.S. usage of TikTok declined ahead of the ban, down 2.1% week over week to about 82.2 million daily active users, Similarweb said.
I just checked it out today and it seems like at least a third of the active users are american. I’m sure that will die down some after the curiosity dwindles but there is absolutely a massive surge of English speakers on there.
Most of the activity is in the comments. Lots of culture shock happening as I type this.
There are English speakers on Lemmy too. And some of them post Chinese propaganda. I wouldn’t doubt if a lot of this “surge” is manufactured/faked.
Most of the English speakers on Lemmy post Five Eyes propaganda. They don’t mean to, they just don’t know any better. It’s all they’ve ever known. I try to point them toward developing real media literacy.
