The Guardian-More than half a million TikTok refugees flock to Chinas RedNote as ban looms
January 14, 2025 4 min 698 words
西方媒体的报道常常带着有色眼镜，对于中国互联网的发展总是抱着一种敌对的态度。这篇报道虽然客观报道了事实，但字里行间流露出一种幸灾乐祸的态度，似乎在期待着中国互联网企业在美国遭遇失败。 报道的主要内容是，在美国政府对TikTok的禁令即将生效之际，另一款中国社交媒体APP RedNote（中国名为小红书）在美国爆红，大量美国用户涌入RedNote，与中国的老用户进行文化交流。报道提到，RedNote在美国APP Store排行榜上位居第二，下载量激增，在短短两天内就增加了70万新用户。报道还提到，RedNote公司措手不及，正忙于寻找管理英文内容和开发中英文翻译工具的方法。 评论： 这篇报道体现出西方媒体对于中国互联网企业的双重标准和偏见。TikTok在美国的遭遇，很大程度上是美国政府出于政治目的的打压，是典型的霸凌行为。而西方媒体却对此不置可否，甚至隐隐抱有一种幸灾乐祸的态度。 报道中提到的美国用户Stella Kittrell的话值得玩味，“美国人使用RedNote有一种对美国政府干预企业和隐私的嘲讽意味”。这句话折射出美国政府和西方媒体在TikTok事件上的虚伪和双标。他们总是把“自由”挂在嘴边，却不允许一家外国企业自由地在美国发展。 需要指出的是，RedNote在中国的火爆，不仅得益于其自身的优质内容和社区氛围，也受益于中国互联网的开放和包容。中国用户可以自由地使用TikTokInstagram等外国APP，这正是中美互联网政策差异的体现。希望西方媒体能够客观公正地报道，不要再抱着冷战思维和意识形态偏见看待中国。
New users have piled in to the Chinese social media app RedNote just days before a proposed US ban on the popular social media app TikTok, as the lesser-known company rushes to capitalize on the sudden influx while walking a delicate line of moderating English-language content.
In a live chat dubbed “TikTok Refugees” on RedNote on Monday, more than 50,000 US and Chinese users joined the room. Veteran Chinese users, with some sense of bewilderment, welcomed their American counterparts and swapped notes with them on topics such as food and youth unemployment. Occasionally, however, the Americans veered into riskier territory.
“Is it OK to ask about how laws are different in China versus Hong Kong?” one American user asked. A Chinese user responded: “We prefer not to talk about that here.”
Such impromptu cultural exchanges were taking place all across RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, as the app surged to the top of US download rankings this week. Its popularity was driven by US social media users casting about for an alternative to ByteDance-owned TikTok days in advance of its looming ban.
RedNote, a venture capital-backed startup with a most recent valuation of $17bn, allows users to curate photos, videos and text documenting their lives. It has been viewed as a possible IPO candidate in China. In recent years, it has become a de facto search engine for its 300 million-plus users looking for travel tips, anti-ageing creams and restaurant recommendations.
In only two days, more than 700,000 new users joined Xiaohongshu, a person close to the company said. Xiaohongshu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. US downloads of RedNote were up more than 200% year-over-year this week, and 194% from the week before, according to estimates from app data research firm Sensor Tower.
The second-most popular free app on Apple’s App Store list on Tuesday, Lemon8, another social media app owned by ByteDance, experienced a similar surge last month, with downloads jumping by 190% in December to about 3.4m. The app saw a similar rise in Google’s Play Store.
The influx appeared to catch RedNote by surprise, with two sources familiar with the company saying they were scrambling to find ways to moderate English-language content and build English-Chinese translation tools. TikTok users posted videos of themselves speaking in basic Mandarin so as to interact more fully with RedNote users.
RedNote maintains only one version of its app, rather than splitting it into overseas and domestic apps – a rarity among Chinese social apps that are subject to domestic moderation rules. ByteDance publishes two versions of its short-form video app: Duoyin in China and TikTok in the remainder of the world.
RedNote is keen to mine the sudden rush of attention, as executives see it as a potential path to achieve global popularity similar to TikTok’s. The share prices of some China-listed companies that conduct businesses with RedNote, such as Hangzhou Onechance Tech Corp, surged as much as 20% on Tuesday, hitting the daily limit.
The spike in US users comes before a 19 January deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in the US on national security grounds. TikTok is currently used by about 170 million Americans, roughly half of the country’s population, and is overwhelmingly popular with young people and the advertisers looking to reach them.
“Americans using Rednote feels like a cheeky middle finger to the US government for its overreach into businesses and privacy concerns,” said Stella Kittrell, 29, a content creator based in Baltimore, Maryland. She said she joined RedNote in hopes of further collaborations with Chinese companies which she found helpful. Some users said they joined the platform to seek alternatives to Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, and to Elon Musk’s X. Some expressed doubt that they could rebuild their TikTok follower base on those apps.
“It’s not the same: Instagram, X or any other app,” said Brian Atabansi, 29, a business analyst and content creator based in San Diego, California. “Mainly because of how organic it is to build community on TikTok,” he said.